Alfreton Town v Sheffield Wednesday XI

[sonofbert2]

Just to make a quick point on SM.

He does have a long contract but it doesn't really mean anything in the context of paying him off - like all the football management staff hired or extended under Strafford he has a break clause in his contract meaning he can be terminated with the payment of between 6 and 9 months salary. We don't need to pay up the whole length of his contract.

Did the signing of Beres include the same conditions?

[Guest Saturday Owl]

It's more embarrassing that the club isn't even issuing anything in regards to the game on the OS.

Edited August 1, 2011 by Saturday Owl

[Leeds U from sheff]

Living in Sheffield as I do, I drive past the Middlewood training ground pretty often.

Not sure who they are, but lads around the age of 15-17 or so by the looks in full Wednesday tracksuits are often hanging around outside, dont think ive ever passed by without a few of em stood there with a *** in thier gob.

Im no wednesday fan, but as a football fan ive always been pretty disgusted that these young uns with, who have (I would guess)at least a shot at making living from the game, go out of the training ground for a ***.

Dunno if more contral can be put over them, but if I passed LUFC youths having a *** id be pretty dissapointed with em, poor attitude I reckon for ones so young.

[Guest Saturday Owl]

Living in Sheffield as I do, I drive past the Middlewood training ground pretty often.

Not sure who they are, but lads around the age of 15-17 or so by the looks in full Wednesday tracksuits are often hanging around outside, dont think ive ever passed by without a few of em stood there with a *** in thier gob.

Im no wednesday fan, but as a football fan ive always been pretty disgusted that these young uns with, who have (I would guess)at least a shot at making living from the game, go out of the training ground for a ***.

Dunno if more contral can be put over them, but if I passed LUFC youths having a *** id be pretty dissapointed with em, poor attitude I reckon for ones so young.

If that's true then there's no wonder why we are so poo poo, the players aren't even watching what there consuming!

It's a disgrace to be honest, and all of them need to be given the boot so we can start again.

[Guest TonyOwl88]

I wish they would have had these god awful games behind closed doors.

What did we learn from these 4 games with the Wednesday XI?

+ We now can see without uncertainty that the decision to withdraw our reserves side was bang on the money.

+ We generated a bit of cash for some non-league local clubs.

+ We now can see the strengths/WEAKNESSES of our young players.

- Our academy is an embarassment to everybody associated with SWFC.

- The results were similarly an embarassment to us all.

- We screwed over the clubs we aranged these friendlies with, who I'm sure expected us to have at least make a game of the fixtures.

- Its blatantly obvious that Sean McAuley (and I feel bad for saying it), is not the man to develop our youngsters.

I'm not stupid enough to think youth football is our priority, but one day we will have to accept that sending every half decent player in the region to L**ds or the blunts is not good for SWFC. We need a real academy set up, where they DO play to win, as well as to develop. What's the point in telling the kids that they just need to try and look good, rather than playing to win? Is there any wonder why players like Spurr, Beevers, and Richard Wood to an extent all played in inadequate Wednesday teams that were easily rolled over, and often jacked the game in when they fell behind?

To prove my point, look at our last 2 seasons in the Championship. Even when we finished 12th, how many times did we go away from home and get thumped 3, 4, or occasionally more?

United may be a selling club that will never hold onto their top youngsters, but at least they develop players to the quality of Kyle Walker, Kyle Naughton, Jacob Mellis, Phill Jaggielka, etc... (all of whoom have been at Premiership clubs.

[Guest Stereophonics]

Palmer aside can anyone name a youngster they are excited about?

That's worrying compared to other clubs I tell thee.

I can't and I'm not that excited about Palmer either to be honest

[oh_weds_we_love_you]

I can't and I'm not that excited about Palmer either to be honest

Saves me typing!

[Guest hirsty9]

Heads have got to roll after this VERY poor score line, some have said this is todays news and tommorows chip paper, its not believe me, this is going to stick for a very long time.

[scram]

Correct. I know a few lads that played school boy football in Shrewsbury and have been poached by Man utd/liverpool/Everton etc.

Still Shrewsbury manage to compete and produce Englands number 1 GK through their Academy plus a few others that have been sold either directly or indirectly to Premier league clubs i.e Dave Edwards at Wolves, Mason springthorpe at Everton, Billy jones at WBA.

Why the chuff cant Wednesday?

And Shrews don't have an academy - they have a centre of excellence which requires less funding than an academy

But somehow they seem to have some scouting network and can attract kids

As i keep saying - it's not all about money

[Guest owls_4_life]

Living in Sheffield as I do, I drive past the Middlewood training ground pretty often.

