A team of Academy Products - the Rupert Lowe dream...

[Legod Third Coming]

I hate to mention it.

 

But it was His ambition.

 

I scoffed at the time - didn't think it would ever be possible.

 

But truth is we're closer to the 'Barcelona' model now than ever.

And it might work (assuming we can hang onto them when the current big clubs come a knocking...)*

 

So how has Cortese succeeded where Lowe failed? Without all the histrionics and vitriol.

 

*I refuse to accept we will not be a top four club within three years but readily accept this may not be quick enough for some of our young starlets...

[Colinjb]

One word. Resources.

 

Lowe could talk the talk but not walk the walk.

 

Our academy players are backed up by tens of millions of pounds worth of talent, under Rupert we would never have purchased that kind of spine (Remembering Malbranque and Saha after the cup final.) His vision of the academy being a sales tool to give the club income was entirely self limiting.

[richard]

Cortese seems to have a way of finding really good managers. As far as I know he doesn't have a football background, so I think he must have a very good team of headhunters. I think this is a major factor in Cortese's success, and Lowe got this key decision wrong a number of times in the run-up to relegation.

[Patrick Bateman]

To be fair, he came across as a nutter as he was simply too early with that idea (and Woodward). But only because football in this country was still in the full swing of 442, expensive signings and target men to some degree.

 

I even read an article today saying how we've (as fans) been recently educated and were jeering long balls forward, so I would say it's a very recent shift.

[stthrobber]

I think quite simply, that Cortese has been able to invest heavily in the first team as well as the Academy, which is something Lowe couldn't do because he didn't have the cash.

 

Having said that, let's not forget that what Lowe put in place all those years ago was never going to bear fruit there and then, it was always going to be investing in the future, so I think there's a hefty dose of Cortese reaping the benefits of those that put the original plans in place, but where he scores heavily is that fact that so many of them are actually in the first team and on the fringes of it, whereas before they never really got anywhere near it. Sadly for us, in the past, where they did, big clubs came a knocking, and our dire financial straits meant we weren't in a position to say no to them.

Edited 8 December, 2013 by stthrobber

[Hockey_saint]

I hate it when people bang on about Lowe's contribution to our youth system....it was a pretty darn impressive one before he got here you know.

[Turkish]

Let's also remember that the players currently breaking into the first team, with the exception of Gallagher who was signed from Plymouth, were here when Lowe was here. So whilst they might benefit from the coaching and development from the team in place now, they were actually discovered and signed by the previous regime.

[Lighthouse]

Lowe had the idea half right but to him the academy was a way of producing cheap players and selling them for profit.

 

His lack of ambition regarding signings and his appointment of the wrong managers meant that no decent players wanted to come here or stay.

 

Lowe made a habit of signing lots of cheap players, the likes of Nilsson and Yahia. The kind of crap which we have avoided signing in order to make space for younger players on the bench and eventually in the first team squad.

 

Lowe would probably have spent the money we did in summer on 6 Jelle Van Dammes and Neil McCanns.

[Matthew Le God]

So how has Cortese succeeded where Lowe failed?

 

Reed, Chambers, Shaw, Lallana, Ward-Prowse, Sinclair, Turnbull etc all joined Saints when Rupert Lowe was the chairman.

 

Difference is under Cortese/Liebherr we have the financial resources and can supplement that young academy produced talent with big signings like Lovren, Wanyama, Osvaldo etc and hopefully keep them for longer.

Edited 8 December, 2013 by Matthew Le God

[Junior Mullet]

Lowe wasn't all bad. He really wasn't. The problem was more the PLC structure than Lowe's talent or the lack of it.

 

With Lowe I felt the academy was run like a farm. Take the kids in really young, train them, build them create something worth having and thus saleable and then sell them. Makes profit for the PLC.

