Youth teamers

[Jonny_Stokes]

Personally I think a compromise is the way forward, Spend a bit of money, but on youngsters, building for the future

Just reading TMTWATS thread, I noticed this point from Firestorm.

It got me thinking about the comparison between what you're splashing out on, and the make up of our squad, and I realised that I couldn't think of any players (apart from Lewis Hunt? I really don't know) that have come through from the youth teams, nor any players retrospectively.

Is it a traditional Southend thing not to bring many players through? Or is it just under Tilson that the 'solution' always seems to be splashing out a sum of money on someone else's player?

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

It's mainly the fact that when money was tight, little or no investment was put into the youth side of things. Now Ricky Duncan has returned we expect to see a number of decent YT players breaking through into 1st team contention shortly!

 

[Mr. Benedict]

Our youth team was a bit of a shambles, we've always had to bring players in from the outside since I've been supporting Southend.

Things are looking up now with the work that Duncan is doing with the Centre of Excellence, and we have a promsing crop that may well bear a few first teamers in the next few years - only time will tell I guess.

 

[NZamba Legend]

Freddy Eastwood was actually home grown, but we're such a massive club that we were able to farm him out to some small local clubs such as West Ham and Grays before buying him back. Then when he went down hill we shipped him off to Wolves.

 

[Jonny_Stokes]

Freddy Eastwood was actually home grown, but we're such a massive club that we were able to farm him out to some small local clubs such as West Ham and Grays before buying him back. Then when he went down hill we shipped him off to Wolves.

Adam Barrett was home-grown at ours (well, partly)... But I guess the complete lack of investment point sums it up. I just hadn't clocked on to the contrast between the two squads. Our current one has the fewest it's had in some time, but there's still: Morris, Jabo, Echanomi, Sheilds and Sylvester in and around the squad, with Demetriou, Saah and Palmer all in the first team and probably destined for bigger things.

 

[Mr. Benedict]

The only home grown youngster we have that's anywhere near a regular first team spot is Frank Moussa...

 

[TrueBlue]

Just reading TMTWATS thread, I noticed this point from Firestorm.

TMWLT is making his views and points known whats the point in trying to take the **** with **** in his name

Jonny **** Face **** Orient Scumer Ugly Tosser **** Kinda Guy Stokes!

what little respect I had for you Jonny Durex has gone!

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

TMWLT is making his views and points known whats the point in trying to take the **** with **** in his name

Jonny **** Face **** Orient Scumer Ugly Tosser **** Kinda Guy Stokes!

what little respect I had for you Jonny Durex has gone!

I personally would have added a simple 'r' into Jonny's name, therefore he becomes Jonny Strokes, pretty much a similar effect achieved :p

 

[Jonny_Stokes]

Uh oh - someone catch those teddies before they get dirty!

 

[Yer Blues]

The only home grown youngster we have that's anywhere near a regular first team spot is Frank Moussa...

home grown in belgium

 

[TrueBlue]

Uh oh - someone catch those teddies before they get dirty!

mine are scotch guarded!

 

[Jonny_Stokes]

mine are scotch guarded!

:hilarious:

Fair play :D

 

[Mr. Benedict]

home grown in belgium

A bit pedantic there.... ;)
But he came through from the youth team, which was the matter in discussion!

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Just reading TMTWATS thread, I noticed this point from Firestorm.

It got me thinking about the comparison between what you're splashing out on, and the make up of our squad, and I realised that I couldn't think of any players (apart from Lewis Hunt? I really don't know) that have come through from the youth teams, nor any players retrospectively.

Is it a traditional Southend thing not to bring many players through? Or is it just under Tilson that the 'solution' always seems to be splashing out a sum of money on someone else's player?

I think Leon Johnson, Matt Lockwood any maybe Paul Smith (the ex Gills midfielder, not sure where he is now) are our only youth team products still playing league football. We released all 3 on free transfers, although they may have played about 30 games for us between them.

Andy Edwards was probably the last youth team product we actually managed to sell. He came through the system a year or two after Spencer Prior and Justin Edinburgh.

We poached Franck Moussa from Cambridge, but he's now on the verge of the first team having played a few games last season and is now more involved this season.

The likes of Collymore, Powell, Ansah all came from London clubs, whilst Eastwood, Royce and Tilson all came from the Essex non-league scene. You can draw your own conclusions from that.

 

[EastStandBlue]

Purely and simply down to the complete lack of investment into the youth team which, at the time, was the correct thing to do... Or risk going out of business.

Tilson's background as a youth coach and RM's belief that players farmed through the youth set-up are more committed and have more affinity with the club stand us in great stead. When the stadium/training facilities are built and the club strives for Academy status, that's when you'll begin to see the youngsters coming through.

