It's clear to see that the owners, management, CEO and director of football all see the academy as our way forward. They see this as our way to compete, get up the leagues and hopefully establish and compete in the premier league.
Given our efforts last time, when the academy wasn't as productive and simply we didn't have the financial muscle to compete in wages or signings this feels like the right way forward to me. Short of a change in owner to a billionaire (another thread for that debate please) this is our way forward, aligned with prudent signings (McDonald, Jacobs, golbourne, Henry etc). I'm not suggesting we just rely on the academy.
For the academy and this strategy to truly evolve to its optimum it may take some time though. I don't feel this will stop promotion to the championship, but it might to the premiership. I believe that back to back promotions IF they came might be a case of too much too soon, we'd all take it of course but would it be the best thing for our long term future ?
We live in a world of speed, instant results required, no patience etc etc. I wonder whether we as fans are prepared to be patient (with this I do not mean this season where promotion is a must) and accept it may take a few years to get back to the premiership, but in doing so we might be better off due to the evolvement of our academy players, signings and whole structure. This might allow us to compete and establish in the prem ?
Personally I want to see youth into our team continuing and personally i'd be fine with a couple of years in the championship while this evolves. I believe this could put us in a great position in the future to maybe stay up. Wonder if everyone feels the same ? Or whether you want to get back to the prem as soon as possible ? A tough one, as it's not easy balancing the present and the future.
Balancing the present and the future
posted on 22/1/14
But what we have seen from Southampton and Swansea in particular is that if you develop a young team and a style of play while you are in the lower division then develop that as the team goes up the league ladder then you can arrive in the Premier League with a team that can flourish, even though it will certainly need some quality adding to it through the transfer market.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This more than anything else.
Selling on good prospects for a club of our stature is a must, it is all very well not wanting to be a selling club, but taking 15 million for one player which results in strengthening a team in 3 areas is just common sense, you have to make deals at the optimum time, lto a lesser degree, like we should have with Sako a few months back.
Hopefully a few years from now we will have a flourishing academy, all the signs seem to point to that, we have brought in some top prospects if you believe the hype.
posted on 22/1/14
But lower food chain strengthening is merely chasing after the wind in a straight jacket.
posted on 22/1/14
Was that a pun
posted on 22/1/14
Easy to say that about Sako now on the back of Henry and Jacobs performances but at the time he was our most important player and it would have been highly damaging to our season to lose him.
Hats off to board for turning sown quick buck.
posted on 22/1/14
I just think when you are offered a top price you need to take it.
I think Sakos overall contribution is weak, though i appreciate his goals and assists alleviate that.
As tats has said before, is it better to have a constant 7 out of 10, or a 9 out of 10 for ten minutes and 5 out of 10 the rest of the time.
Consistency gets my vote.
posted on 22/1/14
As I said at the time about Sako if we sold him we would be moaning that we don't have a match winner because of his goals and assists. Since he has been out of the team we have struggled for goals and our league position has got worse.
Henry's form has deteriorated and Jacobs has yet to show he can deliver the decisive final ball.
I like Henry and Jacobs and they can help us get out of this division. But there is a reason we got them both for a couple of hundred thousand and there is a reason we got an offer of a couple of million for Sako
posted on 22/1/14
How many games has sako missed?
I honestly have no idea over Xmas, I thought we had won each time he was missing.
posted on 22/1/14
In simple terms, if it was not for Sako we would not be in the league position we are now in.
Only since the arrival of Henry and Jacobs has it looked like a viable option to sell Sako and as lizardburns says, the board did the right thing to keep him at that time.
Sako may not sparkle for 90 minutes every game but he is still a match winner and I for one hope we keep him until we get back to the top flight, however long that is.
posted on 23/1/14
I am surprised jackett has moved on from having griffiths, doyle and sako as regulars. We were looking promotion certainties at the end of november when he changed things and having got only two wins from 9 games, its not a change thats worked yet, and our current form is mid table.
Hopefully we will get promoted anyway but i think all three of those would be important to us in the championship too and i am yet to be convinced the players replacing them, or those we are being linked with, will do well at that level.
posted on 23/1/14
Those two back to back defeats to Peterborough and MK Dons, the start of the slide, we did in fact start with Doyle, Sako and Griffiths.
Doyle and Sako started against Rotherham.... 3-3
none started against Crewe.....won 2-0
only Sako against orient.......drew 1-1 with a good performance
Sako and Doyle against Tranmere.....drew 1-1
Sako and Doyle against gills.......lost 1-0
Griffiths against PNE......won 2-0 with a good display.
So it has only been 6 games with changes, and some of our best displays of the season apparently, and as i posted the other day, our last 5 games we have outshot the opposition 82-32, a season high for a 5 game spell.