Steve Shorey talking about the Academy

[WoodleyRoyal]

http://www.talksport.co.uk/radio/transf ... me-academy

quite interesting listen, the whole scouting cost for the season was £50,000
we have 8 regional scouts and 1 in Scotland, 1 in Ireland 1, 1 in France.
Since the academy began it has cost 5mill and we have made 17mill off it

[ZacNaloen]

Who says it's not worth it?

[JC]

http://www.talksport.co.uk/radio/transfer-talk-show/blog/2011-07-10/steve-shorey-out-43-professionals-reading-24-have-come-academy

quite interesting listen, the whole scouting cost for the season was £50,000
we have 8 regional scouts and 1 in Scotland, 1 in Ireland 1, 1 in France.
Since the academy began it has cost 5mill and we have made 17mill off it

£17 million? Who was that then?

[WoodleyRoyal]

sorry, listened again 25 million- and i think he is taking into account the market value for the players at the club as well as previous sales

on another note- he quite rightly says, how many other clubs can boast that over half the squad has come through the Academy, and 10 have played for the first team? Arsenal? Man U? ....struggling

[SCIAG]

Half the squad is a nice twisting of facts. Nobody would really consider Frankie Raymond (for example) a first team member. It's a more liberal definition of "squad" than the one people usually use.

Other clubs in a similar boat would be 'boro, Watford, and if not for player sales, Southampton. We're by no means leading the pack for volume, and 'boro and Southampton have produced two players of genuine quality apiece (Downing and Johnson, Walcott and Bale) to our one. We're just the Championship club best at producing top half Championship players and clinging onto them.

[Woodcote Royal]

More than half of our 43 man squad came through the academy..................this is a fact

Nobody would really consider Frankie Raymond (for example) a first team member. It's a more liberal definition of "squad" than the one people usually use.

Other clubs in a similar boat would be 'boro, Watford, and if not for player sales, Southampton. We're by no means leading the pack for volume, and 'boro and Southampton have produced two players of genuine quality apiece (Downing and Johnson, Walcott and Bale) to our one. We're just the Championship club best at producing top half Championship players and clinging onto them.

And this is the twisted bit you added in order to undermine what is a fantastic achievement by the club.

HTH

[Royal Rother]

Agreed. Why on Earth would a Reading fan be so sniffy about the fantastic achievements of our Academy? Very odd.

SCIAG, have you been spending time with Floyd this weekend?

[Hoop Blah]

7 players from our academy made first team appearances in the league last season (including Taylors 1 off the bench and Sigurdssons 4 before being sold). You can add three more if you include Hamer, Kelly and Obita who played in the League Cup games, so 10 first team squad players. That's out of 34 players used I think.

That's a pretty decent return yes, and they're doing a very good job these days, but it's not quite as exceptional as they make out. I'm pretty sure Palace would've used more Academy products than us last year and having just checked, big spending 'Boro used over twice as many Academy players in the league last season.

We are starting to lead the way though. Lest just hope we can keep hold of some of the better ones.

[SCIAG]

Agreed. Why on Earth would a Reading fan be so sniffy about the fantastic achievements of our Academy? Very odd.

SCIAG, have you been spending time with Floyd this weekend?

At the risk of sounding like a stereotypical cynic, I'm not being sniffy, I'm being realistic.

On mixed-fan boards, I often sing the praises of our academy, and I'm very pleased that we've produced a number of very useful players and have such a good coaching set up. We're still a fair way from having one of the best academies (in terms of either quality of player or quantity of useable players) around though. We're probably a step or two behind Southampton and Watford, or Aston Villa, or Middlesborough, Liverpool, or Man City, who in turn are a couple behind United who, to be frank, dominate, as well as Arsenal and Chelsea who are probably going to start producing FL players at a similar rate to United in the next few years.

When people say "Coventry have a small squad", they mean "Coventry have a small number of players they could realistically use without being utterly desperate". The fact that our fifth choice goalkeeper is an academy product isn't an achievement at all, it's an inevitablility, and no fan would really consider Locke a part of the squad yet (see all the "which of the four goalkeepers will start?" threads). Ask any club in the league to make a squad of 43 and the majority would have a squad mainly made up of academy players. The only thing we've "achieved" in that regard is to offer a lot of academy players who won't play for us, professional contracts. We've seen in the past that we often professional terms to a lot of players who don't make it (look where the likes of Curtis Osano and Peter Castle are playing).