 

Problem was, we never had the resources to keep the best youngsters under the PLC structure. We could not compete on wages nor in terms of fmatching their ambitions. There was a ceiling on our resources and our ambition. It was so painful to watch. I used to go to Staplewood and watch the kids come through and then take great pride in see them break through into the first team and get the plaudits - I saw a lot of Walcott, Bale, Lallana, Dyer etc and I'm glad I did. The sale of Walcott was particularly hard to bear.

 

Things have changed - our financial budgets are competitive and we have massive ambition. At the moment the best young players seem to be happy in that - they seem to believe in the Chairman's ambition. Hopefully we can begin to fulfill that ambition before their patience runs out and whilst we have the winning formula of the Katherina and Cortese. The foreseeable future really is bright.

[aintforever]

So how has Cortese succeeded where Lowe failed? Without all the histrionics and vitriol.

 

A sh!t load of cash, and a chairman who knows you have to pay talent what they are worth.

 

A team of academy graduates is probably the dream of every other chairman in the league - Lowe banged on about it but it's not an original or new concept. Everyone wants to do a Man Utd or Barcelona.

[stthrobber]

I hate it when people bang on about Lowe's contribution to our youth system....it was a pretty darn impressive one before he got here you know.

 

Yes, when people in the media talk about our youth system, it's not unusual for them to refer back to the likes of Shearer and Le Tiss and the Wallaces amongst others, but those players came through sporadically, and what makes the academy so special now, is the fact that several of its proteges were in the first team squad yesterday at the same time.

 

I'm not sure about how the system works for attracting youth players now, we used to have a catchment area that we could draw from, but there is no doubt that the fact that so many talented players like Lallana, Shaw, JWP and Chambers have come through the academy, and are also getting noticed at England level too is testament to the work that has gone in to the academy as well as the financial investment, and like it or not, Lowe must take some of the credit for that.

[CB Fry]

I hate it when people bang on about Lowe's contribution to our youth system....it was a pretty darn impressive one before he got here you know.

 

Seriously, apart from the obvious players we can all name it wasn't that great immediately pre-Lowe. Who came through between Shearer and Wayne Bridge, the first one in the Lowe years? Oakley and that's about it.

 

Lowe employed Prost, Jennings, Elias and so on. He had Cortese's touch with managers when it came to academy bods.

[Professor]

Perhaps my memory is going as the years pass but I don't recall Walcott, Bale and Oxlade-Chamberlain being hawked around for sale. As I recall, they were offered truck loads of money and were encouraged by family members to head for the bright lights.

Edited 8 December, 2013 by Professor

[Turkish]

Yes, when people in the media talk about our youth system, it's not unusual for them to refer back to the likes of Shearer and Le Tiss and the Wallaces amongst others, but those players came through sporadically, and what makes the academy so special now, is the fact that several of its proteges were in the first team squad yesterday at the same time.

 

I'm not sure about how the system works for attracting youth players now, we used to have a catchment area that we could draw from, but there is no doubt that the fact that so many talented players like Lallana, Shaw, JWP and Chambers have come through the academy, and are also getting noticed at England level too is testament to the work that has gone in to the academy as well as the financial investment, and like it or not, Lowe must take some of the credit for that.

 

Err, Shearer, Le Tiss and rod Wallace all came through at the same time. shearer became the worlds most expensive player at the time and won numerous England caps, Le Tiss became arguably our greatest ever player and Wallace won the league title with Leeds. Those 3 also played in the first team at the same time, along with Ray Wallace and Francis Benali. Danny Wallace also played in the squad with those 3 before he left for Man United in 1989 and also played for England. So 3 England internationals there, all of which played for England whilst at Saints.

 

The 1989/90 team contained 5 players who were apprentices as well as Tim Flowers and Jason Dodd who were signed at a young age from other clubs. So not quite sporadically is it. Its not quite the first time we've produced players who have England's recognition whilst at saints like you're making out. Our line up when we destroyed Liverpool, then league champions 4-1 at Dell contained Flowers, Benali, Dodd, Le Tissier, Shearer and rod Wallace.

