youth team

[roverstillidie91]

there any decent players except fairhurt that may be on fringes on the first team, i wonder how much the board invest in the academy cos i think rovers should take it seriously and invest good amounts every year into it unless we get the buckets going for it again.

[CusworthRovers]

Maybe we could champion it through the VSC or Rovers Alliance

[Bristol Red Rover]

I wonder how the estimated investment returns work out comparing running a youth team v scouting, and does the club actually cost this kind of thing?

Running a youth team certainly can look good in terms of encouraging the potential of local lads, and raising the community profile. But overall, does it pay?

[BLIR]

There's a lot of luck involved though either way.

When you were at school there were kids that you considered to be shit hot at football - how many of them actually went on to play professionally?

I was lucky enough to play at county level as a school kid, playing regularly with the best of the best in the county at that time. As far as I know there was one kid that played reserves at Man City and also played for Carlisle, and he was head and shoulders above everyone else I'd either played with or against at that level. Most of the half decent players, including myself, took the beer and fags option  

Players are turned down at a young age (ask Paul Green about Wednesdays) but then turn out to develop into great players, and vice versa. As a club we need to develop both the youth team and the scouting system in order to try and get hold of a diamond or two.