Torquay United Fans Forum

Don't think my view point is unfair at all. Us Torquay fans often bemoan the fact we cant compete for even good players at our level, let alone the best, yet on the flip side we are delighted that the club has spent how much ? on gaining a CAT 3 youth set up, more than enough to have attracted the strike force we all longed for, I think a very fair point.

Yes, this is indeed a fantastic achievement, in line with a number of championship clubs and do not want to take that away from the club, but, was it an achievement the club could genuinely afford, I believe the answer to that is no, I take on board Hectors view point as well.

But I'm not talking about false dawns like Halpin and Yoeman who's been at the club 6 years I believe, and not broken into the first team, or players who might, and lets hope they do, yes I am a champion of local talent, I personally do not think our club is geared up for local talent, over the last year or so we've realised pretty every local lad, bar a few, we had in the academy, and told them to go of and 'find' themselves as players, we've spent £xx's developing these lads, and a percentage of them have gone out and found themselves, they've found themselves being snapped up by western and peninsula league clubs getting paid a few quid to play, at 16-17 years old, it begs the question whether some them should still be with our club.

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with drawing talented young lads that have been left on shelf so to speak, from London, Ireland and other places, not to the detriment of local talent, and I believe to a certain extent that's what is happening. As a club we haven't produced one single regular first team starter that I can remember or think of since 2007 from the youth set up, for the club to get a return on it's investment we've got see players come through as genuine first team players, and I hope this does happen, other wise this whole project will turn into yet another financial hit .

Hector makes an excellent point.

BRB, going for a lie down

I think what has to be considered when judging the success of the youth system in delivering first-team players, is the context in which it operates.

When it was reformed, 7 years ago, any decent young players would have been already attached to clubs. 16 year-olds at the time, would now be 23.

Players breaking into first-teams now, say 19/20 year-olds, would have been 13 when Torquay reformed the youth set-up. Again, the best players would have been attached to clubs. We would have been left with the rest, as players had been choosing to go to Exeter (eg Jamie Reid - a lifelong Torquay fan) because of their reputation and the fact that TUFC had previously not had a youth system.

Both Exeter, and to a lesser extent Plymouth, have demonstrated that it is possible to develop good young players in this area of the country. Indeed we did, when we had the scouting network in place in the early 90s.

It is probably only 8/9 year-olds in 2007, who may have chosen us instead of Exeter/Plymouth and those boys would only be around 16 now - too young to be considered for the first-team. Any home-grown players who have appeared for us since 2007 are likely to be players the other two clubs didn't want. e.g. Plymouth boy Danny Sullivan is unlikely to have joined us, had Plymouth wanted him and that is probably why we have not quite seen the quality just yet. Hopefully, Chaney and Parcell will buck the trend of recent years.

forevertufc wrote:It's not about doom and Gloom Rich. The youth set up has been running since 2007 and not one single home grown player has been developed, and I mean home grown, not a youngster picked up from an exit trial, who didn't quite make it at one the big London clubs, the club has already spent £200,000, I hope all realize it will have to commit a further £100,000 to get the £200,000 eppp funding, plus there needs to be realization, that with CAT 3 status the club needed to take on extra full time football coach's taking further money away from the first team squad.

This money will have been diverted away from the first team squad and with that kind of money in the wages pot, wonder what kind of team we could have had, personally would have liked to have seen the club go for the much cheaper CAT 4 status, which would have allowed us to continue working with late developers, something we actually seem good at, forgive me here, we got CAT 3 status, well whoopy, achieving it went a long way towards losing the much greater valued league status, I know as fan what I'd rather have.

I think this is extremely unfair. Guys like Yeoman and Sullivan, Prynn and a couple of others have always been with us and they're certainly prospects. Alright, we haven't unearthed the next David Beckham, but the system isn't a total loss.

Anything we give to the YT will certainly not detract from the first team, they're separate budgets. There's absolutely no reason to suspect that the YT's existence had any material impact upon our relegation.

Matt.

Just to add. Sorry I do have bee in bonnet over local talent, and it does anger me some what when I hear/read people say there isn't that talent in this area, trust me there is, as many will know been involved with local youth coaching for some time, just about to start next season as a U18 team manager.

Think irritated is the right word to describe the amount times I hear player X from team X has gone to Exeter, or player Y from team Y has gone to Plymouth right here from the Torbay/South Devon pioneer league, what should be a Torquay United dominated area, there is no proactive scouting network that I can see regards TUFC youth set up or know about.

It's little things, two seasons ago I went to both the U15 Torbay Schools and county schools cup as a number of my players go to teign school who were in both finals, the county final was played at Newton Rec, the Torbay final right here at Plainmoor, how many representatives from Tufc youth dept were there, none, also went to see a trial football day for all ages held at Tiverton Town, to see professional scouts who'd come from all over the country, north, midlands, London and Plymouth, Exeter even Tiverton Town, TUFC yep, you guessed it no where to be seen.

Final point...http://www.torquayheraldexpress.co.uk/u ... story.html know Mick personally, knew about his team, who completely dominated youth football across the county in Devon at there age group for some time, even won/2nd place in national tournaments as well, two of there players from Maldon been picked up by premier league clubs, why weren't they in our set up, a potential £100k gone up in smoke there. Not wishing to turn into a witch hunt, but our lack of ability to spot and develop players right here from home, has to change.

It's not about doom and Gloom Rich. The youth set up has been running since 2007 and not one single home grown player has been developed, and I mean home grown, not a youngster picked up from an exit trial, who didn't quite make it at one the big London clubs, the club has already spent £200,000, I hope all realize it will have to commit a further £100,000 to get the £200,000 eppp funding, plus there needs to be realization, that with CAT 3 status the club needed to take on extra full time football coach's taking further money away from the first team squad.

This money will have been diverted away from the first team squad and with that kind of money in the wages pot, wonder what kind of team we could have had, personally would have liked to have seen the club go for the much cheaper CAT 4 status, which would have allowed us to continue working with late developers, something we actually seem good at, forgive me here, we got CAT 3 status, well whoopy, achieving it went a long way towards losing the much greater valued league status, I know as fan what I'd rather have.

Anyone understand what this means we've done? I've seen our facilities and, as nice as they are, I'd be amazed if any side above the pub leagues couldn't muster a similar set up. I can only presume this has more to do with the qualifications of the coaches etc than it does actual bricks and mortar.

Matt.

Richinns wrote:The 'Category 3' youth funding has all but been agreed:
http://www.torquayunited.com/news/artic ... 97966.aspx

Well done to all involved and fantastic news for the foundations of the club.

In reality this will be (finding, developing and selling) the only way club like ours will continue to operate and I am so pleased for Geoff and all others who have been involved in this achievement.

Let's hope some youth talent can break into the first team over the next few years and aid in the return mission!

I'll second that Richinns. Well done to Geoff and his team for making this happen.

Finally after an eventful and turbulent 12 months we have something positive to cheer about.

Excellent news considering our youth system is likely to be the most affordable option in bringing in players over the coming years.

Any idea of where this puts us in line with other Conference clubs?

Finally a reply!

Guess the majority have there heads stuck too far up there own doom and gloom arses to see the significance of this!

Great news!!!!

The 'Category 3' youth funding has all but been agreed:
http://www.torquayunited.com/news/artic ... 97966.aspx

Well done to all involved and fantastic news for the foundations of the club.

In reality this will be (finding, developing and selling) the only way club like ours will continue to operate and I am so pleased for Geoff and all others who have been involved in this achievement.

Let's hope some youth talent can break into the first team over the next few years and aid in the return mission!