Edited 8 December, 2013 by Turkish

[The Kraken]

Err, Shearer, Le Tiss and rod Wallace all came through at the same time. shearer became the worlds most expensive player at the time and won numerous England caps, Le Tiss became arguably our greatest ever player and Wallace won the league title with Leeds. Those 3 also played in the first team at the same time, along with Ray Wallace and Francis Benali. Danny Wallace also played in the squad with those 3 before he left for Man United in 1989 and also played for England. So 3 England internationals there, all of which played for England whilst at Saints.

 

The 1989/90 team contained 5 players who were apprentices as well as Tim Flowers and Jason Dodd who were signed at a young age from other clubs. So not quite sporadically is it. Its not quite the first time we've produced players who have England's recognition whilst at saints like you're making out.

That youth batch was really impressive, and also included some players who didn't make the top grade but made a career for the game in the lower leagues. The likes of Mark Blake, Allan Tankard, Andy Cook. It really was a phenomenal breakthrough of youth players in one or two years.

[CB Fry]

Err, Shearer, Le Tiss and rod Wallace all came through at the same time. shearer became the worlds most expensive player at the time and won numerous England caps, Le Tiss became arguably our greatest ever player and Wallace won the league title with Leeds. Those 3 also played in the first team at the same time, along with Ray Wallace and Francis Benali. Danny Wallace also played in the squad with those 3 before he left for Man United in 1989 and also played for England.

 

The 1989/90 team contained 5 players who were apprentices as well as Tim Flowers and Jason Dodd who were signed at a young age from other clubs. So not quite sporadically is it.

 

Indeed. The problem was how much it dried up for nigh-on a decade until Bridgey turned up, with Oakley the notable exception.

 

No question Lowe refocused the club in that direction while Bradford, Coventry, Sheff Weds and others were spunking untold millions on dross.

 

(...we stuck to spunking untold thousands on Lee Todd, Michel Nilsson and Darren Kenton)

Edited 8 December, 2013 by CB Fry

[Turkish]

Indeed. The problem was how much it dried up for nigh-on a decade until Bridgey turned up, with Oakley the notable exception.

 

No question Lowe refocused the club in that direction while Bradford, Coventry, Sheff Weds and others were spunking untold millions on dross.

 

Yep, there was nothing really apart from the two you mention after that lot until Walcott, Baird, bale and co in the mid 00s.

[Turkish]

That youth batch was really impressive, and also included some players who didn't make the top grade but made a career for the game in the lower leagues. The likes of Mark Blake, Allan Tankard, Andy Cook. It really was a phenomenal breakthrough of youth players in one or two years.

 

Steve Davis was another one. I always thought he looked really good. Only played a few times for the first team but was always impressed with him, had a good career at Burnley and considered a bit of legend up there.

[The Kraken]

Steve Davis was another one. I always thought he looked really good. Only played a few times for the first team but was always impressed with him, had a good career at Burnley and considered a bit of legend up there.

Yes of course. Quite remarkable really just what came through the ranks and then how bereft of graduates we were until Wayne Bridge. Even Bridgey didn't really look like he was going to cut it until he was switched from midfield to left back.

[kwsaint]

Yep, there was nothing really apart from the two you mention after that lot until Walcott, Baird, bale and co in the mid 00s.

 

Dave Merrington had a huge influence on the youth policy in the late eighties/early nineties. It dipped after he became manager and then left in 96. It wasn't until Strachan became manager and flagged his concern about the youth policy that Rupert did anything about it. To be fair it was then put on a better footing and has been built on in recent years.

 

We are on a roll. Saints now has a reputation for being a well run club and giving youth a chance. Parents will want to get their kids involved with Saints.

[Hodgey]

Listening to McMenemy on Talksport, who had just said how he set up the academies in Gateshead, Bristol and Soton way back when so this has been going on some time. Maybe big Mac also deserves credit ? (certainly more than Lowe)

[Roger]

Lowe wasn't all bad. He really wasn't. The problem was more the PLC structure than Lowe's talent or the lack of it.

