No More Udders at Hudders

[gkmacca]

Huddersfield close their academy.

They've got one or two promising players we should be after. Don't know if free agents are included in our current ban, but we should try to do what we can.



Leading Premier League clubs are looking to take advantage of Huddersfield's decision to close their academy by recruiting some of the young players released in the shake-up for nothing.

Manchester United have invited 15 boys of various ages under 16 for trials ahead of potentially signing them up at no cost. Four were due to play in a behind-closed-doors friendly for the Under 14s on Monday night.

Manchester City, Everton, and Liverpool are also in the market for the young players, who are effectively free agents after Huddersfield confirmed news to parents last Friday.

Huddersfield made the bold call to downgrade their academy from category two status to category four – only keeping under–23 and under–18 squads – having seen scant success in its 19–year existence.

The club will reinvest the £500,000 saving in annual running costs but the timing of the move has caused surprise given signs of encouragement were beginning to show.

Rocco Fragapane and Raj Mahmood both earned England Under 16 call-ups but are now free to decide where to go next, with United inviting them in for a closer look. Harvey Rowe and Sam Murray are in at Carrington too and also being pursued by City, Liverpool and Everton.

Normally if a young player moved from one club to another a compensation fee would be due but in these cases forms can be signed without money being paid to Huddersfield. Last summer Huddersfield benefitted from funds when Liverpool signed Under 11 Ronal Young.

Philip Billing is the only academy graduate in David Wagner's first-team squad having been signed from Esbjerg in Denmark as a 16-year-old in 2013. But the 21-year-old promises to be a big success story, having started four Premier League games so far. Huddersfield rejected an £8million bid from Swansea for the central midfielder this summer.

Further shoots of reward in the now-dispensed system can be seen in 17-year-olds Jordan Williams and Ryan Schofield. Full-back Williams is an England Under 17 international who was the subject of a failed £250,000 bid from City last summer, and is currently on loan at League One Bury.

Goalkeeper Schofield helped England win this summer's Toulon Tournament by saving in the penalty shoot-out in the final and was promoted to Huddersfield's senior squad this summer. Schofield followed in the footsteps of goalkeeping coach Paul Clements, who was promoted.

Huddersfield have told parents that age-group games will continue as long as there are enough players to complete fixtures.

Sportsmail first broke the news chairman Dean Hoyle was considering closing Huddersfield's academy on September 5 and it was confirmed by the club last Friday. Hoyle said: 'Our academy system must provide a strong and obvious pathway to the first team for players who are good enough, whilst also representing value for the club. Upon review, this is not something that we could claim.

'This decision has been the biggest we have undertaken in my time as chairman, and not an easy one. However, we cannot be afraid of change. This is a vital area to the long-term success of this club and we must make every effort to get this right.'

 

[LeTallecWiz]

Who are the 1-2 players sir?

 

[gkmacca]

I tried to find some footage of them but with no luck so far. Rocco Fragapane especially - he impressed Gerrard when he saw him play last season (but I gather he's already agreed to go to the mancs). And Harvey Rowe, very versatile and technically sound, is another worth considering.

 

[Modo]

Wasnt there another team in England that did that before them? Was it Barnsley.

 

[FoxForceFive]

We should actually be in a better position than most because the ban on signing academy players means any we get will have much less potential competition than in other clubs.

 

[Insignificance]

We should actually be in a better position than most because the ban on signing academy players means any we get will have much less potential competition than in other clubs.

But also mean they play in poorer teams?

 

[darkstarexodus]

Like for the title @gkmacca

 

[Silver Sean]

Huddersfield close their academy.

They've got one or two promising players we should be after. Don't know if free agents are included in our current ban, but we should try to do what we can.



Leading Premier League clubs are looking to take advantage of Huddersfield's decision to close their academy by recruiting some of the young players released in the shake-up for nothing.

Manchester United have invited 15 boys of various ages under 16 for trials ahead of potentially signing them up at no cost. Four were due to play in a behind-closed-doors friendly for the Under 14s on Monday night.

Manchester City, Everton, and Liverpool are also in the market for the young players, who are effectively free agents after Huddersfield confirmed news to parents last Friday.

Huddersfield made the bold call to downgrade their academy from category two status to category four – only keeping under–23 and under–18 squads – having seen scant success in its 19–year existence.

The club will reinvest the £500,000 saving in annual running costs but the timing of the move has caused surprise given signs of encouragement were beginning to show.

