Nicky Butt promoted to Head of First Team Development

Sweech · Jul 24, 2019

Inigo Montoya said:
That's like saying, when you were younger you didn't read much but now you devour books. We all change. Some mature and develop a range of skills,some stagnate.

Nothing surprising

I think it’s a little more like Stephen King coming out and saying he didn’t like reading as a kid.

Beaucoup · Jul 24, 2019

Bigsid said:
Academy graduates now would have been recruited 10 years ago when we dominated recruitment locally with a coherent philosophy. Nothing to do with Butt and certainly not Cox! Bit like Beacoup I've heard academy's a shambles. Intake of scholars absolutely average and last season were beaten 4-1 by City's 15s. Then in 15s, 14s, 13s and 12s we didn't qualify for any of the Premier league national tournaments and performed poorly in international tournaments which shows standard of groups is below average. Time to judge the two above will be in years to come, not now as let's not forget they inherited a well oiled machine.

I agree this years scholars are poor, hence the recruitment this summer. I disagree regarding the quality of the kids in the lower age groups, we have some outstanding players coming through, we also dilute this with large numbers of kids in each age group. The issue as far as I can see is we don’t have a strategy or style of play implemented, the coaching is poor and we simply don’t take tournaments as seriously as other academy’s.

Bigsid · Jul 24, 2019

Beaucoup said:
I agree this years scholars are poor, hence the recruitment this summer. I disagree regarding the quality of the kids in the lower age groups, we have some outstanding players coming through, we also dilute this with large numbers of kids in each age group. The issue as far as I can see is we don’t have a strategy or style of play implemented, the coaching is poor and we simply don’t take tournaments as seriously as other academy’s.

Didn't say we don't have good kids but why carry so many? Given Uniteds records in Youth cups why do we never win anything home or abroad anymore in say 13s to 16s? Doesn't seem to be methodology of other top European clubs? What exactly is profile of our academy sides? Many players seem to be selected on pure physicality which evens out and don't see style of play or coaching philosophy in teams I've watched.

jb8521 · Jul 24, 2019

Bigsid said:
Academy graduates now would have been recruited 10 years ago when we dominated recruitment locally with a coherent philosophy. Nothing to do with Butt and certainly not Cox! Bit like Beacoup I've heard academy's a shambles. Intake of scholars absolutely average and last season were beaten 4-1 by City's 15s. Then in 15s, 14s, 13s and 12s we didn't qualify for any of the Premier league national tournaments and performed poorly in international tournaments which shows standard of groups is below average. Time to judge the two above will be in years to come, not now as let's not forget they inherited a well oiled machine.

Judging younger academy groups & their potential by individual results is completely pointless. The u16s also beat City's 16s last season as did a few of the other age groups & the City side that beat our u14s 9-0 which made a load of headlines a few years ago ended up finishing 14 points behind us in the league last season. This seasons u16s side are a fairly weak group which will require a lot of recruitment but have 2 standout players in Shoretire & Forson. Below that every group has at least 3/4 standout talents in them which is far more important than having a strong group of players with no standout players who have an actual chance of making it.

cyril C · Jul 25, 2019

owlo said:
This is nothing like a DoF role.

There has been a concern within the hierarchy that we have developed players well until they hit the 1st team, but that younger 1st team players have not been developing at an expected rate and that we have been 'wasting' talent. Additionally we are now buying younger players and have a number looking to step up from our academy ranks.

This role will be internal for the most part, planning younger players welfare, nutrition, training, schedules, development plans, and generally keeping them grounded.

This is why he is reporting to the 1st team manager.

A good explanation on what this role might do, but why can't the head of Academy handle this as well? Another head would cost us typically half a million, which could be used for good course, but the worse part is conflict with too many heads and too many decision makers.

In Rainbows · Jul 25, 2019

jb8521 said:
Judging younger academy groups & their potential by individual results is completely pointless. The u16s also beat City's 16s last season as did a few of the other age groups & the City side that beat our u14s 9-0 which made a load of headlines a few years ago ended up finishing 14 points behind us in the league last season. This seasons u16s side are a fairly weak group which will require a lot of recruitment but have 2 standout players in Shoretire & Forson. Below that every group has at least 3/4 standout talents in them which is far more important than having a strong group of players with no standout players who have an actual chance of making it.

Yeah I was pretty impressed with Berry and Mcallister in the lower ages. What matters is ultimately individual talents, not the collective. Although if there are more of those brilliant talents on a team, they will blow teams out. You can't know that just with results though.

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Nicky Butt promoted to Head of First Team Development

Sweech

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Beaucoup

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Bigsid

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jb8521

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cyril C

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In Rainbows

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