academies and links

paulbaconsarnie

what have we actually gained by having links with inter milan, new zealand, valencia, germinal beerschot and mypa? and the overseas academy things in spain, south africa and china?
it seems to me that it's just an excuse for a few of the clubs employees to have a 'working' holiday.
come to think about it the academy at sparrows lane isn't producing players anymore so perhaps we should scrap the academies and spend the (estimated) £2m a year it costs to run them on prospects from the lower league. £2m = 4x £500k players (a lot of money to ignore for small clubs). we only need to find a kinsella/robinson type player every couple of years for it to more than pay dividends.

AFKABartram

the overseas links i just don't understand, unless its fully supported by subsidies and grants. I have not seen one benefit to come from any of it yet.

Personally, in all our current plight, i still think the development of our academy is the most important thing for the future. It should be the lifeblood for a club like Charlton and its a tragedy that it has delivered so little in the past ten years.

Spirito Di Canio

The academies remain an important aspect in identifying and bench marking players. My understanding is that some youngsters do make it lower level clubs of which CAFC recieve income. The overseas academies are profit centres of there own and run to provide football to youngsters who pay to go there - the upside is that we have identified youth players that are now in the tracking system and that have had trials over here. Breaking talent and growing your own is a good example of Charltons work in the community and It is a requirement of the FA for all Prem clubs offer an academy and or centre of excellence as well as associated services such as a physio dept etc.

If you dont feel the club is producing players anymore and that Valley Gold is a waste of time - then write to Steve Gritt or Dennnis Coxall and ask him why we lose so many young players to other London clubs year in year out and why we just miss players in the system only to see them pop up at West Ham - Chelsea - Arsenal et al.

The youth players work extremely hard at their training and deserve a trip abroad IMO and hopefully maybe just one will make it - the stats are incredible to make it in the the prem and champ or should we just be bailing ourselves out by buying foreign talent and excluding british youngsters from the game?