 

With Lowe I felt the academy was run like a farm. Take the kids in really young, train them, build them create something worth having and thus saleable and then sell them. Makes profit for the PLC.

 

Problem was, we never had the resources to keep the best youngsters under the PLC structure. We could not compete on wages nor in terms of fmatching their ambitions. There was a ceiling on our resources and our ambition. It was so painful to watch. I used to go to Staplewood and watch the kids come through and then take great pride in see them break through into the first team and get the plaudits - I saw a lot of Walcott, Bale, Lallana, Dyer etc and I'm glad I did. The sale of Walcott was particularly hard to bear.

 

Things have changed - our financial budgets are competitive and we have massive ambition. At the moment the best young players seem to be happy in that - they seem to believe in the Chairman's ambition. Hopefully we can begin to fulfill that ambition before their patience runs out and whilst we have the winning formula of the Katherina and Cortese. The foreseeable future really is bright.

 

Yes he was. If you knew exactly what went on you would know he was terrible for the club.

[Turkish]

Yes of course. Quite remarkable really just what came through the ranks and then how bereft of graduates we were until Wayne Bridge. Even Bridgey didn't really look like he was going to cut it until he was switched from midfield to left back.

 

Neil Maddison. Another from that era who was good solid player and made a career in top flight. Actually it is quite incredible the number of players when you think about.

[Smirking_Saint]

Yes he was. If you knew exactly what went on you would know he was terrible for the club.

 

I know plenty, if you heard stories of his tenure at the time it was damn right scary, things such as Souness and WGS leaving, signing Delgado etc amoungst a batch of other things. That said a lot goes on in the back doors of football and a lot of the time it will never see the light of day.

 

That said, there are always positives and obviously some of those are the academy of which he did invest, the training ground, introduction of the sports science department, St Marys etc concieviably where we are today may never have happened unless that infrastructure had been created.

 

But yes, he was a stubborn ***** aswell

[Dellman]

Laurie's speciality was signing old stars for a final payday, it worked and gave us some exciting years and some famous faces but it was depressing for anyone in the youth system, their prospects were minimal with one set of big names after another taking what would have been their places. Now we are trying to build a premiership squad with depth and the question is will NC and MP do the Laurie thing and use the January sales to cover the injuries or will they give youth a chance?

[Smirking_Saint]

Laurie's speciality was signing old stars for a final payday, it worked and gave us some exciting years and some famous faces but it was depressing for anyone in the youth system, their prospects were minimal with one set of big names after another taking what would have been their places. Now we are trying to build a premiership squad with depth and the question is will NC and MP do the Laurie thing and use the January sales to cover the injuries or will they give youth a chance?

 

You have to be realistic enough to realise where that added quality is required, personally Id like us to spend on a GK and a CB as there are no obvious choices of quality ready to step up and will improve the competition.

[paulwantsapint]

The biggest challenge now is to make sure we keep producing 1st team talent unlike the 17 year gap between the class of 88 & the class of 05 when apart from Oakley & bridge we only produced players who's careers highlights were short saints careers

[teamsaint]

Yes he was. If you knew exactly what went on you would know he was terrible for the club.

 

I was no fan of Lowe's , what with his failings with managers, but HE was the one that got a new stadium built , while others were barking up the stoneham tree, He was right, he got it built , which everybody else had failed to do, and that was the thing that saved us from oblivion.

I really don't think ML would have invested in a L1 club stuck in the Dell.

Lowe may have caused our downfall from the PL, (which inevitably will happen at some point to clubs of this size), but he also put in the foundation stone of recovery.

 

As others have said, I suspect Lowe's failure to attract investment funds was down to the PLC structure.

[teamsaint]

Laurie's speciality was signing old stars for a final payday, it worked and gave us some exciting years and some famous faces but it was depressing for anyone in the youth system, their prospects were minimal with one set of big names after another taking what would have been their places. Now we are trying to build a premiership squad with depth and the question is will NC and MP do the Laurie thing and use the January sales to cover the injuries or will they give youth a chance?

