[Albion] Our youth players coming through (are we Ajax in disguise)

[Uter]

For those interested, a very brief history of the Lancing training facility.

Initial phase:
Cost: approx £30m for building and land acquisition.
Planning permission: Oct 2012
Opened: 2014
American Express sponsorship announced: June 2014
Category 1 status awarded: July 2014

Expansion:
Cost: approx £20m
Plans submitted: March 2019
Planning permission: May 2019

Running costs:
Typically around £4m - £5m a year for Cat 1 clubs.
Category 1 clubs receive an annual grant. From memory it's around £900k per year. This and the sponsorship will help a bit too, but it will still be a net cost of several million a year.

Total financial commitment to date:
Approx £70m

Obviously the training centre serves many purposes, but it's impossible to dis-aggregate the costs to arrive at a figure for the academy alone.

It's a massive investment so far, not far off the cost of constructing the stadium itself IIRC.

It's a huge commitment, but Tony Bloom must view this as a strategic investment that will eventually help load the dice in his favour.

After 5 years there are signs that this is happening:
The U18s are second only on goal difference in their league, having dropped only 2 points so far. They thrashed Arsenal 6-3 last week.
The U23s came close to winning their league last season.

Tony Bloom wasn't at the Spurs match, but I can picture him watching from afar and allowing himself a wry smile when Connolly banged in the 3rd goal.

 

[CheeseRolls]

Connolly's performances for the first team, prior to the Spurs game have all been good though. He scored in the League cup against Bristol Rovers, rattled the crossbar in the cup against Villa, was denied his first Premier League goal by an incredible goal line clearance at Newcastle, and has generally shown he is a credible option up front. There will of course be games where he gets little joy, Kane had little joy on Saturday, apart from a grope of Dunk. I think you would have to be a real pessimist to not have high expectations for Connolly right now.

So defensive coaches and defenders, are going to be a little bit more thorough in covering what he does and how to stop him. He scored a very similar cut in from the left curl it inside the far post goal for the Under 23s, so it should be obvious to all that this is a bit of a favourite move. He has got a decent left foot though and can go the other way.

Knowing it and stopping it are of course two different things. There was a great picture I saw this morning of a Messi free kick, with four men in the wall jumping, one lying down behind the wall, the keeper on the line and a man on each post. Guess where the ball went?

 

[Rogero]

“The new Rooney”? - I’m just hoping he’ll be our new Peter Ward. A lot of similarities too - same build, ability to torment defenders, eye for goal, ability to react quickly to goal scoring situations, has had a successful period in the development squad and we got him for nothing (?).

Not the same build as Wardy same height maybe. Connelly is much stockier and hard to knock off the ball.

 

[GT49er]

Not the same build as Wardy same height maybe. Connelly is much stockier and hard to knock off the ball.

I'm happy with the Wardy comparison. Wardy was sturdier than he looked - didn't get shoved off the ball or out of the way very easily. Many defenders thought they could do that, and found out to their cost it wasn't that easy!

 

[blue-shifted]

For those interested, a very brief history of the Lancing training facility.

Initial phase:
Cost: approx £30m for building and land acquisition.
Planning permission: Oct 2012
Opened: 2014
American Express sponsorship announced: June 2014
Category 1 status awarded: July 2014

Expansion:
Cost: approx £20m
Plans submitted: March 2019
Planning permission: May 2019

Running costs:
Typically around £4m - £5m a year for Cat 1 clubs.
Category 1 clubs receive an annual grant. From memory it's around £900k per year. This and the sponsorship will help a bit too, but it will still be a net cost of several million a year.

Total financial commitment to date:
Approx £70m

Obviously the training centre serves many purposes, but it's impossible to dis-aggregate the costs to arrive at a figure for the academy alone.

It's a massive investment so far, not far off the cost of constructing the stadium itself IIRC.

It's a huge commitment, but Tony Bloom must view this as a strategic investment that will eventually help load the dice in his favour.

