how good is the AVFC academy really?

[pedro25]

Why do we need to all it EPL though, surely it's just PL to us, we're in England, let others outside distinguish the nationality of the League.  It's like saying to someone are you off to Villa Park, Birmingham today?  We know where the place is.  How many people have spoken about the Premier League and confused the person they are speaking to who had assumed it was a different Premier League?  How many Premier League's are there that we need to distinguish between them by country?  Plus this is a message board for a Premier League team, so do we need to say English rather than Kuwaiti or whoever else may have a PL?

[paul_e]

If the academy produces 1 premier league quality player and a bunch of championship level players every season then it makes us a profit and it's doing at least that.

The first team issues aren't due to the academy, the problem all through the club for 3-4 years is that we have a lot of senior players who don't want to be here. 

Dunne, Collins, Warnock and Ireland have all, in that period, shown that they don't give a shit about the club.  Add to that Given who is a top professional and has done well but must be a bit pissed off to have been shipped from man city the summer before they won the league.  Then add on Nzogbia who's never looked like he cares about any club, he cares about himself and plays with that in mind.  Finally you can add in the steaming piles of poop that are Hutton and Heskey, who've never said a bad word about the club but have also never offered anything on the pitch either.

The academy players have been promoted into a squad with an annual change of manager, all with different tactical approaches to the game, the seniors as mentioned creating a terrible team spirit and with a fan base that had become accustomed to top 6 finishes and are happy to blame the slide on them.  They've never had a chance to grow into the league under little pressure.

Moving on from that, Weimann, whilst raw, has been one of our best players this season, Clark and Baker both looked good until the Chelsea battering and Bannan is our best creative player (ahead of Ireland and Nzogbia who are, effectively 2 £10m players).  Herd is a squad filler in the defensive half of the pitch who will be useful in the squad but is probably not good enough to start regularly, Lichaj is similar, if more limited.

[N'ZMAV]

We create the odd one good player every decade. The rest are lower Premier League players. As the stats are showing.

[Greg N'Ash]

Realistically a very large proportion of them won't make it, however many we can sell on if they're not upto the standard we require. Ironically some of the ones we have sold in better times as not good enough would have come in hardy during the current debacle.

My big problem is how they're being used currently. Some of them won't recover from this season because instead of being taken out the side for long periods, they're having to form a key part of our team with heartbreaking results.  They've all gone backwards and the manager whether by design or necessity has had to swap out of form young players with no confidence with other out of form young players with no confidence. If the idiots that run our club are so convinced about their Alax of the midlands plan, then the least they can do is actually follow their example and look after the players they're relying on to form our future team.

[brontebilly]

have the pedantic police gone yet?

can we not just judge the players who came from the academy on their own merits. Most of them are more than experienced now to be judged on their own merits rather than trying to bring in Dunne, Warnock, McLeish etc into every thread. A lot of you seem to be going off on tangents. This is the poorest Aston Villa side many of us can recall yet many of these 'kids' still cant hold down regular slots and many of their performances have been downright appalling in terms of quality.

Some of our younger players (they are far from kids) are so technically and tactically poor, it has me wondering about the quality of coaching they have been receiving at Bodymoor Heath.

[Drummond]

The academy at the Villa is bloody good when you see how many have come through. The players in the first team are going through a tough spell as they are all playing together against seasoned professionals at other clubs.

When you look at the quality that have made our first team or moved on to play in other teams it's a bloody good hit rate.

It's EPL if you're abroad, here it's badged as Premier League (or Barclays Premier League at the moment).

[Dave]

Please don't call it the EPL.

You're not one of these people that still call it the premiership are you? even though that name was dropped years and years ago.

Whereas it has never been called the EPL.

Its an abbreviation for the English Premier League, which is the correct name for the league.
Its like saying please don't call Nigel Reo-Coker NRC

No it's not.

The correct name is The Premier League or Barclays Premier League depending on how important it is to you to mention the sponsor.

[levico]

Please don't call it the EPL.

You're not one of these people that still call it the premiership are you? even though that name was dropped years and years ago.

Whereas it has never been called the EPL.

Its an abbreviation for the English Premier League, which is the correct name for the league.
Its like saying please don't call Nigel Reo-Coker NRC

No it's not.

The correct name is The Premier League or Barclays Premier League depending on how important it is to you to mention the sponsor.

FFS. Our beloved club is on the brink of relegation and we're bickering over what to call the Premier League?  It will be academic to us from next season in any event.

[garyshawsknee]

For what its worth David Pleat aka Punch was asked about us on Keys and Gray,and said its vital they stay in the division as their next crop of youngters are better than this current crop and could develop into a good team.

[brontebilly]

For what its worth David Pleat aka Punch was asked about us on Keys and Gray,and said its vital they stay in the division as their next crop of youngters are better than this current crop and could develop into a good team.

wasnt something similar being said about this crop when the Moore brothers were being found out?

[DaveD]

For what its worth David Pleat aka Punch was asked about us on Keys and Gray,and said its vital they stay in the division as their next crop of youngters are better than this current crop and could develop into a good team.

wasnt something similar being said about this crop when the Moore brothers were being found out?

And are we sure he said "crop" ?

[JUAN PABLO]

I noticed they got knocked out of the FA Youth cup at the 1st attempt 4 0 against Peterborough last Tuesday

Remember our conversation after the Liverpoo game . Whats happened  ;(

[Chico Hamilton III]

FFS. Our beloved club is on the brink of relegation and we're bickering over what to call the Premier League?  It will be academic to us from next season in any event.

Then we can get all heated up over whether we will be playing in the Championship or (my choice) the Second Division.....

[OzVilla]

The academy at the Villa is bloody good when you see how many have come through. The players in the first team are going through a tough spell as they are all playing together against seasoned professionals at other clubs.

When you look at the quality that have made our first team or moved on to play in other teams it's a bloody good hit rate.

This.

[paul_e]

have the pedantic police gone yet?

can we not just judge the players who came from the academy on their own merits. Most of them are more than experienced now to be judged on their own merits rather than trying to bring in Dunne, Warnock, McLeish etc into every thread. A lot of you seem to be going off on tangents. This is the poorest Aston Villa side many of us can recall yet many of these 'kids' still cant hold down regular slots and many of their performances have been downright appalling in terms of quality.

Some of our younger players (they are far from kids) are so technically and tactically poor, it has me wondering about the quality of coaching they have been receiving at Bodymoor Heath.

No we can't judge them on their own merits because most of them have only experienced playing first team football in the current, lose more than we win, setting.  Confidence is the key, our younger players don't have previous form to look back on and show that they've done it, they just have the reality of having been in a struggling squad for the last 3 years.

They're better players than they look currently.