v Torquay

[Reading Rebel]

39 minutes ago, G Brown said:

 

I think we had one of those gems in Alfonso Tenconi, not saying he would’ve commanded Kilman money but someone would’ve offered £250k minimum, with a sell on

I think Alphonso Tenconi was the first academy player to command a regular first team place.

The only other two I can think of are Makowski and Dan Roth who both left for pastures new and then came back to the club.

Makowski being the only ex academy player we've received a fee for.

Edited April 14 by Reading Rebel

[Curtis]

They might not have come from the academy but I believe the Club now have five players with active sell on clauses….. Chambers, Makowski, Ogbonna, Pruti & Spasov.

I think there is a reasonable prospect one of these could get a transfer to League One at some point which would be a nice bonus, but I don’t think we will see any go higher.

It will be interesting to see if any other under 24’s also move to the National League this summer.

[Curtis]

On Tenconi & Spicer, these were intelligent youngsters who went to good American universities, and will probably make far more from full time careers outside of football, and I would be surprised if they ever signed contracts or were paid, as it would have caused them problems playing at University.

If we are lucky they may want to come back & play part time when they have graduated.

[Reading Rebel]

21 hours ago, Curtis said:

They might not have come from the academy but I believe the Club now have five players with active sell on clauses….. Chambers, Makowski, Ogbonna, Pruti & Spasov.

I think there is a reasonable prospect one of these could get a transfer to League One at some point which would be a nice bonus, but I don’t think we will see any go higher.

It will be interesting to see if any other under 24’s also move to the National League this summer.

Do they all have sell on clauses?

Leon and Slavi are at a much bigger club and I think it's fair to say apart from his injuries Leon has made the bigger impression.

If Leon could stay injury free I think he could be the one with the best chance of progressing into the football league.  

IMO Ogbonna and Pruti have probably reached their upper limit.

Early day's for Makowski but he seems to have had a decent start.

 

Edited April 15 by Reading Rebel

[Nathan]

9 hours ago, SloughFlyer said:

A veey short sighted view on the academy stuff Nathan.

1. This season we have been able to field a full, 7 man, bench in virtually every game because of the academy. In contraat, for about the laat month, Farnborough have had 3 fit subs.

2. The players the academy are bringing through might just be the future of the club. With the way Scotr is prepared to play these lads, it will be a great day when we win a game or 3 with the majority of home grown players in the team.

3. You only need 1 (Max Kilman, Les Ferdinand, Jamie Vardy etc, etc, etc) to come through (or loads of "smaller" players) to secure the clubs future. Imagine if Maidenhead had our ground, our potential academy set up, our foundations in sponsorship and off the field stuff and then got £4 million from Kilman. 

The stuff that Ash, Scott and the off field staff are doing is brilliant and, IMO, the only way we as Slough Town have any chance of developong as a club. Does it mean some "lean" and more difficult years on the pitch, yes. BUT, short term pain for long term gain IMO.

Does thia mean difficult (and quite frankly embaressing, performances like Saturday) unfortunately yes, but I hold onto the thought that with a full, fit side out, I think the outcome may have been different. I just have to be patient and go through the lows to have the highs.

I don't think I'm being short-sighted there SloughFlyer; I'm just not blindly assuming that this proposed academy site will prove to be our Golden Goose. Obviously I hope that it will!

For instance (assuming all goes well and to plan, we all know how these things tend to go over schedule and over budget) how much will this site cost? How will it be paid for? When is it likely to be completed by? How long before we break even, or make any money? What impact will this have on the other areas of the club in the meantime (quite a lot by the sound of things, and this is before a single brick has been laid)? All questions which need to be asked at the next Fans Forum (should one happen).

We seem to be managing smaller players coming through reasonably well even without this site. And as for 1 player alone securing the club's future, we'll need to be extraordinarily lucky to have the next Cristiano Ronaldo on our books. That's if you don't factor in the fact that we'll be up against far bigger names and far more established set-ups (with much more money) than we can offer, who may well have got there before us and/or will doubtless be looking to poach. I know it's a case of "what came first, the chicken or the egg", and everything has to start somewhere, but nonetheless we're at a huge disadvantage here as far as I can see.

As for short-term pain for long-term gain, I see where you're coming from. I just hope we have enough miracles in store so that we'll still be at Step 2 or 3 at the end of it!

Let's not put all our eggs in one basket; there are other areas just as or more important/urgent which need attention and we seem to be taking our eyes off the ball. We're not just an academy.

Even if all this proves to be unfounded, I'd ask who comes through the turnstiles on the strength of a club's academy? Very few if any I'd say.

