Lee Buchanan - Gone to Werder Bremen

[Raich Carter]

On 29/07/2022 at 15:47, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

Shame they treated him so well back in 2019 when he was on 200 quid a week.

£200 quid a week, top quality training, a chance which very few get, exposure of a good level of football and basically, a massively lucrative career. Yeah, short changed him didn't we...

The academy system is massively flawed because we're getting nothing like the return on investment for it to make sense. For every Delap, there's 30 x players we've never heard of that have gone through the system and not worked out that cost us $$$. It's not about the investment in the individual player, it's about getting a fair return on the infrastructure that produces these players and £400k / E300k or whatever, is laughable. If they want the player, they should be paying £1m+ or leave him with us as clearly he'd have played for us. 

If I was Mr Clowes, I'd be looking at all these young academy players going for 'nowt (Delap, Plange, Ebosele, Ebiowei, Kaide Gordon, etc there's almost certainly more) and be thinking if it's worth it. You hear about Boro players going for £20m (propping up there accounts) and we're just missing out - massively. Delap and Gordon have gone to top, top clubs for £1m each (or less) and if they'd have stayed with us and had a couple of seasons, perhaps they'd have been £20m+ players and our financial future then looks VERY different. 

[sage]

8 minutes ago, Raich Carter said:

£200 quid a week, top quality training, a chance which very few get, exposure of a good level of football and basically, a massively lucrative career. Yeah, short changed him didn't we...

The academy system is massively flawed because we're getting nothing like the return on investment for it to make sense. For every Delap, there's 30 x players we've never heard of that have gone through the system and not worked out that cost us $$$. It's not about the investment in the individual player, it's about getting a fair return on the infrastructure that produces these players and £400k / E300k or whatever, is laughable. If they want the player, they should be paying £1m+ or leave him with us as clearly he'd have played for us. 

If I was Mr Clowes, I'd be looking at all these young academy players going for 'nowt (Delap, Plange, Ebosele, Ebiowei, Kaide Gordon, etc there's almost certainly more) and be thinking if it's worth it. You hear about Boro players going for £20m (propping up there accounts) and we're just missing out - massively. Delap and Gordon have gone to top, top clubs for £1m each (or less) and if they'd have stayed with us and had a couple of seasons, perhaps they'd have been £20m+ players and our financial future then looks VERY different. 

Some of those losses are the system some are our financial position at the time. 

Not much more for Clowes to do beyond what he has. 

We do have to be aware that our best prospects aged 16-19 have been stripped from the club so we will have dip in players coming through for a while. 

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

45 minutes ago, Raich Carter said:

£200 quid a week, top quality training, a chance which very few get, exposure of a good level of football and basically, a massively lucrative career. Yeah, short changed him didn't we...

The academy system is massively flawed because we're getting nothing like the return on investment for it to make sense. For every Delap, there's 30 x players we've never heard of that have gone through the system and not worked out that cost us $$$. It's not about the investment in the individual player, it's about getting a fair return on the infrastructure that produces these players and £400k / E300k or whatever, is laughable. If they want the player, they should be paying £1m+ or leave him with us as clearly he'd have played for us. 

If I was Mr Clowes, I'd be looking at all these young academy players going for 'nowt (Delap, Plange, Ebosele, Ebiowei, Kaide Gordon, etc there's almost certainly more) and be thinking if it's worth it. You hear about Boro players going for £20m (propping up there accounts) and we're just missing out - massively. Delap and Gordon have gone to top, top clubs for £1m each (or less) and if they'd have stayed with us and had a couple of seasons, perhaps they'd have been £20m+ players and our financial future then looks VERY different. 

Think your misreading me there.  He was very easy to let go at that point but we stuck with him despite his naughty behaviour back in 2019.  

Re the bit in bold I agree.  A Cat 1 academy just gives constant access to your more promising youngsters and at 6 million a year to run it's not only expensive but a breeding ground for vultures, particularly at this level. 

[Raich Carter]

11 hours ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

Think your misreading me there.  He was very easy to let go at that point but we stuck with him despite his naughty behaviour back in 2019.  

Re the bit in bold I agree.  A Cat 1 academy just gives constant access to your more promising youngsters and at 6 million a year to run it's not only expensive but a breeding ground for vultures, particularly at this level. 

Ah, my apologies!