Dolan: 'Academy is a success'...but Gooding's unconvinced

[readingbedding]

Eamonn Dolan insists Reading’s Academy is on the brink of producing results, but former Royals player and manager Micky Gooding believes the Royals youth set-up has been a flop.

The Royals first set up their Academy in 1997 and the club spend in excess of £1million a year in the hope of producing some of the best young talent around.

In the past the likes of Darius Henderson, Jamie Ashdown, and Nathan Tyson all featured in the first team, while at present hopefuls such as Alex Pearce, James Henry and Hal Robson Kanu are all on the fringe of Steve Coppell’s squad.

However, as yet there has not been a single player who has emerged from the Academy to become a regular.

But highly-rated Academy manager Dolan believes that could all change in the near future.

“I have no doubt we are starting to see some really good signs,” said the former Exeter City manager.

“The Academy is a long-term project. Last year we had another solid season where we had some decent results. We played 30 competitive games against some very good sides and that shows how many good players we have got.

“Alex Pearce has played at Championship-level, James Henry played for England Under-19s, Hal Robson Kanu went to Southend, Jem Karacan went to Millwall.

Dolan insisted: “This club is a success story. The Academy is not going to produce over night. I am optimistic about the future of Reading Football Club and the Academy.”

Royals chairman John Madejski has continually backed the Academy, hoping that it will eventually pay for itself by producing its own talent instead of having to splash out on sizeable transfer fees.

And Dolan admitted: “We need to produce value for money. Last year we sold Simon Cox to Swindon. People can look at that how they will, but that is a return on investment. Scott Rendell was sold to Peterborough and then to Cambridge and we received money.

“Nathan Tyson, Darius Henderson and Jamie Ashdown were all sold so that is a return on investment.”

Gooding: Academy has been a flop

In contrast to Dolan, Mick Gooding believes Reading’s Academy has been a flop so far.

Gooding, who made 314 appearances for Reading between 1989 and 1997, and was also joint manager, says the club should now have players in the first team on a regular basis.

“The Academy has been going for years and years now, so it should have produced players for the first team now,” said Gooding.

“It hasn’t and that’s not good enough. I’m sure the chairman will be wondering how long he needs to keep investing before it does produce first-team players.

“You would have thought they might even have struck lucky in that time and someone would have come along, but there hasn’t been anyone.

“There have been some good coaches there like Brendan Rodgers, Steve and John who all went on to do well – but sadly none of the players have and that’s not right.”



How long is long-term?
Will we have a regular 1st team player who came from the Academy?

So many questions, not enough time...

[SpaceCruiser]

I think the trouble is that we've been progressing upwards that it's been difficult to find the right level of candidates to bring into the academy that will come into the first team eventually. None of the players that come out of the academy are ready made, they still need experience from somewhere.

[Huntley & Palmer]

This probably explains it quite well

Premier League chairman Sir David Richards has risked angering top flight clubs by claiming that an influx of foreign players has damaged England’s international prospects.

The Premier League currently enjoys a cosmopolitan complexion but England’s international fortunes are at a 14-year low with the national side failing to qualify for the Euro 2008 finals currently ongoing in Austria and Switzerland.

The disappointment of Steve McClaren's reign has led to some soul searching in the national game but The Premier League has always been keen to deflect claims that the spread of foreign players at the elite level is to blame.

Now Richards has made just that accusation of his own organisation though, claiming top flight clubs have become ‘lazy’ in their academy work and that it is the league’s fault that McClaren lost his job in November.

“Does The Premier League hurt the national side? I think the answer to that has got to be yes,” The Guardian quotes Richards as saying in a conference in Dubai.

"We've been a bit lazy in The Premier League over the years. We created a system of academies and every club spends about £3 million a year developing young players. But it hasn't worked, because the availability for us to go out and buy the best stars is an easy thing.

"Anybody who comes into the league needs to stay in it, so needs to buy the best stars. We pick kids up at eight years old, we send them to the academy, then at 16 we make them a student, then at 18 we say they haven't made it.

