Pathway to the future

[Reesh]

Morning all.

Gabriel Otegbayo made his league debut last night and became another on the ever growing list of young players that Röhl is willing to put his faith in 

For years the club has got this, amongst plenty of other things, wrong but @Tylluan has spoken on here about how our youth set up is changing for the better, particularly since Röhl pitched up.

We are not only producing our own youth players we are seen by others as a place for youngsters who may have left other academies (Otegbayo, Charles) as a place where they can make a move into football, other clubs are trusting us with their young players on loan as they see them develop on and off the pitch at Wednesday.

EPPP makes it easy for bigger clubs poach our talent pool but you can combat against that if you show a pathway to the first team isn't far away if they stick about.

We still have a way to go in this area but for once I can see us actually using the set up correctly and with the potential for big fees for players at the end of it.

 

 

Edited November 6 by Reesh

[mkowl]

It is the only pathway in the Championship that will be successful, where you are competing against parachute payments and deeper pockets.

I always understood, but never agreed with the policy that spanked money on older players in the race to the line.

Otegbayo looked totally thrilled at the end, the fact he came on and not Palmer seemed to be the passing of the baton in plain sight.

Jos tried it but it fails if you try and blood 3 or 4 into a divisive squad. Or they only play in cup games with wholesale changes.

I hope Fusire can be the next to be integrated into the league squad

 

Edited November 6 by mkowl

[Reesh]

3 hours ago, mkowl said:

It is the only pathway in the Championship that will be successful, where you are competing against parachute payments and deeper pockets.

I always understood, but never agreed with the policy that spanked money on older players in the race to the line.

Otegbayo looked totally thrilled at the end, the fact he came on and not Palmer seemed to be the passing of the baton in plain sight.

Jos tried it but it fails if you try and blood 3 or 4 into a divisive squad. Or they only play in cup games with wholesale changes.

I hope Fusire can be the next to be integrated into the league squad

 

Yep and for decades the club didn't invest in this area, for all DCs faults he does seem to have seen this as a way forward and has invested a fair bit in the infrastructure and coaching for it.

[Tylluan]

I think the upsurge is down to a few things that have happened recently. 

Thommo has been fully integrated into the first team coaching set up while still having a strong foothold in all academy set ups. 

We've got boots on the ground again and we're actively tracking and scouting to positional order. Not so long ago we only held open trials and basically told players to come to us. We filled u23 (as then was) spots with players who were only there to play academy football. Lads who'd been bombed out by Bradford and the like.

We're also scouting outside of the normal parameters. We've caught a few clubs on the hop and developed strong links with non club training centres and already signed a couple of kids through this outlet.

As @Reesh has said, we're now seen as a club with a verified progression route. Sam Reed had a better financial offer from Leeds. Otegbayo had no hesitation in joining us when he could have sat for a month and waited to see who else would have come in. 

As well as the progression route, we're now offering the right deals. We're no longer offering a one deal worth a bag a chips from five ways chippy. We're securing prospects in long term deals and paying what they think they're worth. There's a deal on the table for Fusire which he'll not get anywhere else. We're also starting negotiations really early. There's another deal being prepared for Bailey Cadamarteri. Otegbayo and Reed will be next and the u18s are being tied down as well. We'll skip the scholarship deal route for Caelan Cadamarteri, when he comes of age. Daniel Da Costa will probably skip scholarship as well to ward off the likes of Manchester United. 

Not every academy player will make it but we're in a really strong position at the moment. 

But I'll leave it with this. If we'd have persisted with what Jos started then we could have been supporting a team that included Thorniley, Brennan, Hunt, Shaw, Waldock, and Grant. Don't know which division we'd have been in though. 

[Reesh]

Otegbayo on his debut...

[Reesh]

And now earns a call up to the Irish U21s for next week.

[Owling_Wolf]

21 hours ago, Reesh said:

Otegbayo on his debut...

 

1 hour ago, Reesh said:

And now earns a call up to the Irish U21s for next week.

Good to see.  He and we have been rather lucky in a way, looking at the three games he's played in so far - wins at Grimsby and against Norwich and the draw at Brentford before pens - though not overlooking his own efforts in those games, they'll all have been real boosts to his confidence. Also, perhaps especially, that he didn't play in Saturday's Watford disaster. That was bad enough for seasoned players to be in. 

I look forward to seeing his career with us develop. The only stumbling block seems to be how many centre backs we have.  Obviously his own development could soon affect that situation. 

Edited November 7 by Owling_Wolf

[Reesh]

5 minutes ago, Owling_Wolf said:

 

Good to see.  He and we have been rather lucky in a way, looking at the three games he's played in so far - wins at Grimsby and against Norwich and the draw at Brentford before pens - though not overlooking his own efforts in those games, they'll all have been real boosts to his confidence. Also, perhaps especially, that he didn't play in Saturday's Watford disaster. That was bad enough for seasoned players to be in. 

I look forward to seeing his career with us develop. The only stumbling block seems to be how many centre backs we have.  Obviously his own development could soon affect that situation. 

Röhl thinks very highly of him, he is seen as a natural successor to Ihiekwe by the club.

[TheExile]

Otegbayo looks to have everything you’d want in a modern cb.

i thought Phuti and Shipston both looked really good so not sure what has stopped them. Injury perhaps.

Devlan Moses also looks useful 

It does represent our only real option now, but we also have to be prepared and actively seeking to sell these players which is also more difficult with PL teams restricted on taking a punt.