KenH wrote:Is there really any point in having the academy?
A fair point that I've been mulling over. So far since joining the Football League, I can only see that we have had 4 graduates from the academy play 30+ games for us, and all of them moved on for nothing: Thommo (40), Garry Hunter (168), Jo Mwasile (30) and AJ (102). Not knowing the level of investment from the club itself (as opposed to external funding from the EFL etc), it's hard to know whether that's a good return.
black morse wrote:Exeter have done pretty well out of their academy players.
Exeter are less likely to have their players poached across the Scottish border...
Posh wrote:Don’t agree though on signing lots of players to new contracts. We’d be making commitments to players for money we may not have and based on a league we may not be in.
RapidShrimp wrote:But completely agree about the money, because if Old had turned out to be crap, we’d have been stuck with an ever-aging centre back who we couldn’t have offloaded.
I get what people are saying in regards to offering contracts, but again the worrying bit for me is that our best players have moved on for nothing. Were the likes of Old, McGowan and Kenyon playing well in the first few months of the season? Absolutely. Yet players like Oliver and Campbell are tied up for next season...