 

 

Really? Who wants to start the list of youngsters given a chance by Lawrie?

Danny Wallace, Trevor Hebbard, Steve Moran, Steve Williams, Nick Holmes, Ruben Agboola, Malcolm Waldron.....the list is very long.

[dubai_phil]

Couple of comments.

Go back 8 years or so, then mention must be made of the actual coaches who brought the different age groups through, Dave Puckett being one of them. When you look at that picture of that under 8 side then you KNOW there was a change of some kind to the days when the kids were brought in from outside.

 

The other really big difference now is "Spirit" or "The Southampton Way" - this is not just a "way of playing" but a sense of togetherness, or Team Spirit.

 

The core of our team has been together now for a long time. It is the primary difference between the likes of us and Citeh or Chelsea. Now the kids are playing with their mates, and are around a core group of players who have been on our crazy journey back from the depths of L1. Newbies are coming into a real GROUP.

 

When we played Citeh at the weekend we were a football TEAM, they were a collection of stars.

 

ManUre built their success on the class of 92. Maybe in 2 or 3 years we will be hearing about the class of 13....

 

The NEW framework means that the kids can stay with their mates, they aren't just cattle being mass produced by the PLC.

 

Lowe's dream was real (and we derided him for it) the wacky ideas of Woodward were real - vision coaches, sports science, preparation - and we are now starting to hear how some of those ideas will come to reality (the new training pitches with different types of grass to represent the type of surface we will play on in away games. Lowe's PROBLEM was that anyone wanting to invest in the club had to pay a premium because of the value of the shareholders. Want to buy the club? 30 million please, THEN you can invest in the team.

 

The ideas were there, as were many of the people, the execution was just screwed by the handcuffs that got us St Mary's

[Danish Saint]

Lowe at least got one decission right as he hired George Prost, who really helped modernise our Academy. Untill then it all felt a bit by chance, but after Prost everything became more adapted to the modern game.

[Wade Garrett]

I was no fan of Lowe's , what with his failings with managers, but HE was the one that got a new stadium built , while others were barking up the stoneham tree, He was right, he got it built , which everybody else had failed to do, and that was the thing that saved us from oblivion.

I really don't think ML would have invested in a L1 club stuck in the Dell.

Lowe may have caused our downfall from the PL, (which inevitably will happen at some point to clubs of this size), but he also put in the foundation stone of recovery.

 

As others have said, I suspect Lowe's failure to attract investment funds was down to the PLC structure.

Bit of a history rewrite there. Lowe was the one barking up the Stoneham tree. Right up to the point that it was obvious it would never get built. It was only Southampton City Council offering the land and permission to build St Mary's that got us away from the Dell. All Lowe had to do was sign a couple of mortgage forms.

[CB Fry]

Bit of a history rewrite there. Lowe was the one barking up the Stoneham tree. Right up to the point that it was obvious it would never get built. It was only Southampton City Council offering the land and permission to build St Mary's that got us away from the Dell. All Lowe had to do was sign a couple of mortgage forms.

 

Which, of course, is not a history rewrite at all.

[teamsaint]

Which, of course, is not a history rewrite at all.

 

I don't know the detail of what happened behind closed doors.. But if Lowe takes the blame for the bad stuff on his watch, like Sturrock, Wigley etc, he should get the credit.

SMS happened under his watch. Nobody else had made it happen.

[rooney]

He was always keen on the Academy but apart from some terrible managerial appointments, as Colinjb said, the lack of spending on Saha and Malbranque, not only cost us a good manager but millions of pounds also. He can never be forgiven for that.

[saint si]

Interesting stat in the Echo: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/10863838.Teenage_kicks__Saints_set_new_Premier_League_record/?ref=var_0

 

"It is believed to be the first time in Premier League history that a side has fielded four 18-year-olds at the same time."