If you look at the current state of affairs, the club has really never been in a better position to push forward and grow. The average age of the current first team squad is low (Saturday for example, Flavs aside, the average age was just under 25), the choice midfield pairing of Macca/Bailey are both just 23 and with youngsters like Moussa, Lokando and Herd who are highy rated it will continue to drop.

Also, bringing in young players like Scannell, Masters and Walker means we'll have better prospects.

Not that i want to see us turn into a club like Crewe, who are basically a feeder club for the Championship, but Essex is a hotbed of talent that we can continue to tap for our benefit.

There are more English Premiership footballers native to Essex than any other county, or so i've been told.

 

[Jonny_Stokes]

I think Leon Johnson, Matt Lockwood any maybe Paul Smith (the ex Gills midfielder, not sure where he is now) are our only youth team products still playing league football. We released all 3 on free transfers, although they may have played about 30 games for us between them.

Andy Edwards was probably the last youth team product we actually managed to sell. He came through the system a year or two after Spencer Prior and Justin Edinburgh.

We poached Franck Moussa from Cambridge, but he's now on the verge of the first team having played a few games last season and is now more involved this season.

The likes of Collymore, Powell, Ansah all came from London clubs, whilst Eastwood, Royce and Tilson all came from the Essex non-league scene. You can draw your own conclusions from that.

Yep, pretty much as it appeared, then (what about Kightly?). At the moment we've got Darren Purse, Nicky Shorey, Adam Barrett, Billy Jones, Gabriel Zakuani, Aaron MacLean and Joe O'Ceaurill, plus another four or five in the Conference all playing pro football elsewhere. We've always had a great history of bring players through and giving them a chance - certainly saved Uncle Barry a few pennies over the years. Just waiting for the Geordies or Spam to sign Shorey and that'll be another 7-figure windfall :)

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Yep, pretty much as it appeared, then (what about Kightly?). At the moment we've got Darren Purse, Nicky Shorey, Adam Barrett, Billy Jones, Gabriel Zakuani, Aaron MacLean and Joe O'Ceaurill, plus another four or five in the Conference all playing pro football elsewhere. We've always had a great history of bring players through and giving them a chance - certainly saved Uncle Barry a few pennies over the years. Just waiting for the Geordies or Spam to sign Shorey and that'll be another 7-figure windfall :)

I'd forgotten about Kightly, although he spent longer with Spurs as a kid than he did with us. I think we only signed him when he was 16 or 17.

I'm surprised Orient only have 7 playing league football, although that is ignoring the ones in your team at the moment. I thought it would be more than that.

ESB said Essex is a footballing hotbed, and provides the most professional footballers of any county, I suspect 90% of those are from the bit of Essex that is arguably London - and bang slap in the middle of Orient's prime catchment area. Nothing wrong in us taking talent from there though.

 

[Jonny_Stokes]

I'm surprised Orient only have 7 playing league football, although that is ignoring the ones in your team at the moment. I thought it would be more than that.

Well, this is not taking my frazzled brain into consideration! I'm sure I'll have missed a couple - especially older ones that don't spring to mind. Does go to show how few big clubs are prepared to take a risk on talented youngsters from the lower leagues, though. Purse must have gone in about '96, Shorey in '03 and Zak in '06. Three players in a decade from one of the better lower league youth systems around... :confused:

 

[Firestorm]

In two words David Webb

Webby's third spell was with one goal in mind , to massively reduce our overheads. This was done, at a stroke, by cutting the youth policy. He felt that he could buy in the same number of players who would come through from the youth set up for a fraction of the cost.
We even went through a spell were Tony was running the Junior blues in the local leagues as a seperate outfit.

The youth set up , as it currently stands, started from scratch and Duncan got in a number of the older age group from Cambridge etc as we just didn't have any.

In the past a lot of local youngsters were picked up by clubs away from Southend because our set up was so poor (Barrett , Lockwood, Dean Gurkin are a few we know, Kirk Hudson was only various clubs books before he was 18 and we only had a look at him when Celtic released him and Bournemouth didn't extend his contract)
The Current youth set up is now producing players of a better standard, we have a couple released in the past 2 years from the youth who are in the conference and if we keep that level of progress up a few more years should see the talent start coming though.
The major plus point is that we are now attracting youth from outside the area (Peggy, Frank and the Scandinavian lad) when other , reputably bigger , teams are interested in them.

I don't recall many decent youth products in my entire 40 years following the Blues. Prior, Edwards, Taylor , Nelson and Edinburgh are the only ones who spring to mind (along with the likes of Gymer, Seaden, Engwell, Fitzpatrick, Perkins x 2, Lawson...)

 

[ShrimperOT]

To the list of youth team graduates playing league football you can add Max Porter at Barnet