Not saying the training ground should be near the Valley, however would be good to hear from the Club as to what the plans are with sparrows lane, are these portacabins part of category 1 academy status? Have we got any plans to buy back the land from Duchatalet and build permanent state of the art facilities???
It was mentioned at the last fans forum meeting, was included in the minutes of that meeting and was subsequently discussed at length on here.
Unfortunately or fortunately we're not based in a rural location so citing Forest Green is like comparing apples with deck chairs.
And as you yourself point out TS doesn't own the training ground because Amis and Southall promised Roland £44m for it and the Valley and the evil Belgian won't sell at a reasonable price.
So why would TS spend £££££m on developing land his doesn't own? That would be stupid.
But he's keen to get Cat 1, so as discussed at the Fans Forum and on here, he's found a work around that involves temporary buildings.
It's not ideal but it is, if Ged Roddy is to be believed (and I know that is a big IF), a short term solution.
Some people I've spoken to feel that it can work, other Charlton fans are, you'll all be surprised to hear, are more cynical about it and dismiss the whole idea of temporary building.
Whether it works or not and gets us Cat 1 this year we shall have to wait and see. WIOTOS and all that.
1) Any idea who’s overseeing the project?
2) Do they have experience in this sort of thing?
3) What happened to the ditch he was last overseeing, the useless article? 😂
State of the art training grounds sprouting up all over the country, shiney, glossy all inviting state of the art facilities attracting talent from all around the world.
Meanwhile, at Charlton on land owned by a desiccated piece of Belgian kak, we are loading up with portacabins and tin sheds.
It's called Eco Park and is still nowhere near a train station. Riiight.
I think the plan is to run Electric Buses from local train stations to the ground
If the owner was truly an environmentalist he would ay on a council pitch. Concrete production is one of the most CO2 producing manufacturing processes and use there is.
Good job Forest Green are building the new stadium almost entirely from wood then.
What we are doing at Sparrows Lane was good enough elsewhere so there is no reason it will not get us Cat 1 academy status.
In the immortal words of Messrs Russel Slade and Gary Barlowwe need a little patience.
But it's happening. This hasn't just fallen in to place - a lot of time, work and expense has gone into this and if the end result is a Cat 1 academy it will all have been worth it.
Says the man who was charged with implementing Roland's version. Remind me how that went?
I take issue with that. You are very much incorrect. We were tasked with literally digging them out of the fucking hole Roland created by trying to do it on the cheap using cheap european labour and cheap materials.
We have saved them hundreds of thousands of pounds in the last couple of years mitigating the ineptitude of that fuckwit's appointments.
But lets not let the truth get in the way of yet another whinge
Glad you now express yourself about Roland on here the same way most of us were when he was here
In fairness at the time I said “not everything was shit” under Roland and we should be careful what we wished for.
and then along came Southall and his numpties
Thankfully it’s all history and we are still here. Forwards and onwards I guess
“We’ve just been through the audits, and it was a hectic four, five days as you can imagine but I think the feedback was quite positive. So, we’re just waiting for a result.
“It’s where we should be in terms of productivity and the program that we run, but actually being Cat One would help the U18s to retain players and retain staff which is quite difficult as a Cat Two. Clubs can’t just come and get our players.”
Additionally, the academy would also benefit from facing teams like Arsenal, Tottenham, and Chelsea more regularly. A decision on this is expected to be made in the coming weeks"
“We’ve just been through the audits, and it was a hectic four, five days as you can imagine but I think the feedback was quite positive. So, we’re just waiting for a result.
“It’s where we should be in terms of productivity and the program that we run, but actually being Cat One would help the U18s to retain players and retain staff which is quite difficult as a Cat Two. Clubs can’t just come and get our players.”
Additionally, the academy would also benefit from facing teams like Arsenal, Tottenham, and Chelsea more regularly. A decision on this is expected to be made in the coming weeks"
“We’ve just been through the audits, and it was a hectic four, five days as you can imagine but I think the feedback was quite positive. So, we’re just waiting for a result.
“It’s where we should be in terms of productivity and the program that we run, but actually being Cat One would help the U18s to retain players and retain staff which is quite difficult as a Cat Two. Clubs can’t just come and get our players.”
Additionally, the academy would also benefit from facing teams like Arsenal, Tottenham, and Chelsea more regularly. A decision on this is expected to be made in the coming weeks"
all very well spending loads on training facilities, what's urgently needed is good players AND coaches to get sorted out, fit and tactically aware whilst using the spanking new facility
all very well spending loads on training facilities, what's urgently need is good players AND coaches to get sorted out, fit and tactically aware whilst using the spanking new facility
all very well spending loads on training facilities, what's urgently needed is good players AND coaches to get sorted out, fit and tactically aware whilst using the spanking new facility
Chicken and the egg, we ain't freshly relegated cafc any more... there needs to be something to attract these staff of higher quality.
“We’ve just been through the audits, and it was a hectic four, five days as you can imagine but I think the feedback was quite positive. So, we’re just waiting for a result.