Rocco Fragapane and Raj Mahmood both earned England Under 16 call-ups but are now free to decide where to go next, with United inviting them in for a closer look. Harvey Rowe and Sam Murray are in at Carrington too and also being pursued by City, Liverpool and Everton.

Normally if a young player moved from one club to another a compensation fee would be due but in these cases forms can be signed without money being paid to Huddersfield. Last summer Huddersfield benefitted from funds when Liverpool signed Under 11 Ronal Young.

Philip Billing is the only academy graduate in David Wagner's first-team squad having been signed from Esbjerg in Denmark as a 16-year-old in 2013. But the 21-year-old promises to be a big success story, having started four Premier League games so far. Huddersfield rejected an £8million bid from Swansea for the central midfielder this summer.

Further shoots of reward in the now-dispensed system can be seen in 17-year-olds Jordan Williams and Ryan Schofield. Full-back Williams is an England Under 17 international who was the subject of a failed £250,000 bid from City last summer, and is currently on loan at League One Bury.

Goalkeeper Schofield helped England win this summer's Toulon Tournament by saving in the penalty shoot-out in the final and was promoted to Huddersfield's senior squad this summer. Schofield followed in the footsteps of goalkeeping coach Paul Clements, who was promoted.

Huddersfield have told parents that age-group games will continue as long as there are enough players to complete fixtures.

Sportsmail first broke the news chairman Dean Hoyle was considering closing Huddersfield's academy on September 5 and it was confirmed by the club last Friday. Hoyle said: 'Our academy system must provide a strong and obvious pathway to the first team for players who are good enough, whilst also representing value for the club. Upon review, this is not something that we could claim.

'This decision has been the biggest we have undertaken in my time as chairman, and not an easy one. However, we cannot be afraid of change. This is a vital area to the long-term success of this club and we must make every effort to get this right.'

I hanker after the days when big clubs bought players who had proved themselves in the lower leagues (Aldridge, Rush, Ian Wright etc) or were plucked from obscurity by a talented scout (Hansen, Nicol, Whelan etc). This mollycoddling from a foetus creates complete spanners without any personality or understanding of the real world, or the tools to compete and win. To them they have won the second they get the first £40,000 a week contract.

 

[manwithnoname]

I hanker after the days when big clubs bought players who had proved themselves in the lower leagues (Aldridge, Rush, Ian Wright etc) or were plucked from obscurity by a talented scout (Hansen, Nicol, Whelan etc). This mollycoddling from a foetus creates complete spanners without any personality or understanding of the real world, or the tools to compete and win. To them they have won the second they get the first £40,000 a week contract.

Hmm, but that's not going to happen to the same extent, because football has changed so much. There will still be the occasional Aldo/ Wright "fairytale" - cf Jamie Vardy - but the academies and scouting (not to mention the influx of huge cash, foreign players and agents) make it less likely.

And also: Ian Rush? He was about 18 when we signed him. Hardly proven, and we also paid a record fee to get him. Mind you, he was then in the ressies for a while

 

[Silver Sean]

Hmm, but that's not going to happen to the same extent, because football has changed so much. There will still be the occasional Aldo/ Wright "fairytale" - cf Jamie Vardy - but the academies and scouting (not to mention the influx of huge cash, foreign players and agents) make it less likely.

And also: Ian Rush? He was about 18 when we signed him. Hardly proven, and we also paid a record fee to get him. Mind you, he was then in the ressies for a while

Well, you know what I mean. Finding jewels and plucking them before anyone else instead of getting them at 12 and training all the vim out of them. Hence my use of the words 'hanker after'. I know it's not going to happen again.

 

[gkmacca]

Academies at present, all too often, not only fail to produce enough young players for the club's own first team but they also effectively ruin players who might otherwise have decent lower league careers, and - something of which I'd not previously been aware - they also manage to undermine some non-league teams, too.

I was hearing a former non-league player - since making a living in the league - recall what an absolute pain some of these kids who've been released from academies can be when they end up in amateur football. They've been so pampered, although they do have considerable talent, the crushing sense of failure at the highest level has left them feeling bitter and aimless, and although these non-league teams eagerly snap them up on the basis they used to be at the likes of us and the mancs etc, their stinkingly bad attitude infects the players around them. Everyone loses.

I do think you have to act as a magnet for local talent and try to cultivate their abilities, but the academies have become monsters over the past couple of decades. They need streamlining, with a smaller core of really good coaches and much better youth leagues to foster a sense of competitiveness as well as technique.