 

Impressive stuff!

[Monkeyboy]

Interesting stat in the Echo: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/10863838.Teenage_kicks__Saints_set_new_Premier_League_record/?ref=var_0

 

"It is believed to be the first time in Premier League history that a side has fielded four 18-year-olds at the same time."

 

Impressive stuff!

 

Shame they got that wrong as JWP is 19 now.

 

Still impressive!

 

I wonder what the average age of our team was on Saturday?

[Mowgli]

I hate it when people bang on about Lowe's contribution to our youth system....it was a pretty darn impressive one before he got here you know.

 

It's probably decisive rather than helpful to keep opening old wounds as far as Lowe is concerned. Only branfoot was more despised. But there is a difference to picking up teenagers as we did in the past and having an academy as we do now. I sat watching our academy stars on Saturday and remembered they mostly joined the club between 1999 and 2004. The regime at the time (not just Lowe) has to take some credit for the set up at back then. George Prost was on of the best appointments we made. Maybe a bit of luck too because most of the managerial appointments were poor (starch an and hoddle excepted)

[Colinjb]

Interesting stat in the Echo: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/10863838.Teenage_kicks__Saints_set_new_Premier_League_record/?ref=var_0

 

"It is believed to be the first time in Premier League history that a side has fielded four 18-year-olds at the same time."

 

Impressive stuff!

 

Also

 

The fact Saints, whose oldest player was 28-year-old Jose Fonte, were able to have more of the ball than their higher-profile counterparts is a fantastic feat worthy of huge applause.

 

If they are counting Reed then surely they must also take into account 31 year old Rickie Lambert.

[saint si]

Yes, and as was pointed out in the comments, JWP is 19 anyway!!

[SaintNeil90]

The players coming through now, joined the club when Lowe was still here... just saying.

[Cabrone]

Lowe's encouragement of the academy is one of the few things I'll give the guy credit for as it set the groundwork for what we have now. Saints did produce some good young players in the 80's but with the loss of Merrington it seemed to dry up till the academy came along.

 

However his ultimate record is relegation from the premiership to league 1 via a succession of incompetent managerial appointments and a string of journeymen signings that left us with a bloated squad. As far as I know no other SFC chairman has managed to do that.

 

His strategic thinking was poor too. When we were a decent striker short of having a real chance of getting back to the prem in 05/06 under Harry Redknapp he didn't release the funds and the season collapsed after Leeds at home. We battered teams in the first few months just to come unstuck by not having someone to stick it into the net.

 

His axing of the well liked and decent Pearson for the Dutch duo was the final, almost fatal, mistake.

 

His public relations were terrible too, alienating most people and causing a lot of friction within the club.

 

I have no fond memories of the guy, he was parachuted in on some Askhamesque dodgy reverse takeover and scuttled off with the club at death's door.

 

No amount of rose tinted glasses will make him look good IMO but I will give him some credit for the youth setup.

[Minty]

It does read like some people want to shape history to fit their opinion of Lowe... bottom line is that we wouldn't be where we are now if it hadn't been for ALL that has gone before, and that includes our relegation and administration, as well the work done at the Academy over the years. We have had quite an 'interesting' recent history, lots of people played their part, some good, some bad, most a bit of both. All of which just makes me grateful for where we are now.

[buctootim]

Lowe got the academy, Staplewood and SMS just right. Managerial appointments, not so much. On balance he was better than the majority give him credit for.

[saint1977]

Seriously, apart from the obvious players we can all name it wasn't that great immediately pre-Lowe. Who came through between Shearer and Wayne Bridge, the first one in the Lowe years? Oakley and that's about it.

 

Lowe employed Prost, Jennings, Elias and so on. He had Cortese's touch with managers when it came to academy bods.