Now having produced two regular first team starters, the best Icelandic player for a generation, two Welsh internationals who make frequent appearances for the first team, a quality goalkeeper, a key player in a top half Championship side, and a regular starter in a Premier League team in the space of about three years... that's an achievement. If the likes of Taylor, Obita and D'Ath turn out as good as they look like turning out, then that will be an achievement too.

[PEARCEY]

The Academy has done well for us as a club over the past few seasons. Long may it continue.

[marcusopp]

The Academy has done well for us as a club over the past few seasons. Long may it continue.

If I had a drink in my hand, we could raise a glass to that.
I think it's great.
Great credit to SJM for bankrolling the whole thing. Go back 15-20 years and this was a fantasy for RFC.
I couldn't give a shit about the money, it's morally a good thing. And the young guys who come out of it seem to be decent men, not scummers etc.
If we produce players beyond our level and sell them at a good price, that's a bonus.

[brendywendy]

and id rather see thse kids come through and play for us, than all the second rate premiere league failures, and overly highly paid championship journey men any day.

[Bucks Dave]

I remember Coppell telling us that SJM did not bankroll the academy only for profit but because he genuinely wanted local lads to have a chance at Reading. Local schools will tell you how having one of their kids chosen for the academy is a real boost for the kid since they will not only look at his footballing ability but go out of their way to see that he is concentrating on his schooling. Kids suddenly start taking an interest in attendance and lessons!

[Stuka]

and id rather see thse kids come through and play for us, than all the second rate premiere league failures, and overly highly paid championship journey men any day.

Agreed.

[andrew1957]

Since the end of the 2005/6 season the improvement of the Academy has been astounding.

In May 2006 there were only 4 Academy products in the squad - only Cox played a game for us but three of these have gone on to be relatively successful (Cox, Rendell and Hayes - Inverness I think).

Now we have 22 Academy players in the squad list out of 43. Of these 7 have already played in the first team. We have also sold Gylfi and Henry.

We also have another 8 players that we purchased prior to the age of 20 in the squad, making 30 out of 43.

Clearly the club plan is to replace players as much as possible from the Academy - which is a sensible model and will put us in great stead when the football bubble does eventually burst - as it inevitably will.

[Hoop Blah]

and id rather see thse kids come through and play for us, than all the second rate premiere league failures, and overly highly paid championship journey men any day.

Agree to the most part. They need to be good enough as well as ours though.

I've said for years that a decent youth set up is a must for a so called 'community club' like us. It is the best way of keeping links with the local support base and I think it's a real shame the u18s and Reserves are now locked away behind the walls of Hogwood.

[andrew1957]

and id rather see thse kids come through and play for us, than all the second rate premiere league failures, and overly highly paid championship journey men any day.

Agree to the most part. They need to be good enough as well as ours though.

I've said for years that a decent youth set up is a must for a so called 'community club' like us. It is the best way of keeping links with the local support base and I think it's a real shame the u18s and Reserves are now locked away behind the walls of Hogwood.

Agreed - I used to enjoy watching reserve games at the Madstad.

[Hoop Blah]

Since the end of the 2005/6 season the improvement of the Academy has been astounding.

In May 2006 there were only 4 Academy products in the squad - only Cox played a game for us but three of these have gone on to be relatively successful (Cox, Rendell and Hayes - Inverness I think).

Really? Is that reflective of the youngsters with squad numbers for the season, or just those remaining in May?

I could've sworn the likes of Rifat, Campbell, Castle, Young, and Howell were all still around and had squad numbers that season. Could well be getting my seasons mixed up though.

We certainly seem to award more youngsters a squad number these days though.

[brendywendy]

the current ones ive seen look better than those lot though imo
albeit from very limited views.



i also quite enjoyed the prem reserve games at the madstad

[johnnym]

Since the end of the 2005/6 season the improvement of the Academy has been astounding.

In May 2006 there were only 4 Academy products in the squad - only Cox played a game for us but three of these have gone on to be relatively successful (Cox, Rendell and Hayes - Inverness I think).

Now we have 22 Academy players in the squad list out of 43. Of these 7 have already played in the first team. We have also sold Gylfi and Henry.

We also have another 8 players that we purchased prior to the age of 20 in the squad, making 30 out of 43.

Clearly the club plan is to replace players as much as possible from the Academy - which is a sensible model and will put us in great stead when the football bubble does eventually burst - as it inevitably will.

when is the football bubble going to burst though?

i'm not sure i see it happening to be honest. the global economy is pretty shitty, but football is growing and growing