Brad Holmes.

We don't know how far away he is, because he's never put in the squad. And yes, I realise that to some at least, the fact he isn't is the answer to the question. Not to me though, I want to see him get some game time.

With our current striker shortage, surely he's worth a bench place. Then in the unlikely event of a QPR happening, we can even afford to give him 15-20 minutes here and there.
 
I haven’t seen enough of him to comment but a lot of managers have come and gone and not played him..I’m surprised we have persevered tbh and he should be sent to league 2 on loan straight away to see if he can hack it.
 
Let's of negativity as always about our young talent. However on this occasion someone with more knowledge than any of the posters on here has seen fit to extend his contract.
That must tell you something although I do expect at least someone to say it just reflects badly on the Academy staff.
 
Insider said:
Let's of negativity as always about our young talent. However on this occasion someone with more knowledge than any of the posters on here has seen fit to extend his contract.
That must tell you something although I do expect at least someone to say it just reflects badly on the Academy staff.
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Like I said he needs to be sent on loan to a league 2 side and if he can score goals on a regular basis in that league then fair enough get him on the bench next season

Like all our Academy players they need to prove themselves in the football league before they get a chance in our side
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
Like I said he needs to be sent on loan to a league 2 side and if he can score goals on a regular basis in that league then fair enough get him on the bench next season

Like all our Academy players they need to prove themselves in the football league before they get a chance in our side
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I don't have any argument with that. 👍
 
Insider said:
I don't have any argument with that. 👍
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When you look at all the various academies and asses which have been successful and which not, what sort of career paths do the youngsters take?

I suppose I'm looking for the mode that perhaps needs to be aimed for. There must be a mathematical approach to the ideal.
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
Like I said he needs to be sent on loan to a league 2 side and if he can score goals on a regular basis in that league then fair enough get him on the bench next season

Like all our Academy players they need to prove themselves in the football league before they get a chance in our side
Click to expand...
He had a couple starts in league 1 with Pool.
Agree he could have gone on loan to at least NationalLeague level
 
If the powers that be consider him tobe worth another contract maybe it's time to start pushing him a bit more to see what he can actually do. As others have said ,we haven't seen enough of him to judge for ourselves.
 
fcblackpool said:
When you look at all the various academies and asses which have been successful and which not, what sort of career paths do the youngsters take?

I suppose I'm looking for the mode that perhaps needs to be aimed for. There must be a mathematical approach to the ideal.
Click to expand...
That would be an interesting bit of analysis.
Of course the 2 Clubs you hear about with "100s" of successive games with Academy graduates in the squad are Man Utd and Blackburn. Obviously emulating Utd might be a but difficult but we should be looking at the Blackburn template for success.
 
Insider said:
That would be an interesting bit of analysis.
Of course the 2 Clubs you hear about with "100s" of successive games with Academy graduates in the squad are Man Utd and Blackburn. Obviously emulating Utd might be a but difficult but we should be looking at the Blackburn template for success.
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Blackburn spent millions on their Academy
 
Insider said:
Let's of negativity as always about our young talent. However on this occasion someone with more knowledge than any of the posters on here has seen fit to extend his contract.
That must tell you something although I do expect at least someone to say it just reflects badly on the Academy staff.
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It might be because we can then extract a fee from a League 2 or National League side. I hope not but that would be understandable.
 
Insider said:
Yes but not all in one season.
Of course achieving Category 2 status would mean a significant increase in the financial contributions from the EFL/PL or wherever it comes from.
Cat 2 will of course only come with the new training ground.
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Actually they spent a large chunk when they moved to Brockholes

But yeah we are miles behind some of our rivals

Even Wigan have a better Academy than us
 
1953+1 said:
If the powers that be consider him tobe worth another contract maybe it's time to start pushing him a bit more to see what he can actually do. As others have said ,we haven't seen enough of him to judge for ourselves.
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Presumably the coaching staff have.
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
Actually they spent a large chunk when they moved to Brockholes

But yeah we are miles behind some of our rivals

Even Wigan have a better Academy than us
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It's a great setup but the bulk of the money was spent when Jack Walker was alive. Even with that they don't expect a big percentage of the lads to make it all the way from U12s to the first team. like many clubs they keep an eye on cast-offs from the bigger clubs. It's a shame as a lot of lads slip through the cracks.
 
