Nice Saints article.

[Pilchards]

http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2013/07/31/full-steam-ahead-for-southampton-fcs-academy-prospects

[Stepgar]

Like that cheers.

[Ulrich van Gobbel]

Good read that, thanks. We already have a fantastic reputation at home for our academy...it's great to see that recognition coming from further afield!

[Bucks Saint]

A soccer article that happens to be spot on accurate and well informed! Thanks

[david in sweden]

yes very nice comments. ..and might not be the last mention from NBC either, if Cody Cropper makes the USA senior squad,(though he's not an Academy product of course)

The sad thing is that it won't be long before some pedant on this site negatively points out that Shearer, MLT and Bridge weren't actually "Academy" products either.

 

However, the truth of the matter is that successive managers have always used our good youth players - even back to the time that Ted Bates introduced the teenage Terry Paine and John Sydenham to the great Youth sides that fought out some epic FA Youth Cup games against their Man.Utd counterparts in the late 1950's.

 

Even 30 years ago, bringing in young players was seen as a bit daring especially introducing a 20 year-old into a side, when if that team's average age was nearer 30.

 

Bringing on youngsters is always nice for fans - especially if the player is "a local lad ". Lawrie McMenemy had the good fortune to have players like Woolston-born Nick Holmes (who clocked up 500+ games between 1974-1987), and Bobby Stokes (though from Pompey) was good enough to pop-up with the FA Cup winning goal in 1976.

 

L.Mac had the good fortune to have; Steve Williams, Graham Baker, and later Steve Moran and "blooded" a host of young talents (Andruszewski, Waldron, Hebberd,) from the youth set-up. At that time, Football became more high profile and some lads could even get a YTS job as a trainee, when most were already leaving school at 16.

 

Chris Nicholl had; MLT, Shearer, Maddison and the Wallace twins in his line-ups (though much of the credit for their development must go to Dave Merrington's long spell as Youth team coach).

 

After the departure of Ian Branfoot, life in the (new) Premier League became even harder and we only survived thanks to MLT's regular goal tally, and youngsters were much rarer, and only players like Nicky Banger had regular chances although he turned in some epic games (as Saints' super sub.)

 

Wayne Bridge was the first to be connected with the Academy brand that Rupert Lowe had mentioned some years earlier, but hadn't come into being as such.

 

Today's Academy "pupils " are given a good education, at the same time as they are coached in the game, and we all look forward to a time when our home-grown products can line up alongside the foreign international " stars " who NC / MP seem to be seeking at present.

 

More of the same please.

Edited 1 August, 2013 by david in sweden