I was involved with kids football from 2011 until 2018 never saw a Walsall scout plenty of Wolves Villa and Stoke ones though never used to be like that when I played.Cameron Archer played for APR as a kid which is a Willenhall based team why didn’t Walsall pick him up?
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Perhaps that’s a question for the CEO or even the SLO ( does he still exist ? ) it really just confirms everything about the club over the last decade and longer, there was no structure, no vision, no accountability we were run by amateurs in a professional business, let’s hope we are on an upward curve. We still have amateurs within the boardroom, I really hope Trivella can sort these bunglers out, as previously said countless times, time will tell.
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That is key for me. When players came through and stuck around, you grew up with them. With all these loan players and one-season contracts, most of the squad changes each year. Of the team that played yesterday, how many were at Bescot at the start of the previous season. White?
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Monthe and Wilkinson were here all of last season too. Kinsella would also have been in the squad if he was fit, but I get your point that we are (and have been for a while) a team of short term journeymen.
Willock is still out on loan to Worcester Raiders - I didn’t know that Worcester had another side apart from Worcester City until he went there.
Can’t immediately think of the Midfielder you are referring to - if Joe Willis, he’s at Stafford now
What actually went wrong with Sam …he looked such a prospect for us when he first broke through on the scene …rumours of long covid affecting his health but never clarified .
Would be nice to know wha’ts going on with him so we can all get behind him and back him and hopefully bring him back to the stage of his career when things were looking rosy here at Walsall for him .
With respect to Academies didn’t one of the Trivela group, was it Jordon said the initial way forward was to mop those released from local clubs at an early age and see if we could develop and polish them up as Walsall players.
One of the suggestions put forward in this thread I think is already in place.
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Jack shaw was who I was thinking of
Was around the first team now disappeared
Oh yeah - forgot him. Welsh under 18 international too.
Agreed. Steve Joesbury never got the credit he deserved back then, either. Bought in Chris Marsh, Lee Sinnott and Mark Taylor to name but a few. Wished we had someone like him now, he did an excellent job. I think some people think that these players just happen. Dont realise the hours that goes in watching these players play and identifying those that are good enough.
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What I was alluding to was doing away with wasting money on the U8s and U16s and just kicking on the 18s or 23s picking up locally released (or up and coming talent from outside the tradional academy system)
It’s a bit embarrassing that players like Matt, Taylor Allen, Josh Gordon have ended up at Walsall via other clubs after either being from the town or playing in the area. We could probably build a decent list in all fairness.
Split that academy budget in to a scouting network to monitor the talent and the community programme to get out in to
More schools and clubs and generate a few more Saddlers of the future
Absolutely! You have mentioned players there who went on to have great careers which started at Walsall.
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Think I’m right in remembering that Walsall were one of the few clubs who voted against the EPPP proposal.
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An easy argument to espouse, but that’s actually complete inverse-snob bullshit.
In your next line…
There you go!! What’s has that got to with anything outside of Walsall FC? A club that in recent years has seen the likes of Kemar Roofe and Zat Knight slip through its radar? And going back further through the decades…Jamille Matt, Steve Hayward, Phil Gee…need I go on? which I very much could do, dozens of examples. It’s embarrasing, and its got feck all to do with the premier league narrative.
Academies are awful, they rarely produce players for clubs like Walsall, and that’s because of the simple fact that club’s like Walsall employ well qualified idiots that think some 8 stone wet though 16 year old that scored a hat-trick against some 7 stone wet through opposition defenders is going to be something in two years time, he isn’t - he’s at best going to be Leamington fodder as is shown time and time again.
Worst thing that ever happened was getting rid of proper reserve team football, and employing scouts that actually went round and knew what they were looking for.
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No it isn’t, it’s an absolute fact. If it’s easy to espouse, it’s easy to demolish, but you’ve done no such thing. Just made up something to suit your opinion.
Sweeping statement. Clearly false and absolutely not worth arguing. If they’re awful there’d be none.
Requires money. Where’d’you want it spent?
What are you looking to do with those scouts you espouse?
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Academies fall in-line with budget, we couldn’t attract the top talent to ours.
No it isn’t its an opinion.
They are expensive, rarely produce first team players at any level from non-league to top level, don’t provide an environment for young players to become integrated into and experienced at playing senior football, and don’t provide an environment for players returning from injury to gain proper match fitness as was the case with reserve teams.
What?
What a ridiculous question, unless you’re latest latest rambling has them confused with car-washing on bob a job week. Sleep it off 
That’s a ridiculous statement to make.