Insider said:
That would be an interesting bit of analysis.
Of course the 2 Clubs you hear about with "100s" of successive games with Academy graduates in the squad are Man Utd and Blackburn. Obviously emulating Utd might be a but difficult but we should be looking at the Blackburn template for success.
Click to expand...
When you look at Brockholes, yes they have spent millions, but I wouldn't say it was particularly space age. The facilities look adequate and there aren't that many pitches. Of course it's 10+ years since I used to visit so I suspect more has been spent.

I know Grayson and Belokon went to look round 2007.

Another interesting thing about BR back then was it attracted kids from allover. I know one young mad Pool fan who was very very good and chose BR over Pool back then. The point being even faced with the competition in the NW BR still can compete in attracting kids, so it is possible. We need to find out why moving forward.
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
Actually they spent a large chunk when they moved to Brockholes

But yeah we are miles behind some of our rivals

Even Wigan have a better Academy than us
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They do currently but I don't know if you remember we had this bloke in charge for quite a few years who was rather reluctant to spend money on anything football related. (His son very nearly lost us our Category 3 status through his lack of investment). He did have a very fine collection of Louboutin shoes though, of all different sizes, in his penthouse suite which he used to give to his nieces.
So we've a lot of catching up to do.
That's the reality of life as a Blackoool fan, like it or lump it.
We do have a man in charge with a plan but it will take time.
Too many people want everything and they want it now.
We can't all be lucky enough to have a wealthy Bahraini in charge. 😉
 
Insider said:
They do currently but I don't know if you remember we had this bloke in charge for quite a few years who was rather reluctant to spend money on anything football related. (His son very nearly lost us our Category 3 status through his lack of investment). He did have a very fine collection of Louboutin shoes though, of all different sizes, in his penthouse suite which he used to give to his nieces.
So we've a lot of catching up to do.
That's the reality of life as a Blackoool fan, like it or lump it.
We do have a man in charge with a plan but it will take time.
Too many people want everything and they want it now.
We can't all be lucky enough to have a wealthy Bahraini in charge. 😉
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You counter your own argument all the time

I do agree that we need to improve our Academy, from top to bottom it's not good enough, it will take millions and a hell of a lot if time

However you are always bigging up our Academy players wanting them to get first team chances when deep down you know the standard they are playing in is miles away from Championship level

Sometimes I think maybe we would be better just ** it off and spending on a better scouting network a bit like what Brentford do

As for our owner I honestly dont think he has the money to properly fund a Championship club

When you look at Brighton, a similar sized coastal club to us with a local owner we are a million miles away

In fact more like a billion miles away
 
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Phil_bfc deux said:
However you are always bigging up our Academy players wanting them to get first team chances when deep down you know the standard they are playing in is miles away from Championship level
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I'm never going to come on here and slag off our young players. I might not comment on them if I've nothing good to say.
There are too many people on here that can only post something negative. In matters of the Academy I'm only going to do the opposite.
Of course the Academy as a whole is miles away from most Championship Clubs but that doesn't mean you can tar every member of our Academy with the same brush.
We do see Cat 1 Academy stars on loan at Blackpool and there are a few who don't impress.
I've always said if you stick a Brad Holmes or a Rob Apter in the first team you'll see a far better performance than you'll see from them in the Development Squad.
The same certainly applies in reverse.
So yes I'd like to see them get a chance because until then we'll never find out if our best prospects are good enough.
Edit.
If they consistently aren't and we have no prospects of producing any better prospects then maybe we should move on to a Brentford model.
 
The real concern is that no L2 or NL club has sought to take Holmes on loan. It’s alright saying that’s what he needs for development but someone has to see something in him. I would have liked to see him at somewhere like Altrincham, but whether he’s good enough to merit game time is another matter.
 
TimperleyTangerine said:
The real concern is that no L2 or NL club has sought to take Holmes on loan. It’s alright saying that’s what he needs for development but someone has to see something in him. I would have liked to see him at somewhere like Altrincham, but whether he’s good enough to merit game time is another matter.
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Or maybe we just decided that we didn't want Brad to go out on loan?
We had a move to Crewe lined up for Rob Apter but he got injured.
Tayt Trusty is at Hartlepool but he's picked up an injury.
Injuries are definitely the plague of BFC this season.
 
