Academy

[Gazza2]

U18s ended 1 all today.
Players, parents, staff of the academy are not going to go on record with moans about quality of facilities at Goals as fear repercussions, but it's clear there is a lot of unhappiness with the current situation.

[may blunderer]

Originally Posted by Gazza2

U18s ended 1 all today.
Players, parents, staff of the academy are not going to go on record with moans about quality of facilities at Goals as fear repercussions, but it's clear there is a lot of unhappiness with the current situation.

Sad to hear that but you can understand their view. We really need to make this a priority before we lose some talented youngsters (although I fear the damage has already been done).

[Gazza2]

U18s play at "home" next Sat.
Hopefully they will win away at Accrington Stanley in FA Youth Cup 3rd round and then get home draw so they can get to play at Selhurst.

[eagle-leg]

Originally Posted by may blunderer

Sad to hear that but you can understand their view. We really need to make this a priority before we lose some talented youngsters (although I fear the damage has already been done).

Unfortunately our training ground is not big enough. We did the right thing in prioritising the first team.

A new training ground is on the agenda; is just disappointing for these current lads that the facilities are not up to scratch.

[Gazza2]

I agree. Priority must be the first team. And a training ground with only 3 full size pitches is ridiculously small for a 1st team, let alone U21 and Academy teams as well.
To be fair, Parish has said he knows current situation for Academy is far from ideal. And that a new Category 1 Academy is long-term objective.
Downside is that is a good few years away due to need to find site and develop/build and to fund the purchase and work. Parish quoted a cost of £30m.
Charlton academy is less than 10 miles from ours and their development plans to improve current site so as to obtain Cat 1 status have been submitted to local council. Therefore, likely they will be only Cat 1 academy in the area for a while.

[Gazza2]

Millwall academy is about 2 miles from ours and they are Cat 2. So there is plenty of local competition!

[Vince Hilaire's Afro]

Can't we just share Brighton's facilities? We keep the players good enough for the PL, and they keep the others. No conflict of interest at all.

[Woosie]

Originally Posted by eagle-leg

Unfortunately our training ground is not big enough. We did the right thing in prioritising the first team.

A new training ground is on the agenda; is just disappointing for these current lads that the facilities are not up to scratch.

The issue is that the training ground not being big enough wasn't only recently identified, that the state of the pitches at goals are disgraceful, and it's pathetic that the club didn't find somewhere better for them to play.

As for future investment, I'll believe that when I see it - which is at least two/three years away in terms of building on a new site.

[Uswortheagle]

I agree with all the above posts and detailed information that peeps have on here but if I was a Parent of a potential player who Palace might try and sign of any age group I would definitely be put off joining Palace currently especially if they "did research "which included reading the Palace fan sites.
I can't believe that CPFC 2010 are going to let all this go especially with the "South London and Proud" marketing phrase that our Directors like to use.
I only have some knowledge of the younger age groups where we seem to be quite active in recruiting,it all seems to go wrong once the age groups get to 16-18 etc

[Martin H]

TBH you can understand the Board being a tad distracted of late but nevertheless this is an odd slip and like all risks we have to hope that this one doesn't backfire.

[eagle-leg]

Originally Posted by Woosie

The issue is that the training ground not being big enough wasn't only recently identified, that the state of the pitches at goals are disgraceful, and it's pathetic that the club didn't find somewhere better for them to play.

As for future investment, I'll believe that when I see it - which is at least two/three years away in terms of building on a new site.

It's easy enough to identify a problem; it's quite another thing to have the resources to rectify that problem.

As Gazza2 has said; Parish has quoted £30M for a new training ground.

This will be reliant on investment.

As hard as it is, the kids are not the priority at the moment for the club.

[Woosie]

Originally Posted by eagle-leg

It's easy enough to identify a problem; it's quite another thing to have the resources to rectify that problem.

As Gazza2 has said; Parish has quoted £30M for a new training ground.

This will be reliant on investment.

As hard as it is, the kids are not the priority at the moment for the club.

No-one is asking for them to be a priority, just that they don't get neglected with a dreadful pitch which they will struggle to develop on and will stop us getting the better players from elsewhere/over other local clubs.

The club has not done enough for the academy in recent years IMO, it should never have reached this point in the first place. I appreciate that whilst we were in the Championship there wasn't much money, and the first season of the PL was about the first team staying up; but now we're kind of beyond that, we have had two years worth of TV money, we made a sizeable profit, but yet our kids are playing at goals still.

In case it got missed: I am not saying the academy should be a priority over the first team.

[eagle-leg]

Originally Posted by Woosie

No-one is asking for them to be a priority, just that they don't get neglected with a dreadful pitch which they will struggle to develop on and will stop us getting the better players from elsewhere/over other local clubs.

The club has not done enough for the academy in recent years IMO, it should never have reached this point in the first place. I appreciate that whilst we were in the Championship there wasn't much money, and the first season of the PL was about the first team staying up; but now we're kind of beyond that, we have had two years worth of TV money, we made a sizeable profit, but yet our kids are playing at goals still.

In case it got missed: I am not saying the academy should be a priority over the first team.

