collapse collapse

Please donate to help towards the costs of keeping this site going. Thank You.

Recent Topics

Recent Posts

Re: FFP by Nev
[Today at 11:04:06 AM]


Re: Brian Evans by Dr Butler
[Today at 10:50:21 AM]


Re: UEFA Europa Conference League-Knockout stages (Lille) by Duncan Shaw
[Today at 10:49:10 AM]


Re: Brian Evans by Brazilian Villain
[Today at 10:46:00 AM]


Re: FFP by Duncan Shaw
[Today at 10:36:15 AM]


Re: Aston Villa Women 2023/24 by Brazilian Villain
[Today at 10:35:30 AM]


Re: Chris Heck - President of Business Operations by VillaTim
[Today at 10:29:02 AM]


Re: Aston Villa v Wolverhampton Wanderers Pre Match by Brazilian Villain
[Today at 10:21:16 AM]

Follow us on...

Author Topic: Reserves and Academy 2021/22  (Read 120592 times)

Offline cdbearsfan

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 61464
  • Location: Yardley Massive
  • I still hate Bono.
  • GM : 03.02.2025
Re: Reserves and Academy 2021/22
« Reply #45 on: July 10, 2021, 04:26:13 PM »
I wonder whether the owners have ambitions for our youth academy to be talked of alongside those of Barcelona and Ajax.

Villa are really going for it at all levels within the academy. The set up at Bodymoor is very impressive, not just the players facilities but the attention to detail. Parents have lounges with workstations and Wifi allowing them to work whilst waiting for the kids to finish training, viewing galleries over looking the 4G and the show pitch. Complementary food is on offer as the parent maybe be waiting from 5pm until gone 8pm three evenings a week. They have one such building which has just opened, and Purslow apparently visited it, deemed it too small so another is to be built next door. Locally, no club is anywhere near Villa's facilities.

Little touches like this make a huge difference and help attract kids to sign. Facilities though do need filling, the academy staffing apparently has tripled in the last two years at BH, giving players more attention. Other clubs like Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea have amazing training facilities (arguably better than BH) , but unless you have got the staff and the players, it's pointless.

Player-wise the approach seems straight forward. Sign the best players we can locally and source the best players around the country and beyond. The more we get in, the more chance we have of unearthing another gem or two. If they don't make it at Villa, they still may have a worth (£) as I said 'commodities'. The lads are sold a project by Mark Harrison and Steve Hopcroft and the physical set up at Bodymoor helps sell the club as well as top coaching. I believe players like Bogarde and Swinkels were hooked in by the club and the attention to detail.

What is clear, is that the owners are backing the academy; new facility near VP, staff, better facilities at Bodymoor etc. Last year Villa U18 had what amounts to an 'A' team with Barry, Young, Swinkels, Kessler et al, and a 'B' team for run of the mill U18 league games. The former bolster the U23s when needed and therefore a pathway and progression is clear. Another point is young lads see Chuck, Louis, Kessler, Ramsay in and around the first team, so reinforcing the point that a pathway is there.

What all of this needs is...money, lots of money. Some clubs have it, most don't. We do and we are spending it correctly.

Thanks for this, all sounds very promising.

Offline OCD

  • Member
  • Posts: 32543
  • Location: Stuck in the middle with you
    • http://www.rightconsultant.com
  • GM : May, 2012
Re: Reserves and Academy 2021/22
« Reply #46 on: July 10, 2021, 04:46:03 PM »
Thanks Rotterdam. I think I'm right in saying too that investment into the youth and training facilities doesn't count against FFP. There's a very clear strategy and I think it's very clever. It's interesting what you said about other clubs having fantastic facilities, some better than ours (Mings was supposedly blown away when he saw Spurs') but if we're investing in not only the best staff but also ensuring the numbers are there so that the kids have a lot more 1:1 time, that can only help their development and result in more success. Be that breaking through to the first team or having market value for us and a career as a well paid professional footballer for them.

To think that we're only 3 years into their project too. It's only going to grow and scale.

Offline fredm

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1394
  • GM : 02.09.2024
Re: Reserves and Academy 2021/22
« Reply #47 on: July 11, 2021, 11:34:35 AM »
Brilliant reading, Rotterdam.  On a morning when we all hope the national team can do the business let's hope that on future occasions there are many more names with "Aston Villa" beside them on the team sheet.