“It’s where we should be in terms of productivity and the program that we run, but actually being Cat One would help the U18s to retain players and retain staff which is quite difficult as a Cat Two. Clubs can’t just come and get our players.”
Additionally, the academy would also benefit from facing teams like Arsenal, Tottenham, and Chelsea more regularly. A decision on this is expected to be made in the coming weeks"
Asked Thomas about the audit last night.
Said pretty much the same ie that the audits went well, there maybe some points to address but they won't know the result or what the next steps are until they get the full report in a few days or a week.
One thing is we need to hire a phycologist (not necessarily full time, could be on a contract/consultancy basis) for the academy.
JFC told a funny story that the U23s came running out of the changing rooms screaming that there was a rat in there. Jake went it and poked about under the seats and a mouse ran out and off.
Not sure our U23s are made of the right stuff : - )
“We’ve just been through the audits, and it was a hectic four, five days as you can imagine but I think the feedback was quite positive. So, we’re just waiting for a result.
“It’s where we should be in terms of productivity and the program that we run, but actually being Cat One would help the U18s to retain players and retain staff which is quite difficult as a Cat Two. Clubs can’t just come and get our players.”
Additionally, the academy would also benefit from facing teams like Arsenal, Tottenham, and Chelsea more regularly. A decision on this is expected to be made in the coming weeks"
Asked Thomas about the audit last night.
Said pretty much the same ie that the audits went well, there maybe some points to address but they won't know the result or what the next steps are until they get the full report in a few days or a week.
One thing is we need to hire a phycologist (not necessarily full time, could be on a contract/consultancy basis) for the academy.
JFC told a funny story that the U23s came running out of the changing rooms screaming that there was a rat in there. Jake went it and poked about under the seats and a mouse ran out and off.
Not sure our U23s are made of the right stuff : - )
Do you happen to know what the audit consists of?
Is it a case of just checking our training facilities, medical equipment, staffing numbers etc?
“We’ve just been through the audits, and it was a hectic four, five days as you can imagine but I think the feedback was quite positive. So, we’re just waiting for a result.
“It’s where we should be in terms of productivity and the program that we run, but actually being Cat One would help the U18s to retain players and retain staff which is quite difficult as a Cat Two. Clubs can’t just come and get our players.”
Additionally, the academy would also benefit from facing teams like Arsenal, Tottenham, and Chelsea more regularly. A decision on this is expected to be made in the coming weeks"
Asked Thomas about the audit last night.
Said pretty much the same ie that the audits went well, there maybe some points to address but they won't know the result or what the next steps are until they get the full report in a few days or a week.
One thing is we need to hire a phycologist (not necessarily full time, could be on a contract/consultancy basis) for the academy.
JFC told a funny story that the U23s came running out of the changing rooms screaming that there was a rat in there. Jake went it and poked about under the seats and a mouse ran out and off.
Not sure our U23s are made of the right stuff : - )
Do you happen to know what the audit consists of?
Is it a case of just checking our training facilities, medical equipment, staffing numbers etc?
I don't know all the details but all those things as well as policies (safeguarding, etc) and probably other things I'm not aware of.
It took a week according to the the U18s coach so fairly substantial it seems.
The club is audited annually anyway to maintain it's Cat 2 status. As I understand it there may need to be another, additional, audit to confirm Cat 1 but from what the TS is saying we won't know until the report comes in.
My guess is that it is a fail, a pass or a pass with corrective actions (hire a phycologist and buy mouse traps).
There is still some suspicion (this is NOT from TS) that the powers to be don't want to give a league one club Cat 1 status but I don't know if that is true. Wouldn't surprise me but that's not in the audit criteria as far as I know.
Still, you can imagine that some big clubs who are happy to take players cheap off clubs like us won't want the riff-raff eating at the top table. Again this isn't coming from Thomas so it's not him getting his excuses in first.
The club shall just have to wait and see what the report says.
Academies are independently audited and given a Category status of 1 to 4, with 1 being the most elite. Up to 10 different factors will be considered in the grading, including productivity rates; training facilities; and coaching, education and welfare provisions.
The higher a club's Category the more funding will be available to it and the EPPP will see the Premier League and FA invest more central income than ever before in Youth Development programmes across the country.
That doesn't really tell us much but I guess having the apprentice of the year in Dejo Elerewe suggests our education is doing something right. We score high on productivity too ie players in our first team and in the premier league. Facilities? Question mark. Coaching (at academy level remember) seems very good given how well our teams do in leagues and cups. Welfare provisions I couldn't guess.
Thanks Henry. May be a fair point regarding the league one thing, when you look at the list it'd actually be a surprise if we did get it when the vast majority of the championship and Watford (who are in the PL every other year) don't even have Cat 1.
"The current Category One Academies are: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Blackburn, Burnley, Brighton, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Derby County, Everton, Fulham, Leeds United, Leicester City, Liverpool, Newcastle United, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Reading, Southampton, Stoke City, Sunderland, Tottenham, West Brom, West Ham and Wolves."