 

I do agree that Lowe deserves credit for having recruited Prost and putting more emphasis on the academy. Sadly, he didn't have other stakeholders in the ownership web Askham had woven who were wealthy enough to have invested sufficiently in the first XI as we are seeing now and also when the young players of the 1960s, 70s and 80s came through to a certain extent. So Channon learns from Paine, Danny Wallace and Steve Williams learned from the likes of Ball and Keegan and Shaw learns from the likes of Lovren and young players are introduced into a relatively successful and stable first team framework. The crop of the mid-2000s had some awful role models by contrast.

 

To answer your question directly, the reason the production line dried up in the 1990s was a combination of the conversion to all seater stadia costs left us with less dosh to invest, some lack of investment in facilities and coaching by Askham and co, plus Branfoot did SFC a huge amount of damage by removing mentors like Jimmy Case who could play football and replacing them with less able old men on far bigger wages - Hurlock, Dixon, Speedie - that all cost a fortune to dump when he had no money. Hurlock's contract was paid off when Ball and Lawrie took over in 94 and I dread to think how much it was!

[Dellman]

NC persuaded markus to buy Saints when things were at the worst-ever level because he could see a genuinely good infrastructure (unlike down the road) that only needed investment. And that has proved right. I think Lowe has to have some credit for that even though he was absolutely hopeless at everything on the playing side. But the big difference is Lowe only wanted to breed players to sell off and balance the books, NC is ambitious to keep them and build them into a winning side

[alpine_saint]

Oh, I knew this thread was inevitable...

 

There is a MASSIVE difference between NC and Lowe. Their means might have been similar, but the ends are completely different.

 

Lowe wanted to nuture young talent through the Academy to improve the companies' bottom line and pay dividends. NC seems to measure success on the football field.

[Chez]

Dave Merrington had a huge influence on the youth policy in the late eighties/early nineties. It dipped after he became manager and then left in 96. It wasn't until Strachan became manager and flagged his concern about the youth policy that Rupert did anything about it.

 

The key change was in 89. Bob Higgins, the person responsible for signing and developing the Wallace brothers, Shearer etc. left the club under a cloud (Merrington looked after the YTS guys). After he departed (taking Jamie Cureton and Darren Eadie with him) the people brought in to run the youth (and I'm talking 10-16 year old's) development scheme were no where near as competent. Lew Chatterly amongst them didn't know what they were doing IMO preferring physically bigger players (rather than more skillful players with greater potential) and failing to nurture character as well as talent. There was a lot of change of personnel at that time and the quality of player brought through in the subsequent years was miles off where it once was.

 

Lowe made a huge difference in getting our youth scheme back on track because he provided the right levels of finance and also brought in the right staff to look after the academy.

[david in sweden]

One word. Resources.

 

Lowe could talk the talk but not walk the walk.

 

Our academy players are backed up by tens of millions of pounds worth of talent, under Rupert we would never have purchased that kind of spine (Remembering Malbranque and Saha after the cup final.) His vision of the academy being a sales tool to give the club income was entirely self limiting.

This Academy discussion gets more and more complicated - doesn't it Colin?

We boast about our present Academy lads (and with just cause).. but Shaw and JWP started with our boys teams aged 8.......it's taken 10 years for them to reach " MATURITY ".

 

However, along the way, (both during and since Lowe's time) .....we have also seen Lallana, Walcott, Bale and Oxlade Chamberlain hit the heights as well as others like Surman and Dyer who didn't make the headlines in the same manner, but also turned out to be good class players.

 

WE won't necessarily get a new Lallana or Shaw every season, but it takes time, and although I'm loathed to admit it ..Lowe did start the ball rolling.

 

The idea was good but we didn't have all the right people in place to exploit the system in the beginning, and the first group of " Academy graduates" weren't good enough to keep us in the Championship, and the bankruptcy meant that we lost a few more good people along the way.

 

Now there is stability, and someone at the top (Cortese) who has definitely taken us to the next level in a relatively short time.

 

If I could paraphrase Lowe's career, I might quote the following (with apologies to W. Shakespeare)......." the evil that men do lives on after them, the good is often interred with their bones ".