Jump to content

Is it worth trying to develop your own players any more?


Recommended Posts

As the title suggests and in light of our experiences in recent years, is it actually worth spending all the time, money and effort on developing youth players only for the bigger clubs to cherry pick the players of any real promise? 

I appreciate that our club/DC might have been smarter in tying down the likes of Hirst and Shaw, but in reality I expect our experience has been replicated by many other clubs. I don’t know how much of a financial drain our youth development has on the club, but it’s a real sickener to see our top prospects leaving for a relative pittance. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, East Yorks Owl said:

As the title suggests and in light of our experiences in recent years, is it actually worth spending all the time, money and effort on developing youth players only for the bigger clubs to cherry pick the players of any real promise? 

I appreciate that our club/DC might have been smarter in tying down the likes of Hirst and Shaw, but in reality I expect our experience has been replicated by many other clubs. I don’t know how much of a financial drain our youth development has on the club, but it’s a real sickener to see our top prospects leaving for a relative pittance. 

 

 

We could say no and just loan young players from Premier League clubs

 

If Premier League clubs thought Sheffield Wednesday was a place to loan them to

 


Owlstalk Shop

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes because if done properly it can make you a lot of money as demonstrated by our porcine neighbours.  If you keep your more promising players under contract, then you are in a position to collect some sizable fees.  The problem with Shaw was that he was allowed to get into the last six months of his contract. We should have re-signed him in the summer on a relatively reasonable contract and then sat and watched the offers roll in as he broke into the team this season. If we had a  Director of Football who was monitoring this kind of situation and being pro-active then we would not be in the current s**t show of so many players coming to the end of their deals and a lot of nice possible incoming transfer fees going out of the window.  As it is we have no structure, no foresight and a bunch of amateurs running the club.

 

  • Like 3
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If done properly you profit out of it.

 

Our two most promising out of Hirst and Shaw we got at most 300k.

 

We turned down £2m bid for Hirst. And god knows what Shaw could go on to be worth.

 

Meanwhile our chairman sells the stadium to try and avoid a points deduction but ends up with a points deduction anyway.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

 

 

We could say no and just loan young players from Premier League clubs

 

If Premier League clubs thought Sheffield Wednesday was a place to loan them to

I guess what we could do is go down the Brentford route and invest in our scouting network and look to sign players on their first professional contracts. I suppose we could acquire players from lower clubs in much the same way as Celtic poached Shaw and also PL clubs must be releasing development players all the time who aren’t likely to make the grade? I’m not necessarily saying this IS the way to go, but DC is a business man and at the moment our youth development must be giving him doubts. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, RuncornOwl94 said:

At a well run club? 100% yes.

 

At Sheffield Wednesday? 100% no.

Sums it up really, all we do is to identify potential to give away for next to nothing. May as well bin the academy as the current owners want players from the free agent and bargain bin market. 

 

No point weeing about with 12/18 month contracts. If you've done the job right and have development planning in place, need to protect assets with proper contracts, fees received if sold can then be reinvested. If the player needs more experience, that's where the loan market can be used. 

 

First job is to get competent owners in. Until that happens, the academy or anything else is pointless.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Lunny1968 said:

Yes because if done properly it can make you a lot of money as demonstrated by our porcine neighbours.  If you keep your more promising players under contract, then you are in a position to collect some sizable fees.  The problem with Shaw was that he was allowed to get into the last six months of his contract. We should have re-signed him in the summer on a relatively reasonable contract and then sat and watched the offers roll in as he broke into the team this season. If we had a  Director of Football who was monitoring this kind of situation and being pro-active then we would not be in the current s**t show of so many players coming to the end of their deals and a lot of nice possible incoming transfer fees going out of the window.  As it is we have no structure, no foresight and a bunch of amateurs running the club.

 

100% agree.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Birmingham would suggest so, after the fee they pulled for Bellingham. 
 

Here at S6 the answer is probably no. We seem to offer only 1 year deals, we don’t tie anyone down so that if they kick on and establish themselves we could make a profit. It’s all very short term and has been since the day DC arrived. 

Edited by 0114
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting look back at the George Hirst situation by the way in a quote from Nigel Pearson: 

 

“It is very difficult to quantify what it looks like if he had been playing every week. He may not have been playing every week at Sheffield Wednesday but it would have been beneficial for him to be in and around the first team because firstly, he would still be there."

 

Now at the time, we had Hooper, FF, Fletcher, Joao, Nuhiu, Winnall and Rhodes.

Seemingly he wasn't good enough to get ahead of those at that stage, but clearly that hoarding of strikers cut off a route from academy to first team. 

 

Situation is totally different now, there is a pathway, but its just a shame its managed by incompetence and a lack of structure, so now were losing our youngsters for a totally different reason! 

 

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Therealrealist

Let the top clubs spend years developing players..then snaffle their cast offs..But as it shows with deli who we got from Man City’s academy...this model dosnt always work either

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Therealrealist
3 minutes ago, OwlBiSeeinThi said:

 This 30 million times over because that is what Shaw is likely to be worth in a few years time.

No proof in that statement wotsoever..hirst will probably leave Leicester on a freebie when his contract expires

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, OwlBiSeeinThi said:

 This 30 million times over because that is what Shaw is likely to be worth in a few years time.

He's a long way to go to prove that. Some people have said he's going to play every game next season for Celtic, I think even that is premature and he will have a job on getting in that side straight away. 

 

He might end up worth that, but he's a long way to prove it first.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, WhiteOwl91 said:

He's a long way to go to prove that. Some people have said he's going to play every game next season for Celtic, I think even that is premature and he will have a job on getting in that side straight away. 

 

He might end up worth that, but he's a long way to prove it first.

5 games max,  a few on the bench.  Here, next season, he would've been involved in all of them. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...