"Steve will tell you that he has to have the best players available and The Premier League has hurt him.

“In fact I would probably go as far as to say The Premier League has probably cost him his job. Because what we've done, we've actually bought all these foreign players in."

However, The Premier League has been quick to distance itself from Richards’ controversial stance, with a statement reading: "These comments do not represent the collective view of The Premier League."

[readingbedding]

Personally, we haven't had anyone coming through of the class of S Taylor, S Lovell, A Williams - these players came through back in the early 1990's..
But they started at 3rd Div and progressed with the team...and yeah, it's a different wolrd now and perhaps they may not have pushed through with the set-up we have now.

I think Gooding is a bit bemused why Cardiff can have Ramsay, Southampton can have Bale, Walcott, Ipswich can have Dyer coming through etc, etc and we can't.

I'm not saying that we have good young pro's at the club, we do, but we don't have someone who is a truly accomplished player at that age.

Perhaps if we stayed in the Championship, some of them would have broken through by now.
I am hoping that some of them can emerge this season, if not Gooding's concern could well be spot on.

[Royalee]

Perhaps our academy might work if we were to give our youngsters a chance and not sub them after 45 minutes of a cup game we had no interest in winning.

[Wycombe Royal]

Perhaps our academy might work if we were to give our youngsters a chance and not sub them after 45 minutes of a cup game we had no interest in winning.

But I thought you wanted a team full of mediocre signings like Derby?

[Royalee]

Perhaps our academy might work if we were to give our youngsters a chance and not sub them after 45 minutes of a cup game we had no interest in winning.

But I thought you wanted a team full of mediocre signings like Derby?

We'll see how mediocre Derby's signings are.

Secondly, do you honestly believe Coppell will give our youngsters a chance this season? After all, he had all the chances he could possibly have needed last season given the team's performance, but declined every time.

[Wycombe Royal]

Perhaps our academy might work if we were to give our youngsters a chance and not sub them after 45 minutes of a cup game we had no interest in winning.

But I thought you wanted a team full of mediocre signings like Derby?

We'll see how mediocre Derby's signings are.

Secondly, do you honestly believe Coppell will give our youngsters a chance this season? After all, he had all the chances he could possibly have needed last season given the team's performance, but declined every time.

How many times did you watch these youngters play and train last season?

[Royalee]

Saw them play five or six games each, why?

[Royalee]

That is four or five times more than Coppell saw Fae and Cisse before he signed them btw, hth.

[The 17 Bus]

One of the problems we have is that the club keep telling us how good they are, but do not back that up by allowing them to get some 1st team experience, which sounds just what Dolan is doing again.

We will never really know about the ones that did not make it, IMHO some could well have made it given some time in the team, but they might have taken the knocks of being left out then released badly.

Tyson was looking vry good, then an injury and progress slowed.

[Wycombe Royal]

Saw them play five or six games each, why?

And based on that you think you are more qualified to judge whether they are good enough than all oif coaching and management staff who see them every day?

Pearce was the only one who really did anything at a decent level whilst out on loan but unfortunately for him we had a lot of fit centre backs last season. Henry couldn't get in the Norwich side, and Robson-Kanu did ok on loan at Southend. Not exactly setting the world alight were they?

If they are good enough they will get their chance. Do you think the club want to spend money on players fees and higher wages when they could just use our own youngsters? The simple fact is they aren't good enough yet, but people like you will use anything they can as a weapon to beat the club with.

[Wycombe Royal]

That is four or five times more than Coppell saw Fae and Cisse before he signed them btw, hth.

They were watched by other members of staff as well.

And one viewing by any of our coaching staff is worth more than 10 viewings by you or any other fan.

[Archie's penalty]

Saw them play five or six games each, why?

And based on that you think you are more qualified to judge whether they are good enough than all oif coaching and management staff who see them every day?