[sdelane1357]

Tenconi is supposed to be a top class golfer as well so he could be changing sports depending on his progression in both.

[Nathan]

2 hours ago, Curtis said:

On Tenconi & Spicer, these were intelligent youngsters who went to good American universities, and will probably make far more from full time careers outside of football, and I would be surprised if they ever signed contracts or were paid, as it would have caused them problems playing at University.

If we are lucky they may want to come back & play part time when they have graduated.

When/if we go full-time, we can unfortunately kiss goodbye to part-time players of this caliber.

We'll be competing for full-time players who aren't good enough for the so-called "professional" game.

[Twyford Rebel]

44 minutes ago, Nathan said:

I don't think I'm being short-sighted there SloughFlyer; I'm just not blindly assuming that this proposed academy site will prove to be our Golden Goose. Obviously I hope that it will!

For instance (assuming all goes well and to plan, we all know how these things tend to go over schedule and over budget) how much will this site cost? How will it be paid for? When is it likely to be completed by? How long before we break even, or make any money? What impact will this have on the other areas of the club in the meantime (quite a lot by the sound of things, and this is before a single brick has been laid)? All questions which need to be asked at the next Fans Forum (should one happen).

We seem to be managing smaller players coming through reasonably well even without this site. And as for 1 player alone securing the club's future, we'll need to be extraordinarily lucky to have the next Cristiano Ronaldo on our books. That's if you don't factor in the fact that we'll be up against far bigger names and far more established set-ups (with much more money) than we can offer, who may well have got there before us and/or will doubtless be looking to poach. I know it's a case of "what came first, the chicken or the egg", and everything has to start somewhere, but nonetheless we're at a huge disadvantage here as far as I can see.

As for short-term pain for long-term gain, I see where you're coming from. I just hope we have enough miracles in store so that we'll still be at Step 2 or 3 at the end of it!

Let's not put all our eggs in one basket; there are other areas just as or more important/urgent which need attention and we seem to be taking our eyes off the ball. We're not just an academy.

Even if all this proves to be unfounded, I'd ask who comes through the turnstiles on the strength of a club's academy? Very few if any I'd say.

Interested in the comment about a single brick being laid. Is that the intention, that a new building will be built? As there is already a clubhouse and changing rooms on site, in my mind I imagined that it would be nothing more than a bit of fencing and some re-branding. Has anyone heard any detail about the extent of the plans in Upton Park?

[GlenSTFC]

5 minutes ago, Twyford Rebel said:

Interested in the comment about a single brick being laid. Is that the intention, that a new building will be built? As there is already a clubhouse and changing rooms on site, in my mind I imagined that it would be nothing more than a bit of fencing and some re-branding. Has anyone heard any detail about the extent of the plans in Upton Park?

From the snippets of information I have, at the very least it’ll be a full refurbishment of the current buildings with a possible extension. The club want it used 24/7 so along with the hireable pitches, a bar/cafe will also be built.

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, Nathan said:

When/if we go full-time, we can unfortunately kiss goodbye to part-time players of this caliber.

We'll be competing for full-time players who aren't good enough for the so-called "professional" game.

That's actually a good point Nathan.

I've often heard it said that by going full time you get the worst of the full time players as opposed to the best of the part time players.

The biggest example in our division is Eastbourne and to a lesser extent Chelmsford, Maidstone and Dagenham. 

Edited April 14 by Reading Rebel

[Curtis]

2 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

Leon and Slavi are at the much bigger club and I think it's fair to say apart from his injuries Leon has made the much bigger impression.

If Leon could stay injury free I think he could be the one with the best chance of progressing into the football league.  

IMO Ogbonna and Pruti have probably reached their upper limit.

Early day's for Makowski but he seems to have had a decent start.

 

They are all still young and possibly 3-5 years from their peak & it’s possible to make a case for any of them:-

Pruti 34 starts & captained Sutton at times

Slavi scored 7 league goals in less than a 1,000 minutes of playing time

[Curtis]

2 hours ago, Nathan said:

When/if we go full-time, we can unfortunately kiss goodbye to part-time players of this caliber.

We'll be competing for full-time players who aren't good enough for the so-called "professional" game.

I would think a hybrid set up will be an interim stage, with young players still with ambitions of playing in the Football League being full-time & on very low wages, some very good part-time players & some older experienced players stepping down from higher levels as part-timers.

[Rebellier]

With Bath City about to be relegated,  it's worth taking a look at some of the playoff contenders of recent seasons:

Dartford,  Havant,  St.Albans, Eastbourne, Welling, Weymouth even Hungerford. 