Online Bad English

  • Member
  • Posts: 43422
  • Age: 150
  • Location: Pyrénées Orientales
  • I am Perpignan Villa
  • GM : 14.03.2024
Re: Reserves and Academy 2021/22
« Reply #48 on: July 12, 2021, 03:10:24 PM »
'Complimentary' food. ;-)

Offline Legion

  • Moderator
  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 58253
  • Age: 53
  • Location: With my son
  • Oh, it must be! And it is! Villa in the lead!
    • Personal Education Services
  • GM : 05.04.2019
Re: Reserves and Academy 2021/22
« Reply #49 on: July 12, 2021, 03:21:00 PM »

Offline OCD

  • Member
  • Posts: 32543
  • Location: Stuck in the middle with you
    • http://www.rightconsultant.com
  • GM : May, 2012

Offline Lastfootstamper

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 11370
  • Age: 58
  • Location: Greater Birmingham
  • GM : PCM
Re: Reserves and Academy 2021/22
« Reply #51 on: July 17, 2021, 03:06:25 PM »
There's a video up of this week's training. A good few kids training with the first team. I likes that.

Offline dave shelley

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 15457
  • Age: 75
  • Location: between a rock and a hard place
  • GM : 01.02.2025
Re: Reserves and Academy 2021/22
« Reply #52 on: July 17, 2021, 03:44:54 PM »
There's a video up of this week's training. A good few kids training with the first team. I likes that.

I think I read yesterday that there are ten of them.

Offline OCD

  • Member
  • Posts: 32543
  • Location: Stuck in the middle with you
    • http://www.rightconsultant.com
  • GM : May, 2012
Re: Reserves and Academy 2021/22
« Reply #53 on: July 17, 2021, 05:25:29 PM »
Another Albion kid we're signing - https://www.footballinsider247.com/sources-aston-villa-set-to-sign-azaz-from-west-brom-and-loan-him-to-newport-county/.

Might as well just make Albion our B team.

Online paul_e

  • Member
  • Posts: 33279
  • Age: 44
  • GM : July, 2013
Re: Reserves and Academy 2021/22
« Reply #54 on: July 17, 2021, 08:56:29 PM »
Onodi out on loan to bromsgrove sporting, I'd have hope he'd have got offers a bit higher than that but it'll still be a good experience for him.

Offline Legion

  • Moderator
  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 58253
  • Age: 53
  • Location: With my son
  • Oh, it must be! And it is! Villa in the lead!
    • Personal Education Services
  • GM : 05.04.2019
Re: Reserves and Academy 2021/22
« Reply #55 on: July 17, 2021, 10:08:54 PM »

Offline Legion

  • Moderator
  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 58253
  • Age: 53
  • Location: With my son
  • Oh, it must be! And it is! Villa in the lead!
    • Personal Education Services
  • GM : 05.04.2019
Re: Reserves and Academy 2021/22
« Reply #56 on: July 17, 2021, 10:09:21 PM »
There's a video up of this week's training. A good few kids training with the first team. I likes that.

Link please.

Offline Legion

  • Moderator
  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 58253
  • Age: 53
  • Location: With my son
  • Oh, it must be! And it is! Villa in the lead!
    • Personal Education Services
  • GM : 05.04.2019
Re: Reserves and Academy 2021/22
« Reply #57 on: July 17, 2021, 10:20:52 PM »
Ignore. I think it's the one I put on our FB Page yesterday.

Offline Nunkin1965

  • Member
  • Posts: 3136
  • Age: 58
  • Location: Planet Earth
  • This is only a problem.
Re: Reserves and Academy 2021/22
« Reply #58 on: July 18, 2021, 08:04:44 AM »
What's going on under the first team is incredibly telling as to what these owners want to achieve.
We already have a squad ot extremely talented youngsters. The best for many a year yet we are still developing and still recruiting the best. Still building for a long and sustainable future of strength and success.

Offline OCD

  • Member
  • Posts: 32543
  • Location: Stuck in the middle with you
    • http://www.rightconsultant.com
  • GM : May, 2012
Re: Reserves and Academy 2021/22
« Reply #59 on: July 18, 2021, 02:32:42 PM »
I think it's a really smart strategy. We're going to struggle to recruit the very best established players but we can recruit some of the best young talents and then when you've already really fostered an environment where those young players have the best opportunity to thrive and develop into top players, over time we'll have a first team squad full of some of the best players around.

Every day these kids come into train, they'll be training with the best of their peer group as well as getting all the top coaching and more one to one time than most in their age group.

The likes of Chelsea and Man City have really talented kids but often with no clear pathway to their senior team. I've tried to think who else has used this approach in this country and I can only think of the 'You don't win anything with kids' Man United bunch. It's going to be a really attractive proposition for the best young kids to know that they're a priority in our strategy, that they'll be looked after better than many senior teams and that if you develop, there's a very good chance that you'll make it through to our first team and if not, still likely to have a professional career elsewhere.

 


SimplePortal 2.3.6 © 2008-2014, SimplePortal