Pearce was the only one who really did anything at a decent level whilst out on loan but unfortunately for him we had a lot of fit centre backs last season. Henry couldn't get in the Norwich side, and Robson-Kanu did ok on loan at Southend. Not exactly setting the world alight were they?

If they are good enough they will get their chance. Do you think the club want to spend money on players fees and higher wages when they could just use our own youngsters? The simple fact is they aren't good enough yet, but people like you will use anything they can as a weapon to beat the club with.

I would like to see Pearce and Karacan getting some action next year. Henry and the others don't interest me. I think that last year was a bit early. I do agree that this year will be a crucial indicator of the level of the academy's work...

[Royalee]

That is four or five times more than Coppell saw Fae and Cisse before he signed them btw, hth.

They were watched by other members of staff as well.

And one viewing by any of our coaching staff is worth more than 10 viewings by you or any other fan.

Sam Sodje, John Halls, Peter Mate, Alan Bennett, Greg Halford, Seol Ki Hyeon and Emerse Fae seem to indicate otherwise I'm afraid.

[readingbedding]

Of course, all we're doing is providing a mirage, coaching youngsters who are clearly good enough to be a first team regular with Reading, but we're not bothering, because we just can't be bothered.

[Royalee]

Of course, all we're doing is providing a mirage, coaching youngsters who are clearly good enough to be a first team regular with Reading, but we're not bothering, because we just can't be bothered.

Coppell can't even spell mirage.

[Wycombe Royal]

Saw them play five or six games each, why?

And based on that you think you are more qualified to judge whether they are good enough than all oif coaching and management staff who see them every day?

Pearce was the only one who really did anything at a decent level whilst out on loan but unfortunately for him we had a lot of fit centre backs last season. Henry couldn't get in the Norwich side, and Robson-Kanu did ok on loan at Southend. Not exactly setting the world alight were they?

If they are good enough they will get their chance. Do you think the club want to spend money on players fees and higher wages when they could just use our own youngsters? The simple fact is they aren't good enough yet, but people like you will use anything they can as a weapon to beat the club with.

I would like to see Pearce and Karacan getting some action next year. Henry and the others don't interest me. I think that last year was a bit early. I do agree that this year will be a crucial indicator of the level of the academy's work...

I would agree with that, but I would also hope they Henry can make the step up this season.

What I find amusing is someone like Royalee bleating on abotu how the youngsters weren't given a chance last season when if they had and had performed poorly he would have been one of the first on their backs and clubs back. And Royalee you know that is the truth.

[brendywendy]

Personally, we haven't had anyone coming through of the class of S Taylor, S Lovell, A Williams - these players came through back in the early 1990's..
But they started at 3rd Div and progressed with the team...and yeah, it's a different wolrd now and perhaps they may not have pushed through with the set-up we have now.

I think Gooding is a bit bemused why Cardiff can have Ramsay, Southampton can have Bale, Walcott, Ipswich can have Dyer coming through etc, etc and we can't.

I'm not saying that we have good young pro's at the club, we do, but we don't have someone who is a truly accomplished player at that age.

Perhaps if we stayed in the Championship, some of them would have broken through by now.
I am hoping that some of them can emerge this season, if not Gooding's concern could well be spot on.

to be fair im not sure any of those players would walk into top prem teams, straight off the bat out of a lower league academy

[Wycombe Royal]

That is four or five times more than Coppell saw Fae and Cisse before he signed them btw, hth.

They were watched by other members of staff as well.

And one viewing by any of our coaching staff is worth more than 10 viewings by you or any other fan.

Sam Sodje, John Halls, Peter Mate, Alan Bennett, Greg Halford, Seol Ki Hyeon and Emerse Fae seem to indicate otherwise I'm afraid.

All of those had performed very well for their previous clubs and were given a chance to make the step up. Not every signing works out and you can spend £10m and still get a failure.

Also it is harsh to include Seol on that list. He cntributed a lot in his time here with crucial goals and assists but ultimately he wasn't a headless chicken like Hunt and therefore became a scapegoat for the fans. I would rather have had Seol in the team last season than Hunt.