“We’ve just been through the audits, and it was a hectic four, five days as you can imagine but I think the feedback was quite positive. So, we’re just waiting for a result.
“It’s where we should be in terms of productivity and the program that we run, but actually being Cat One would help the U18s to retain players and retain staff which is quite difficult as a Cat Two. Clubs can’t just come and get our players.”
Additionally, the academy would also benefit from facing teams like Arsenal, Tottenham, and Chelsea more regularly. A decision on this is expected to be made in the coming weeks"
Asked Thomas about the audit last night.
Said pretty much the same ie that the audits went well, there maybe some points to address but they won't know the result or what the next steps are until they get the full report in a few days or a week.
One thing is we need to hire a phycologist (not necessarily full time, could be on a contract/consultancy basis) for the academy.
JFC told a funny story that the U23s came running out of the changing rooms screaming that there was a rat in there. Jake went it and poked about under the seats and a mouse ran out and off.
Not sure our U23s are made of the right stuff : - )
I’d be astounded if we can reach category 1 with portacabins
Just as well we don't have portacabins then.
The academy will be in permanent brick built buildings
That’s interesting, is it just the first team in these portacabins?
I’d be interested to see if we could still meet the requirements if these permanent buildings aren’t already up and running.
That’s the idea yes. Install ‘portacabins’ for the first team so we can get around the issue of developing land that is still owned by RD.
How that might affect recruitment in the short to medium term, we’ll have to wait and see.
No issue with portacabins same with shipping containers.. If designed well they can look good, and as long as the inside are up to date with the latest technology and medical equipment, no issue
Comments
Meanwhile, at Charlton on land owned by a desiccated piece of Belgian kak, we are loading up with portacabins and tin sheds.
There's basic and then there's CAFC 2022.
and then along came Southall and his numpties
Thankfully it’s all history and we are still here. Forwards and onwards I guess
“We’ve just been through the audits, and it was a hectic four, five days as you can imagine but I think the feedback was quite positive. So, we’re just waiting for a result.
“It’s where we should be in terms of productivity and the program that we run, but actually being Cat One would help the U18s to retain players and retain staff which is quite difficult as a Cat Two. Clubs can’t just come and get our players.”
Additionally, the academy would also benefit from facing teams like Arsenal, Tottenham, and Chelsea more regularly. A decision on this is expected to be made in the coming weeks"
I hope it doesn’t flounder on infrastructure issues.
U18 coach
'Build it and they will come'
Asked Thomas about the audit last night.
Said pretty much the same ie that the audits went well, there maybe some points to address but they won't know the result or what the next steps are until they get the full report in a few days or a week.
One thing is we need to hire a phycologist (not necessarily full time, could be on a contract/consultancy basis) for the academy.
JFC told a funny story that the U23s came running out of the changing rooms screaming that there was a rat in there. Jake went it and poked about under the seats and a mouse ran out and off.
Not sure our U23s are made of the right stuff : - )
Is it a case of just checking our training facilities, medical equipment, staffing numbers etc?
I don't know all the details but all those things as well as policies (safeguarding, etc) and probably other things I'm not aware of.
It took a week according to the the U18s coach so fairly substantial it seems.
The club is audited annually anyway to maintain it's Cat 2 status. As I understand it there may need to be another, additional, audit to confirm Cat 1 but from what the TS is saying we won't know until the report comes in.
My guess is that it is a fail, a pass or a pass with corrective actions (hire a phycologist and buy mouse traps).
There is still some suspicion (this is NOT from TS) that the powers to be don't want to give a league one club Cat 1 status but I don't know if that is true. Wouldn't surprise me but that's not in the audit criteria as far as I know.
Still, you can imagine that some big clubs who are happy to take players cheap off clubs like us won't want the riff-raff eating at the top table. Again this isn't coming from Thomas so it's not him getting his excuses in first.
The club shall just have to wait and see what the report says.
Categorisation
Academies are independently audited and given a Category status of 1 to 4, with 1 being the most elite. Up to 10 different factors will be considered in the grading, including productivity rates; training facilities; and coaching, education and welfare provisions.
The higher a club's Category the more funding will be available to it and the EPPP will see the Premier League and FA invest more central income than ever before in Youth Development programmes across the country.
That doesn't really tell us much but I guess having the apprentice of the year in Dejo Elerewe suggests our education is doing something right. We score high on productivity too ie players in our first team and in the premier league. Facilities? Question mark. Coaching (at academy level remember) seems very good given how well our teams do in leagues and cups. Welfare provisions I couldn't guess.
"The current Category One Academies are: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Blackburn, Burnley, Brighton, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Derby County, Everton, Fulham, Leeds United, Leicester City, Liverpool, Newcastle United, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Reading, Southampton, Stoke City, Sunderland, Tottenham, West Brom, West Ham and Wolves."
Do we have a seaweed problem?
The academy will be in permanent brick built buildings
How that might affect recruitment in the short to medium term, we’ll have to wait and see.
WIOTOS