Not sure who they are, but lads around the age of 15-17 or so by the looks in full Wednesday tracksuits are often hanging around outside, dont think ive ever passed by without a few of em stood there with a *** in thier gob.

Im no wednesday fan, but as a football fan ive always been pretty disgusted that these young uns with, who have (I would guess)at least a shot at making living from the game, go out of the training ground for a ***.

Dunno if more contral can be put over them, but if I passed LUFC youths having a *** id be pretty dissapointed with em, poor attitude I reckon for ones so young.

I was going to say something on simialr lines. I live just past Middlewood and have to drive past the training ground every day. Often I see lads of around 15/16 and older with the full SWFC outfits on, walking around and looking like they're not doing anything in particular.

Originally I thought they must just be on their way to the training ground, but I've seen them at different times in the day which makes me wonder what they do!

I've never seen them smoking or looking like they're up to no good or anything like that, they just look like they've got nothing to do?

Someone may be able to shed light on this but it certainly doesn't look promising and the scoreline from yesterday doesn't do them all any favours.

[sonofbert2]

Living in Sheffield as I do, I drive past the Middlewood training ground pretty often.

Not sure who they are, but lads around the age of 15-17 or so by the looks in full Wednesday tracksuits are often hanging around outside, dont think ive ever passed by without a few of em stood there with a *** in thier gob.

Im no wednesday fan, but as a football fan ive always been pretty disgusted that these young uns with, who have (I would guess)at least a shot at making living from the game, go out of the training ground for a ***.

Dunno if more contral can be put over them, but if I passed LUFC youths having a *** id be pretty dissapointed with em, poor attitude I reckon for ones so young.

I drove past earlier and nicked a quick photo.........

Doesn't look good to be fair.

[Leeds U from sheff]

I was going to say something on simialr lines. I live just past Middlewood and have to drive past the training ground every day. Often I see lads of around 15/16 and older with the full SWFC outfits on, walking around and looking like they're not doing anything in particular.

Originally I thought they must just be on their way to the training ground, but I've seen them at different times in the day which makes me wonder what they do!

I've never seen them smoking or looking like they're up to no good or anything like that, they just look like they've got nothing to do?

Someone may be able to shed light on this but it certainly doesn't look promising and the scoreline from yesterday doesn't do them all any favours.

I dont live far from Mwood either, pass it pretty often.

Never seen them looking like they are 'upto no good', but deffo seen them smoking very often if not every time.

For all I know they arnt antyhing to do with your lot, but they are right at the training ground with the full gear on.

[Sonny]

Never seen them looking like they are 'upto no good', but deffo seen them smoking very often if not every time.

For all I know they arnt antyhing to do with your lot, but they are right at the training ground with the full gear on.

That's just Kivo mate, he's harmless enough.

[Arthur Bach]

You know. I never even considered the fact that Scram isn't actually called Scram. Anyway, carry on...

Scram doesn't have a second name - he is just called Scram.

He was born an orphan and raised by wolves before realising their academy set-up was sub-standard and their attitude to development 'moribund'

[Geedee]

To be fair they gave the game absolutely zero coverage beforehand either. Apart from the mention on the fixture list you wouldn't have known there was a match on at all.

The fixtures/results/report (if any) from the game should be moved to the academy section on the website, likewise the Hallam and Sheffield FC games. Probably Stocksbridge too although we managed to rustle up 2 or 3 fringe first teamers for that one.

I dont think that was the case the game was on the pre season fixture list for the full team ( Yes it was always going to be squad players the day after the stoke game ). That is how i got to know about it ( i think ).

[mrgund]

I just read through this thread from the start and thought it was comedy gold. The way the scores were being updated and the comments coming in would have easily passed as a classic owlstalk wind-up.

[KivoOwl]

How very dare you. I don't smoke. By the way, I was talking to someone at the academy at Dinno and asked what had happened to creative midfielder Jack Barnett (signed for Sheffield club) as I thought he was one of our brightest prospects in years but was released after being shunted to right back for a full year. I was told the reasoning was that Barnett 'just didn't have it in him to change a game'. I didn't bother asking how many full backs he knew in World football that are expected to 'change games'.

[Guest Bannister]

First of all, there are absolutely no excuses for Sheffield Wednesday U18's being 0-14 by ANYBODY including Barcelona. And make no mistake, it's our strongest academy team. Cuff, Tumilty, Modest and Nyoni have all been around the first team set-up. Regardless of other factors, the players need to have a long, hard look at themselves, this level of performance is simply unacceptable.