After 5 years there are signs that this is happening:
The U18s are second only on goal difference in their league, having dropped only 2 points so far. They thrashed Arsenal 6-3 last week.
The U23s came close to winning their league last season.

Tony Bloom wasn't at the Spurs match, but I can picture him watching from afar and allowing himself a wry smile when Connolly banged in the 3rd goal.

It is interesting mate, thanks

So approx £70m so far and call it £3m a season running costs (once you take into account grants and sponsorship).

The way we’ll get the money back is not through player sales, (though I’m sure we’ll sell a few, but that will be our choice), but through not having to pay transfer fees.

To stabilise us in the Premier League, we’ve had to pay, (from memory), £60m for year one, £70m in year two and £60m in year three. Getting on for £200m in total. Some of those signings were successful, but inevitably some weren’t.

Having this academy and a manager who will gives chances to the players from it means that probably starting next year we’ll have to pay less than we otherwise would.

Now it could be that we still pay out £60 or £70m next summer on transfers, but that is more likely to be because of rampant transfer fee inflation. In other words, if it weren’t for the academy we might have had to have paid £100m to retain a competitive squad in the Premier League.

All of a sudden the academy set up costs don’t seem as great.

 

[el punal]

Not the same build as Wardy same height maybe. Connelly is much stockier and hard to knock off the ball.

Fair point - hard to tell the extra poundage from the West Upper.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Knowing it and stopping it are of course two different things. There was a great picture I saw this morning of a Messi free kick, with four men in the wall jumping, one lying down behind the wall, the keeper on the line and a man on each post. Guess where the ball went?

Out for a throw in?

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

Tony Bloom wasn't at the Spurs match

Shame.

 

[CheeseRolls]

Out for a throw in?

Possibly if he got too much side on it and a large gust of wind caught it.

 

[Baldseagull]

So defensive coaches and defenders, are going to be a little bit more thorough in covering what he does and how to stop him. He scored a very similar cut in from the left curl it inside the far post goal for the Under 23s, so it should be obvious to all that this is a bit of a favourite move. He has got a decent left foot though and can go the other way.

Knowing it and stopping it are of course two different things. There was a great picture I saw this morning of a Messi free kick, with four men in the wall jumping, one lying down behind the wall, the keeper on the line and a man on each post. Guess where the ball went?

Not sure what point you are trying to make, to be fair, he has scored so many goals for U21's and U23's that I am sure you could find one similar to his first goal too if you trawl through them. As you say, he can go inside or outside and he finds the corner of the goal, he takes his chances quickly and makes good decisions about how to take the opportunity, and he plays in his team mates if they are better placed. He is not a one trick pony by any means.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

There will be plenty of speculation here and in the tabloids about Connolly's transfer value.

Meanwhile, Bloom, Potter etc will be utterly oblivious to it as they absolutely no intention of selling him whatsoever.

Even if we received a ludicrous offer, beyond our wildest dreams even in this ridiculous market, Bloom will quite rightly reason, that offer will probably double in the next 18 months.

We don't have to sell, it makes no sense to sell and we won't sell. That goes for all our starlets

And that is presumably why some people are quoting ridiculous potential transfer fees - because if anyone really wanted him (or any of our other starlets) they would have to make us an offer we can't refuse. And even then we have no need to sell ourselves short.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Not sure what point you are trying to make, to be fair, he has scored so many goals for U21's and U23's that I am sure you could find one similar to his first goal too if you trawl through them. As you say, he can go inside or outside and he finds the corner of the goal, he takes his chances quickly and makes good decisions about how to take the opportunity, and he plays in his team mates if they are better placed. He is not a one trick pony by any means.

His nearly goal at Newcastle, his first goal against Spurs and his second goal against Spurs were all very different.

 

[Perkino]

I will stick my cock on the block now and say he’s going to become a top player. I said it last season, he looks the real deal. [MENTION=33965]FatSuperman[/MENTION]

Is there a time frame within which he will become a top player or shall we arrange for an axe to be sharpened