Its on the to do list, there's just a lot of other things which are higher up the list.

[Woosie]

Originally Posted by eagle-leg

Its on the to do list, there's just a lot of other things which are higher up the list.

Tell that to the kids who have to play there every week, and their parents.

Very little investment in the academy in the last five years.

You can make excuses all you like, we are a Premier League club with a League Two standard academy in terms of where we play, just with better players.

This club has always had the academy in its history as an integral part, right now I see no evidence of that sadly

[Crozzy71]

I don't believe for a second that CPFC2010 have willfuly neglected the academy.

They've been in charge for a little over 5 years. I'm sure the first couple acted as a kind of baptism of fire in terms of identifying the various areas of the club that needed improvement following many, many years of under-invetsment in pretty much everything.

The last thing Noaed did was the Holmesdale. Goldberg gave all his money to Noades and what was left to Venables.

Jordan spent a hell of a lot, but most if not all was on the pitch and a lot wasted.

So the ground, club and its wider infrastructure have had no more than the odd replaced seat and lick of paint in probably 20-25 years.

Then add in the fact we got promoted so early into CPFC2010's ownership that the focus naturally shifted to the first team and staying in the league, which is what generates the funds for everything else to happen.

We had no or little scouting nextwork, the training ground was poor, I'm sure loads of good admin staff were lost during the last administration, sponsors and advertisers would have need a lot of persuading etc etc.

Add in 5 managers in 5 years and I can see why some things aren't happening as quickly as we would hope. They probably aren't happening as quickly as CPFC2010 would like.

Raising investment will help expedite some of thes things. Others will still take time because money alone cannot solve them, i.e. finding a suitable site for a new training complex.

Nobody gets everything right all of the time, but I do have faith and trust in our owners to do better than most.

[eagle-leg]

Originally Posted by Woosie

As I said, I'll believe it when I see it. And tell that to the kids who have to play there every week, and their parents.

Very little investment in the academy in the last five years.

You can make excuses all you like, we are a Premier League club with a League Two standard academy in terms of where we play, just with better players.

This club has always had the academy in its history as an integral part, right now I see no evidence of that sadly

I am far from making excuses.

The owners and the management, I suspect are regretful about the academy facilities.

The rewards of staying in the premier league are enormous and therefore investments have been largely in the direction of the first team.

The academy sadly does not offer as much benefit to the first team as it did when we were in the championship. Most of our better prospects seem destined for league 1 and 2 at the moment.

They'll get round to looking at the academy ; but only after other things that they want to do have been sorted first.

[GreatGonzo]

Originally Posted by Woosie

Tell that to the kids who have to play there every week, and their parents.

Very little investment in the academy in the last five years.

You can make excuses all you like, we are a Premier League club with a League Two standard academy in terms of where we play, just with better players.

This club has always had the academy in its history as an integral part, right now I see no evidence of that sadly

Being a London club is an issue.

Look at Chelsea, they are closer to central london yet train at Chobham. It is like us training down near Gatwick. We are trying to keep the Academy in a hugely bult up area so land for a suitable training ground is always going to be tricky.

[Woosie]

Originally Posted by Crozzy71

I don't believe for a second that CPFC2010 have willfuly neglected the academy.

They've been in charge for a little over 5 years. I'm sure the first couple acted as a kind of baptism of fire in terms of identifying the various areas of the club that needed improvement following many, many years of under-invetsment in pretty much everything.

The last thing Noaed did was the Holmesdale. Goldberg gave all his money to Noades and what was left to Venables.

Jordan spent a hell of a lot, but most if not all was on the pitch and a lot wasted.

So the ground, club and its wider infrastructure have had no more than the odd replaced seat and lick of paint in probably 20-25 years.

Then add in the fact we got promoted so early into CPFC2010's ownership that the focus naturally shifted to the first team and staying in the league, which is what generates the funds for everything else to happen.

We had no or little scouting nextwork, the training ground was poor, I'm sure loads of good admin staff were lost during the last administration, sponsors and advertisers would have need a lot of persuading etc etc.

Add in 5 managers in 5 years and I can see why some things aren't happening as quickly as we would hope. They probably aren't happening as quickly as CPFC2010 would like.

Raising investment will help expedite some of thes things. Others will still take time because money alone cannot solve them, i.e. finding a suitable site for a new training complex.

Nobody gets everything right all of the time, but I do have faith and trust in our owners to do better than most.

I didn't say they had wilfully neglected it.

As for finding a suitable site, there were three identified, Trenham Drive in Warlingham, the HSBC ground and one other. The club decided not to buy Trenham Drive because Beckenham came up for sale.

What happened with the other two I don't know.

But is this acceptable for our academy kids to play on, really?

[Uswortheagle]

Surely someone on here that is ITK will know why we we didn't go for the HSBC or other mystery one you mention Matt?

[Woosie]

Originally Posted by Uswortheagle

Surely someone on here that is ITK will know why we we didn't go for the HSBC or other mystery one you mention Matt?

I may be wrong about a third site, but HSBC was definitely one being looked at. If that had been bought (and as I said I don't know why it wasn't) then this issue wouldn't be there.