Michael Ngoo

[amsemp]

Been watching a few of his goals in the SPL and can't help but feel we were a bit short changed when we sold him to Liverpool for £250k as a 16 year old! The boy is class, 6ft 6 and still only 20 years old. The scousers absolutely rave about him and I can see why. Anyone know anymore details about the deal? Further payments based on first team appearences/sell on clause etc?

I know we have a decent(ish) reputation at our level for youth players, with the likes of Femi Orenuga, Medi Abalimba, Moussa, Ngoo, Lyle Della-Verde and Ferdinand, but it's always bugged me that we don't do more. I have a huge amount of respect for Crewe Alexandra, probably one of the only lower league teams to have a proper academy. Their first team is full of decent talent and they've made millions off the sales of these youngsters, Nick Powell being the latest for £6mil!

How feasible would it be to replicate their set up and how much roughly? Maybe not possible now but in the Championship when we were happily spending £200k each on the likes of Billy Paynter and Ritchie Foran, surely this should have been looked into as a better investment?!

 

[Bromley Blue]

This was discussed to death after the playoff defeat to Crewe last year. At the end of the day we're extremely skint with wind up petitions only the next unpaid bill away. Investing in the youth set up when we desperately need to get out of this division would not go down well with a lot of fans. Would you take 5 years of being an Accrington or Morecombe in this league?Coz it would take that in order to have a handful of talented youngsters in a few years which, through the crazy new regulations would be poached by clubs in higher divisions for peanuts

 

[DTS]

Think the real issue is how are you going to keep a sixteen year old lad at Southend when Liverpool come calling. Our answer is to work with the big clubs rather than against them. Painful as it is I guess it's our only option.

For every Ngoo there is a Femi who we got paid for and did bugger all.

Also we had a Crewe fan on here a while ago saying they put phenomenal amounts of money in to there set up and kids want o join as they have a record of selling players after giving them a good football education. We don't have that although I guess were getting better.

 

[united we stand]

The Crewe chairman has stated that they did to sell £750,000 worth of players EVERY YEAR for the academy to break even.

Can you imagine how much it must cost to set something up like that to get to the stage that they are at today.

 

[DTS]

The Crewe chairman has stated that they did to sell £750,000 worth of players EVERY YEAR for the academy to break even.

Can you imagine how much it must cost to set something up like that to get to the stage that they are at today.

I think given the size of the club we are and the limited resources that Ricky Duncan has at his disposal that he has worked nothing short of wonders. However its a bit sad that only Kane & Moussa have really even given us a service and moved on. I think the next step in the progression of the club is to try and keep these lads and get them into the first team.

 

[chapperzUK]

Good for him to be doing well, but we can't say no to offers like that in our desperately poor financial situation. Now with the new ruling, we might be lucky to get that kind of figure for someone who hasn't signed a professional deal.

As for replicating Crewe's youth system, it took them years to get that reputation and they have been doing it for decades and I don't think we have been doing it for 10 years yet.

Agreed that we need to work with the bigger clubs, that is how I believe we got Della-Verde to join us in the first place!

 

[hindle_666]

What annoys me is we sell these players far to early, a run of games in our first team and a few goals we could of got a lot more for Ngoo (that's what Crewe seem to do). I suppose Martin just wanted to pocket the quick cash to pay another outstanding tax bill.

I'd like to also know why we can't write in these deals, that if the buying clubs decides to loan out the player to gain experience we get first option of the players first loan move.

 

[chapperzUK]

What annoys me is we sell these players far to early, a run of games in our first team and a few goals we could of got a lot more for Ngoo (that's what Crewe seem to do). I suppose Martin just wanted to pocket the quick cash to pay another outstanding tax bill.

I'd like to also know why we can't write in these deals, that if the buying clubs decides to loan out the player to gain experience we get first option of the players first loan move.

Most of the players that left, like Ngoo, weren't old enough to play for the first team.

 

[amsemp]

What annoys me is we sell these players far to early, a run of games in our first team and a few goals we could of got a lot more for Ngoo (that's what Crewe seem to do). I suppose Martin just wanted to pocket the quick cash to pay another outstanding tax bill.

I'd like to also know why we can't write in these deals, that if the buying clubs decides to loan out the player to gain experience we get first option of the players first loan move.

I like the idea of first option for loan, seems like everyone would be a winner.

General consensus suggests our priority should be getting out of this league before we consider anything else, but I do wish more emphasis would be put on the youth setup. Just imagine how much better it would be for us to be self sufficient to the point where when numbers drop through injury, we have a couple of Kane Ferdinand's ready to step in, rather than last minute 28 day loan signings!