Has our youth system every produced a really decent striker?

[Lady Whistledown]

Bournmouth have had a conveyor belt of strikers Pittman, Vokes, McQuoid and Danny Ings seems to the latest model

James Hayter also went through their system.

Nicky Maynard and Rob Hulse came through Crewe, Earnshaw through Cardiff who were a fourth division team at the time. Scott Sinclair through Bristol Rovers (who also developed Zamora), Jamie Cureton from Norwich, Jermaine Pennant from Notts County. etc.

I just think there are a lot of clubs out there who can claim that there is at least one very good striker out there that they can point to and say they discovered, I'm talking about from schoolboy level. We're not one of them.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

I think that out plans for an acadamy are more far advanced and more impressive then a lot of people would imagine.

 

[JJB]

Vokes was out of southampton, but nver cut the grade whilst here, same with Lukas Jutkewisz or however it's spelt.

actually so was McQuoid.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Vokes was out of southampton, but nver cut the grade whilst here, same with Lukas Jutkewisz or however it's spelt.

actually so was McQuoid.

Probably makes up for you nicking Lallana from them then

(a great player, by the way)

 

[Easy 10]

Bristol Rovers have produced a couple of strikers who have gone on to play for England (Marcus Stewart and some other bloke who's name escapes me). They've been dossing round the bottom two divisions for most of their existance, doesn't seem to have hindered them in bringing through the odd prolific striker.

[edit]

scratch that. I got Marcus and Paul mixed up.

The point stands on the other fella though.

 

[Foolg]

James Hayter was with us I think!

He came through the youth system at Bournemouth from a pretty young age I thought, can't have been (if he was at all) with us very long. I know he was brought up on the Isle of Wight, as my Uncle's played against him a couple of times at youth level.
Bournemouth are another team that manage to bring through some decent strikers from there academy (Hayter, Pittman, Ings, Mcqoid) all fairly recent. Crewe are another club who somehow seem to produce great strikers, weird eh.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

George Barker interests my Premier League scout friend more than Forster-Caskey

 

[skipper734]

Is it just coaching qualifications that differentiate academies from ordinary youth schemes?

I would guess that being a tv salesman/ engineer is not high on most coaches CV at any level. Oh wait a minute.

 

[gjh1971]

Virgs played up front a bit, and him signing for Celtic for 1.2 mil was a big deal at the time I thought. He was an international.

Virgo didnt come through the youth team - he didnt join us until he was 18 after finishing his education at Ardingly

 

[Brownstuff]

It is a shame we have had no home-grown top notch strikers
The only one i can think of who came close was David Gipp
He scored shedloads as an apprentice
He wasn't very big though and there were many decent stickers at the Albion at the time so he didn't get much of a look in
It would be great in the future if we developed our own Roy of the Rovers, someone who learnt their tricks and played headers and volleys and wembley in our local parks

 

[albionite]

Sorry if he has been mentioned but Paul Ifil comes to mind but not sure if he was ever on our books!

Think he was a midfielder, but yes he was from Brighton. The problem is that bigger teams would of come in for the best players around the sussex area at school level.
With Brightons future rocky back then, the kids and parents would of been convinced to play for other teams.

Strikers are probably the hardest positions to pick. I know he's not from Brighton but we rejected Ian Wright at a youngish age and the rest is history.

 

[Cornish seagull!]

The trouble is sussex youth football is swarming with scouts from the likes of chelsea, spurs, millwall and other big clubs . When i played youth football the amount of players that were on trial with millwall and chelsea was stupid. Jamie Mackie was playing sussex football i played against him a few times. I personally did work experience with southampton and fulham and they did alot of there scouting in sussex. The trouble is with brighton there quite slack when it comes to looking at sussex youth football.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

I would guess that being a tv salesman/ engineer is not high on most coaches CV at any level. Oh wait a minute.

Perhaps I should have said "level of coaching qualifications". Is that better?

 

[GT49er]

Strikers are probably the hardest positions to pick. I know he's not from Brighton but we rejected Ian Wright at a youngish age and the rest is history.

..........and Denis Law!

 

[skipper734]

West Blatchington Primary School
First football team 1956/57
By Stan Brand
How the team was formed
This is the First Football Team of West Blatchington Junior School, selected back in 1956. The teacher's name was Mr Ken Booth who actually played for The Albion during the late 1940s. Apparently he saw a group of us each day playing with a tennis ball during each playtime, and decided to form a school team. He walked into our class one day and proceeded to throw a football strip to each boy that he wanted for the team.This was the youth coaching system when I was a lad. Stan Brand is the 2nd from the left. He's in OZ.
This is one of the reasons I didn't make a career as a footballer, there are many others.

 

[chucky1973]

George Barker, looks the rea deal, I am friends with Vic Bragg and have often watched the kids when they have had home games and he looks a real good prospect, hopefully he can break through more in the reserves next season and then you never no.

 

[seagulls4ever]

Virgo didnt come through the youth team - he didnt join us until he was 18 after finishing his education at Ardingly

That can't be right as I remember he made his debut for us under Adams at the age of 17.

And Virgs went for 1.5m.

 

[mistahclarke]

Leeds winger Elliot Kebbie, 16, has joined European champions Barcelona on trial in the hope of securing a permanent switch to the Catalan side.
Full story: Leeds youngster Elliot Kebbie is targeting a move to Barcelona | The Sun |Sport|Football

Bit off topic, but this is really how our youth set-up should be. This kid has been with leeds since he was 8.

"Leeds produced current England stars James Milner and Aaron Lennon and recently sold Fabian Delph to Aston Villa for £6million"

 

[Return of the Rev]

Got a youngster at chelsea who left our soe might have to wait a few years(5) but always look good to me.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

60 posts and still we haven't been able to come up with a single striker of note produced by the Albion's youth system.

Here's hoping Poyet works his magic from the bottom up.