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Under 23s & Academy 16/17


SaintRam

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On 06/12/2016 at 12:31, Andrew James said:

Should with our massive investment in the academy be beating an academy Colchester side ? 

It wasn't there academy side was it? It was in the league where our academy side plays against other senior sides. 

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13 hours ago, LazloW said:

Ah, can't really be miserable or moany about the first team at the moment, so lets bash the kids.  Nice.

I probably follow the u23s more closely than the senior team and the team is the weakest it's been in a few years, despite being in the top division for the first time.

We had a really promising spell of acquiring some great youth talent and I don't know what's happened to that. We were getting 2-3 real prospects a season. Maybe the people responsible don't work for the club anymore? 

I'm hoping that it's a side effect of a decision(s) made by Nigel Pearson and not a club direction change, because if it's the latter it's hard to see it improving any time soon.

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4 hours ago, SaintRam said:

I probably follow the u23s more closely than the senior team and the team is the weakest it's been in a few years, despite being in the top division for the first time.

We had a really promising spell of acquiring some great youth talent and I don't know what's happened to that. We were getting 2-3 real prospects a season. Maybe the people responsible don't work for the club anymore? 

I'm hoping that it's a side effect of a decision(s) made by Nigel Pearson and not a club direction change, because if it's the latter it's hard to see it improving any time soon.

Exactly this. You can't just have great facilities. We just spent 12.5m on Vydra and Anya ... I'd rather Mel invest that sort of money on drawing in some amazing young players from around the world and stuffing the academy with potential superstars. Would seem to be a smarter way to spend than buying castoffs. Of course you need great development coaches to go along with that with a distinct and modern style of play.

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It doesnt matter to me if the U23 team does well or not, its about producing players. As long as we get players like Hughes, Hendrick, Lowe and Hanson coming through then its doing its job, Vernon looks the next one who is pushing through. We used to always be top of the reserve league but we didn't produce anyone around that time.

Mel throwing lots of money at the academy isnt going to get instant results as thats not the point its to generate players every year, the golden one at Southampton took years to create. 

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No Hanson, Rawson, Vernam, Guy or Stabana in the squad for today's game - I assume we'll see at least four of those in the first team squad tomorrow. Disappointed that Elsnik played (despite the fact that he scored) as I'd have hoped he would have seen at least some bench action by now.

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There was quite a few there, a lot more than I expected.

Bennett and Elsnik looked a cut above the rest if I'm honest. Bennett was very sharp - a lot of our passing seemed slow and often was going backwards, but every time he got the ball out on the left he was looking to run at his man or play it forward. Almost scored an absolute screamer, then put a cross in that was deflected in for our second goal. There was another lad in midfield Kellan Gordon I think, he was very impressive. Him and Elsnik controlled the game from the middle. Roos made a couple of alright saves, but flapped big time at the end causing the own goal. Taking off Bennett lost our attacking threat and taking off Rawson caused a lot of nervousness at the back. Lelan won every header in the air mind.

Hope that explains some of the game at least!

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