As some off you know, i've mentioned before that my brother plays for Millwall Under 11's and they played Charlton today. Final score 4-1 to Millwall. Should and would off been 10 if it weren't for the goalkeepers who were top draw.
Considering Charlton are an Academy and Millwall are an Centre of Excellance then the standard of young players in that team inparticular is very poor. and this goes through the club as the under 9's were the only team to win against millwall from under 9 - under 15's levels.
The future doesn't look too good, if i'm honest judging on the performance and results today!
PS: Once to watch out for..... Billy Hick (GK) regarding as one of the best in the country, aged 11. Pulled off some absolute top draw saves today.
Comments
Think you're being a bit harsh.
Most of these players, from both sides, will fall by the wayside but a select few will go on to become pros, just a fact of life.
If Charlton get one or two from each age group we will have done well.
I do find the thought of an 11 year pulling off top draw saves amusing. I'll take note of his name.
Honestly; remember the name billy hick!!!
His job is to make a good Academy even better and I understand that various steps are already under way to improve the reach of the Academy.
I also wouldn't get too hung up about results, especially at U11. Paul Hart said in the Carlisle programme
"There is a careful balance to be struck between winning and encouraging players to develop and not being scared or making mistakes and experimenting, At U14 we start to talk about understanding strategies of winning and the older the players get, the greater the priority winning should become".
The real test in the quality of the players reaching the respective first teams. Shelvey, Jenkinson, McGinty, Elliot, Randolph have all come out of our system into the premier league or SPL in Randy's case. Add to that Solly and Wagstaff. Who have Millwall produced?
And would Gus Poyet keep his England U16 captain son in our academy if he didn't think it was good place to be.
Charlton have already picked up a few first teamers this way (Basey, Waggy).
They start with the charlton challenge indoor stuff at the age of about 3. As surprising as it may seem, you can tell the good players even at that age. Sean Daly did say that they had an outstanding player at i think it was under 13 level and every club was after him but he was small and wasn't growing as quickly as the others. He was no longer dominating games so they've kept him back a year to look after his confidence until he hasa growth spurt. The six foot giants who are currently making an impact don't have half the talent and probably won't make it. They are looking after the players like that to ensure the end goal - a pro. Maybe Millwall is less long sighted. Maybe not. Who knows?