Academies are producing players for Walsall and clubs like Walsall all the time.
Our captain came through a brilliantly run academy at Reading before moving on to an equally well run West Bromwich Albion. Well done to them and their staff on producing a footballer who although wasn’t good enough for them to play in the premier league has made a very good career for himself as a pro in the EFL.
Manny Monthe was taken off the London parks at 14 and given an opportunity at a QPR who contributed to his development resulting in a pro footballer in the EFL.
Well done to the staff at Man Utd who helped a young boy develop into a very articulate well rounded young man in Joe Riley who although wasn’t good enough to make it in the Premier league, has and is enjoying a good career as a pro footballer.
Isaac Hutchinson was at premier league Brighton from the age of 9 through to 18. The work they did there has resulted in a very talented footballer playing for the likes of Walsall where it’s likely they will benefit financially.
Jacob Maddox came through probably the best academy in Europe and although proved to not be good enough to play for their first team is going to enjoy a good pro career in the EFL for the likes of Walsall who will, most likely benefit financially when or if he moves on.
Sam Perry was at Aston Villa a cat 1 football academy. Liam Gordon at Fulham a Cat 1 football academy and later AFC Wimbledon, whose staff have produced a professional footballer, Oisin McEntee was a scholar at Newcastle… it’s of those will or should end up benefiting Walsall financially.
I could go on but my point is the EPPP is probably one of the best things to happen to English football and youth development ever.
Just because lower league clubs lose out at the front end in terms of losing their best talent, they benefit at the back end when these players have had the very best coaching and up bringing possible and end up not quite making it at the premier league clubs but fall back into the EFL at various levels and invariably to the financial benefit of the EFL clubs. I’d guess at 90% of players playing pro football in the EFL have at one time or other been at a football academy and 99% of the English players in the Premier League have come through a Cat 1 academy.
So actually academies are producing footballers for Walsall and clubs of that ilk, all the time. All the time.
Of course there are casualties. Some players drop out, lose their way, are deemed not good enough too soon and plenty of players playing on the parks across the country are overlooked for one reason or another but trust me, most players, if they are good enough and dedicated enough and have the right attributes in terms of talent, attitude, dedication and physicality will at some point get an opportunity….what happens after that is more often or not down to the individual….with huge slices of luck included.
In respect of Walsalls academy producing players for Walsall it depends how you look at it. Most clubs of Cat 3 status will not and cannot attract the best young talent in its area and just as likely if they do, they’ll be unlikely to be able to keep it.
But the roundabout keeps turning and players find their way back to that level eventually and it’s because of the talent overflow at the top end that’s producing players for the lower level clubs that means the talent they have in their own academies simply isn’t good enough and clubs will always just want the best players they can have.
A Birmingham born player of exceptional talent will always end up at Villa over Walsall, but then when he doesn’t quite make it at Villa he could easily end up back at a Walsall (or similar) at the expense of the lad who has been at Walsall since he was 9. That isn’t the premier league or cat 1 academies fault that’s Walsalls decision to just take the best player they can with little or no thought towards loyalty or their own investment.
The knock on effect and the end of the food chain is talent released by Walsall will invariably end up at Solihull or Leamington (if the player is lucky - and good!) and it improves the level of that level of non league at the expense of a local lad who then ends up at Rushall (or similar) and on and on it goes….
The fact is, even at League 2, to be a pro footballer you have to be EXCEPTIONALLY talented, incredibly dedicated, very very lucky and show unbelievable resilience to keep plugging away.
I’d be interested to hear your reasoning behind this. I hear it often but I’m not sure what peoples understanding of the u18s, u21s leagues / levels really is. Often people fall back on the “they need to play against hardened older pros in a competitive environment”. But that’s exactly why the top clubs use the loan system for their top talent……
It’s like thinking a steak meal pre match and a few beers post match is still beneficial physically.
The sports science, the physical training, the technical coaching, the nutrition, the education / school programs and the development in terms of teaching and coach education on show in the top academies is simply on another level. It’s mind boggling when you see what’s involved and how detailed it is, and it benefits most if not all players not just those that make it.
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we are discussing Walsalls academy here … in the last twenty years how many of our products have either
- Played 50 games for us
- Or failing that been Sold
- Recruiting at 16 from another club for u18s does not
Answer is barely any.
I’ll say fair point on academies in general - when we were a championship Side we had young players like Bishop and Hawley scoring 20 a season in this Division. Plus other lads who didn’t make the grade filtering down.
Agree, our own academy has delivered one player in 10/15 years.
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