Yet we survive. Up the Rebels. 

[GlenSTFC]

15 minutes ago, Curtis said:

I would think a hybrid set up will be an interim stage, with young players still with ambitions of playing in the Football League being full-time & on very low wages, some very good part-time players & some older experienced players stepping down from higher levels as part-timers.

I agree, a mix of released league youngsters, young gems from step 3/4, the best EDS lads plus some experienced step 1/2 players (i.e. Scott!).

Edited April 14 by GlenSTFC

[Nathan]

2 hours ago, Twyford Rebel said:

Interested in the comment about a single brick being laid. Is that the intention, that a new building will be built? As there is already a clubhouse and changing rooms on site, in my mind I imagined that it would be nothing more than a bit of fencing and some re-branding. Has anyone heard any detail about the extent of the plans in Upton Park?

2 hours ago, GlenSTFC said:

From the snippets of information I have, at the very least it’ll be a full refurbishment of the current buildings with a possible extension. The club want it used 24/7 so along with the hireable pitches, a bar/cafe will also be built.

The clubhouse and changing rooms you're referring to are the Rugby club, right? At the very least the pitch wouldn't be suitable so I'd assumed that a new building as well as pitches would be required.

Everything I've heard is second-hand and this bar & cafe is news to me, which only highlights the need for some clear communication from the club. Presumably these pitches will be grass and not 3G? Either way it sounds like it's going to cost a fortune.

2 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

That's actually a good point Nathan.

I've often heard it said that by going full time you get the worst of the full time players as opposed to the best of the part time players.

The biggest example in our division is Eastbourne and to a lesser extent Chelmsford, Maidstone and Dagenham. 

There's no need to sound so surprised 😉

Eastbourne is an interesting example. They finished only 1 point off the title last season, yet this was sandwiched between their first year as a full-time club where they were nearly relegated and this season where they are well adrift.

It's interesting that you mention Dagenham as last season they had expectations of making the National League Premier play-offs, yet apparently went down the route of relying exclusively on younger & hungrier players (i.e. cheaper, usually football league academy cast-offs with little or no senior experience). Apparently they went out of their way to sell any players with proven NLP experience (apparently over the head of their then manager Ben Strevens). They compounded this by sacking him when they were still mid-table. Look where all that got them!

[Twyford Rebel]

29 minutes ago, Nathan said:

The clubhouse and changing rooms you're referring to are the Rugby club, right? At the very least the pitch wouldn't be suitable so I'd assumed that a new building as well as pitches would be required.

Everything I've heard is second-hand and this bar & cafe is news to me, which only highlights the need for some clear communication from the club. Presumably these pitches will be grass and not 3G? Either way it sounds like it's going to cost a fortune.

There's no need to sound so surprised 😉

Eastbourne is an interesting example. They finished only 1 point off the title last season, yet this was sandwiched between their first year as a full-time club where they were nearly relegated and this season where they are well adrift.

It's interesting that you mention Dagenham as last season they had expectations of making the National League Premier play-offs, yet apparently went down the route of relying exclusively on younger & hungrier players (i.e. cheaper, usually football league academy cast-offs with little or no senior experience). Apparently they went out of their way to sell any players with proven NLP experience (apparently over the head of their then manager Ben Strevens). They compounded this by sacking him when they were still mid-table. Look where all that got them!

Slough Rugby Club, yes. It's quite a decent set up already, that's why I was assuming that it wouldn't require too much work. I believe it already has a bar as it isbused as a wedding venue.

[Reading Rebel]

6 hours ago, Curtis said:

They are all still young and possibly 3-5 years from their peak & it’s possible to make a case for any of them:-

Pruti 34 starts & captained Sutton at times

Slavi scored 7 league goals in less than a 1,000 minutes of playing time

Slavi was an unused sub on Saturday and tonight was not even in the squad whilst Leon has come back from his injury and was a sub in both games.

Whilst Slavi is young and things can change it's pretty apparent the Southend manager doesn't really fancy him.

 

Edited April 14 by Reading Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

18 hours ago, Twyford Rebel said:

Interested in the comment about a single brick being laid. Is that the intention, that a new building will be built? As there is already a clubhouse and changing rooms on site, in my mind I imagined that it would be nothing more than a bit of fencing and some re-branding. Has anyone heard any detail about the extent of the plans in Upton Park?

So it sounds like the idea could be to use the existing buildings and pitches already occupied by SRC?

Split the costs and all that sort of thing.

Due to the cost I can't imagine we'll be building completely new facilities and pitches.