Our youth system

[GenerationA47 751]

Some years ago our youth team produced homegown Premiership-beaters Sutton, Goss, Ullathorne and (er) Sutch, and slightly later such greats as Eadie, Mills, Kenton, Bellamy, and Green. All these players seem to have been influential in the greatest successes of their club (NCFC or later clubs) over the years, and the first group are simply legendary. Does the current crop (e.g. Jarvis, Henderson and Shackell) show any sign of the potential for greatness of their illustrious forebears at the equivalent age?

Perhaps you think so. If not, where and why has our youth set-up diverged from its past performance - is it a lack of finance and quality staffing after our brush with bankruptcy and football league hiatus - or were we just lucky back then? (Apologies if this topic''s already been done to death a million times, or if I''ve made any factual errors.)

[gazzathegreat 0]

i think the reason is that we spent a lot of time post chase with not enough money to invest in the youth (now academy) set up - i don''t know the exact figures or reasons, kathy, (who posts on here and is involved with NCISA) might be able to provide more exact info but it is true to say we have not produced any suttons, eadies or bellamys for a long time

also the powers that be have changed the rules limiting us looking beyond ( i think) a 100 mile radius for youngsters, not bad if you are wba, but a bit tough as most of the area to the north and east of norwich is in fact the north sea!!

but don''t panic, we have a certain david williams back in a coaching role, and to my mind he is the finest purist footballing coach we ever had, i am sure his influence will soon rub off on those youngsters up at colney, the facilites are first class and i know both NCISA and other supporters organiations raise a lot of money for the academy

if you want to check the youngsters out, they play some saturday mornings up at colney - the fixtures are in today''s pink un

[GenerationA47 751]

Thanks Gazza, your points are certainly food for thought. Good to hear your positive take on the staffing front. As for that 100ml radius, we & other ''seasiders'' should definitely be compensated by having our inland zone extended, say to 150ml, or else be allowed to skip the sea and extend into Holland! Poaching promising lads from Ajax & Feyenoord would be amusing.
I did see that Kathy/NCISA had handed over a cheque for £1,000 to the youngsters, which is a great move. Let''s hope a bit more of the Premier gold not being spent on players etc. is invested in the youth teams, then. Oh, and I wish I was close enough to watch at Colney but I''m hardly ever home nowadays.
Cheers.

[GermanCanary 0]

I would agree with most of the points above and hope that Jarvis/Hendo/Shackell will also benefit from much improved reserve team football this year which has also been a problem in recent player development.
To keep up to date on the Academy from afar visit www.foncy.co.uk, foncy being another organisation that has raised significant funds in recent years.