The Million Pound Man

[Deleted]

Sorry if this has been mentioned elsewhere but seems apt given how much our academy is being slagged off, even by Dean Hoyle

Keep hearing Josh Windass being referred to as 'The Million Pound Man'. Not sure where it has started but Jeff Stelling seems to like to mention it everytime he scores

So for all the talk that the academy isn't producing, it seems the one good player it has produced in recent times was let go for nothing.

[Yorkie]

Hasn't accringtons manager said that Matt Crooks will be a millionaire one day?

[terrier25]

Crooks' town career was ruined by an irresponsible manager giving him his debut out of position. If I was crooks I would sue him for negligence.

[joshuajones]

Nobody 100% really knows how good they are and how far they will go. We have loaned out youngsters far too little over the years do know what level they are comfortable at.

It's a real shame because Holmes billing and Tronstad will be the future sinnott, Atkinson windass and crooks. The most worrying thing about it all is these players don't appear to be able to get loans anywhere?

So what level are these lads really at?

[Deleted]

I think Windass is on a different planet to Crooks in terms of footballing ability. Crooks is just tall and a decent athlete, that's about his lot and I expect to see him drop in to non league in the next couple of years

[terriersyndrome]

Jimmy Spencer did the same when he went to Notts County.. Bench warmer now.

[Deleted]

Someone made a good point in another thread: our U21s/Reserves should play in the Northern Prem or Conference North as that would toughen them up.

[terriersyndrome]

Same with Paul Mullin when he went to Morecambe, he started off with a 1 in 2 scoring ratio, he's now down to about 1 in 5.

[terriersyndrome]

Aug 30, 2015 18:43:17 GMT 1 @mansfieldterrier said:

Someone made a good point in another thread: our U21s/Reserves should play in the Northern Prem or Conference North as that would toughen them up.

Agreed.. We seem to send enough on loan to these teams saying it will gain them good experience, why not let them all play there?

AFC Huddersfield!

[joshuajones]

And I guess if we are only producing league 2/conference youngsters then I don't think we should expect too much from the current crop. Dean Hoyle is thorough in his quest to get blood out of a stone but maybe he needs to review the scouting network at ages 5 - 11. Over the last 7 years watching my kids play football iv only seen huddersfield scouts in rural huddersfield but never past Mirfield heading towards leeds within the kirklees region. My kids team which is Drighlington has had kids go to Leeds, Bolton, man city, sheff wed but never from town.

Also when my kids were in junior school over this way they were the only huddersfield supporters in the class. But they never had huddersfield come to their school etc to take little training sessions but leeds and Bradford were in every year. Ultimately picking up those kids with talent and probably getting the kids to follow/support them in the process.

[HuddsTerrier]

I just looked at the England U21 squad

3 are on the books of Brighton (Forster-Caskey, March, Walton), presume they were signed when they were at the Withdean and in League One (ie the time we were beating them 7-1)

One started at Altringham - Whatmore - were he made 50 apps

Woodrow started at Luton and played for them in the Conference

Ibe and Hause both made their breakthrough at Wycombe

Galloway and Ali both came through at MK Dons

In the senior squad Hart (Shrewsbury), Stones (Barnsley), Smalling (Maidstone), Vardy (Halifax) come from unfashionable clubs plus the likes of Baines, Jageilka, Delph, Ox, Walcott etc who started in the championship or lower

Basically even with all the money and big academies plenty of talent is missed so Town should expect to do better with it's academy - at the moment it's not even producing League One quality so appears to have gone backwards in terms of player output

[Deleted]

Aug 30, 2015 19:14:11 GMT 1 joshuajones said:

And I guess if we are only producing league 2/conference youngsters then I don't think we should expect too much from the current crop. Dean Hoyle is thorough in his quest to get blood out of a stone but maybe he needs to review the scouting network at ages 5 - 11. Over the last 7 years watching my kids play football iv only seen huddersfield scouts in rural huddersfield but never past Mirfield heading towards leeds within the kirklees region. My kids team which is Drighlington has had kids go to Leeds, Bolton, man city, sheff wed but never from town.

Also when my kids were in junior school over this way they were the only huddersfield supporters in the class. But they never had huddersfield come to their school etc to take little training sessions but leeds and Bradford were in every year. Ultimately picking up those kids with talent and probably getting the kids to follow/support them in the process.

I will have a word with towns-scouting co-ordinator for Bradford and Leeds and give him a bollocking!

[goodshot (FGS)]

Aug 30, 2015 18:47:43 GMT 1 terriersyndrome said:

Same with Paul Mullin when he went to Morecambe, he started off with a 1 in 2 scoring ratio, he's now down to about 1 in 5.

Scored a peach yesterday.

[shawsie]

There is something definitely wrong with the academy.
I never bought into the gerry murphy is god mantra, and arguably the more recent performance is worse, given the resources and facilities at their disposal these days.
I accept that our catchment area is tough, but the problem isnt catching young talent - its progressing them from 15/16/17 and getting them to the first team...........or selling them to decent lower league sides.
Do our lads get it too easy? Is the coaching poor? I dont know is the answer but when clubs dont want our youngsters on loan it needs to be looked at!
On sat a player i never rated but admired his tenacity and workrate in jon worthington spoke eloquently and with genuine affection for the club.....shame we dont have lads with better ability with his attitude imo.

[Deleted]

Think the major problem is we're too close to L**ds and their academy which hurts me to say has been brilliant for years now. They have been cherry picking the best players throughout Yorkshire for years.

Cellino seems to be destroying it which will be good news for us.