I'd love to see us produce our own players on a regular basis, but I don't think it's realistic. The time and money it would take could be better used. I agree 100% the Brentford model would work for us. There are similarities between us I believe, and we should do what they did, and try and turn our current weaknesses into strengths. Apparently their change to a B team rather than an academy initially saved them £1.5m a season which they put to better use. It also solved the problem of their best young players being poached by big teams for next to nothing.

This article is a long read but very interesting. There are loads of YouTube videos about the Brentford "moneyball" approach too.

https://syndication.bleacherreport....eat-football-teams-with-huge-budgets.amp.html
 
Insider said:
Or maybe we just decided that we didn't want Brad to go out on loan?
We had a move to Crewe lined up for Rob Apter but he got injured.
Tayt Trusty is at Hartlepool but he's picked up an injury.
Injuries are definitely the plague of BFC this season.
Click to expand...

Jeez even our youngsters have caught Stewart-itis that seems to pervade to all throughout the club.

Reality is if we can get a good season out on loan in Div 1 or at worst 2 then they are unlikely to suddenly storm into our first time.

Look at Carey - he was ripping it up in the Conference when we signed him. So that’s got to be a minimum level surely for our kids to be really showing out.
 
We seem to have halted Rob Apter's career development by retaining him at the end of January. If the next few results go wrong and we are doomed, he should be given a place in the first team to get some experience under his belt. He is a talented player.
 
I got a hamstring injury on the treadmill at the gym 2 weeks ago. Been taking it easy, but still doing walks etc., light training. Now it’s fine. Must be fcuking superhuman 😏
 
When he came on two or three times, for 10 minutes, a couple of seasons ago, he looked like he got himself into some good goalscoring positions, but never received the ball. A few weeks ago, there was rumours that Yates, Madine and Lavery were all injured and I was saying that they should start with Brad Holmes.
🧡UTMP🧡
 
Phil_bfc deux said:
You counter your own argument all the time

I do agree that we need to improve our Academy, from top to bottom it's not good enough, it will take millions and a hell of a lot if time

However you are always bigging up our Academy players wanting them to get first team chances when deep down you know the standard they are playing in is miles away from Championship level

Sometimes I think maybe we would be better just ** it off and spending on a better scouting network a bit like what Brentford do

As for our owner I honestly dont think he has the money to properly fund a Championship club

When you look at Brighton, a similar sized coastal club to us with a local owner we are a million miles away

In fact more like a billion miles away
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Brighton have a huge catchment area in an affluent part of the country, a 32,000 stadium and a 10 year head start! They do have an excellent scouting network that has generated a lot of money in recent years and I think that is something we need to emulate to progress as a club.
 
tangerine_neil said:
I got a hamstring injury on the treadmill at the gym 2 weeks ago. Been taking it easy, but still doing walks etc., light training. Now it’s fine. Must be fcuking superhuman 😏
Click to expand...
Not claiming to be an expert, but there are different types of hamstring injury?

Strains, feeling tight etc might only need short rest to get over. Tears are many weeks.

Talking to my neighbour recently, his friend was a sports physio. His view was years ago the majority of bad hamstring injuries were in athletics, the sort where you see a sprinter having to pull up from top speed, like poor Charlie Goode for example. Not nice to see.

He expanded that hamstrings should have some slack in them ( my term not his). Only sprinters were really trained to the extent of them being as taut as could be. Standard team sports like football and rugby got nowhere near that level of tuning.

That's changed now, and fitness has become as important, if not more so, than skill.

Of course it doesn't explain why us specifically are getting 10-15 years worth of them in under 2.
 
Seainsea said:
Brighton have a huge catchment area in an affluent part of the country, a 32,000 stadium and a 10 year head start! They do have an excellent scouting network that has generated a lot of money in recent years and I think that is something we need to emulate to progress as a club.
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They also pinched a 16 yr old from us.
www.sussexlive.co.uk

Brighton agree 'substantial' fee for defender Charlie Penman from Blackpool

Brighton have signed the 16-year-old defender from Championship side Blackpool and he is likely to link up with the Seagulls' under-18 side for the 2021/22 academy season
www.sussexlive.co.uk www.sussexlive.co.uk
 
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