Onto McAuley. I have never been a fan, and can remember quite a few of our fans saying he should have been the first team manager following Laws' tenure - laughable. Having seen his style of management compared to other academy managers from other clubs, I've been of the opinion for a long time that he shouldn't be anywhere near our club, he is completely counter-productive and is often vicious with his criticism. Again, I am not excusing the players, but it's no wonder their confidence is shot to pieces with McAuley in charge. I've personally seen him scream vitriol at players for misplacing passes, threaten to substitute a defender for clearing his lines and literally turn his back on the players during the last game of last season, preferring to watch the U16's instead.

His methods of developing players includes fielding youngsters out of position for months on end just to 'beef them up', and his recruitment process this summer consisted of giving up on local lads and journeying to Durham and London, where he apparently signed up four black lads after watching them play on public parks.

Of course there are different managerial styles, but he comes across as a bully to me, and he should have been sacked long, long ago, and Lee Strafford has a lot to answer for for offering him a five year contract, unheard of in youth football.

And while both the players and McAuley need to take large chunks of blame for their part in this disaster, you really have to question the wisdom of fielding kids against a senior professional football club. The academy has a long standing annual match with Dinnington Town seniors, who always provide a tough game and often beat the youngsters. For them to be asked to step up and play a side five divisions above Dinnington is not on.

Pro's that didn't play yesterday should have played today - where were O'Donnell, Beevers, Jones etc...? If they couldn't play, the fixture should have been postponed, the gulf in quality was simply too much and would help neither team in their preparation for the new season.

Alan Irvine was the man who started the trend of fielding the youngsters, a trend which was continued under , neither seemingly having any regard for the confidence of the kids who repeatedly took batterings on the pitch.

Thankfully the reserve set-up has been scrapped this year so the lads will only have to focus on playing academy football, which is tough enough for them as it is, but Milan Mandaric still needs to be asking questions as to why this fixture and result was ever allowed to happen, and why we are so lacking in strength in depth.

Excellent post Kivo - really hope someone has forwarded to MM

[Guest bartos]

We'd have put a similar side out to the one that played Stocksbridge had we got the numbers in.

I'd guess Megson actually made the decision to send the kids, purely just to protect a very thin squad a week before the season starts.

Maybe he will be asked about it tonight, is it live from 6pm?

[stuzzas_barmyarmy]

Let me put my two penneth in about our academy. I have witnessed for years the academy set up personally. The reason for which everyone says that leeds or the grunters get all the best local players is simple. They dont. It is how the kids are coached right from u8 to u18. Take a look at footage from u18 games against teams like man utd and compare the style of play in which they play. I know people are going to say 'yeah but thats man u' but take a look at lesser teams suck as crewe , leeds, and southampton. Southampton are forever producing tidy footballers that are worth a few bob. Maybe if we took kids at young age and they were coached properly and encouraged to pass the ball around to each other instead of been encouraged to play the balls from back to front into the corners, have the striker chase it down and win a throw in up the pitch, then the players we prodce would not all be 6ft plus centre halfs who can head it and kick it.

It seems to me also that any kid with abit of flair and skill is dismissed at a younger age by our academy maybe because hes smaller and not as strong. Almost frowned upon even. Coaches would rather push forward the bigger players who have matured quicker because they fit into the style of play of percentage football.

So then the better gifted footballers leave n get signed for another academy. Then what happens when these kids are developed and just as strong as the percentage footballers but can also move the ball around better.

It all boils down to one thing at the end of the day. A lack of adequate coaches from u8 right to the u18s. Our academy is coached the whole way through by coaches who wouldn't know a decent footballer if he walked up and smacked him in nose.

The only way to change this is a long process, clear all the coaches out and find ones that know the game and encourage it to be played properly. Maybe then our kids might stand a chance of been able to carve themself a decent career out of the game instead of just making the numbers up in the academy league.

Maybe the reason why utds kid and ours played the same alfreton side and our got thumped and utds didnt is because utd play better football. If utd played rubbish football and turned the game into more of a physical battle like ours play football theyd have been smashed aswell.

My personal opinion of the academy is it needs a complete clearout of the coaching staff and needs higher quality coaches brought in. If there isnt enough funding for this then it might aswell be scrapped because all we will be doing is putting out a side in the academy league to make the numbers up. Maybe producing one centre half everyother year.

And for all the people saying it was a complete mismatch is been too nice. Yes it was men against boys but come on 14-0. If an academy side played there own first team you wouldnt expect it to be 14-0.