Watched 5 minutes but the quality is so poor, none of them can even control a ball They'll have long careers at Watford
To be honest, I found it a refreshing change. Second Chelski goal was awful defending, but that is nothing new. I would have watched the whole thing, but I found the commentary so nauseating. A couple of them look like they might be ok at some point.
Really great effort from those young lads. Two great chances at the end to get an equaliser. We certainly rattled the cage of the corporate giant, but alas came up just short.
Cassidy (remember him?) scores for Watford academy in the 89th minute against Charlton, but in typical Watfordy fashion, we concede in the 90th minute to draw 1-1.
Sounds like something the first team would have done tonight! Cassidy had a long term injury I think?
Cassidy on his way to Bohemians on loan. You would think that was the end of his Watford career unless he has an absolutely belting 2nd half of the season.
I find it weird that a 20 year old professional footballer at a Prem club tweets constantly about Liverpool. Doesn’t feel befitting of a player with any serious aspirations of getting in the team.
I mean, you were maybe a little bit worried about it... At the time, at least. https://wfcforums.com/index.php?threads/marco-silva-tapping-up-complaint.54573/page-27#post-2642351
Got a fairly serious injury on loan at Accrington Stanley didn't he? His time there overall wasn't much of a success, apart from against Leeds' U23s, I don't think he managed to score from open play
I would find it a little different if he was close to the first team, but he isn't anywhere near it so I dont see why it matters. Don't really see it any different to Deeney playing for us with a Brum tattoo and constantly talking about supporting them or Hughes going to watch Derby fans, neither of which bothered me in the slightest. Both still stepped up and bagged goals against them for us when it actually mattered (as I think did Cassidy in the Youth Cup run?).
Yeah it's similar, but I suppose Cassidy retweeting 'Kloppaholic' every day just feels quite childish. As you say, he's not near the first team but his social media feels like a real admission of that.
That is slightly odd behaviour from an adult irrespective of the fact he is a part of Watford's academy.
Decent digging, though in my defence that was not long after he'd signed and I'd never yet seen him play at that point - my comment there was literally only based on what others had said about him. Already as of only a couple of months later I was starting to have my doubts: Then come of the end of that same season, after I'd actually got to see him play for myself and he was linked with another move away: and: https://wfcforums.com/index.php?threads/academy-and-under-23s.43030/page-36#post-2666290 https://wfcforums.com/index.php?threads/ryan-cassidy.55340/page-2#post-2761963 https://wfcforums.com/index.php?threads/ryan-cassidy.55340/page-2#post-2761953
Others have said it, but anyone decent will 99.99% of the time get snapped up by a big club, or at least one with a Category One academy. We need to either invest massively, secure Cat 1 status, and completely change the business model, or scrap it all together. The absolute cream of the crop that come through our system and somehow avoid the grubby hands of City, Arsenal etc will be exceeding expectations if they go on to have a mediocre career at League 2 level.
It's much easier to "give youth a chance" when you actually have decent youth to give a chance to. We don't.
Securing Cat 1 status wouldn't necessarily change anything, we'd just get a few £k more compensation for when they do get nicked, which might not compensate for the extra £k we'd have to spend to obtain it in the first place.
No that can't be right, all our best academy prospects don't continuously get nicked, @GoingDown told me so!
I see James Morris has signed a new contract. 2 years with an option of a 3rd. https://mobile.twitter.com/WatfordFCAcad/status/1506662061555732494
Poor kid. I wonder what we say to these youngsters that make them want to sign, the pathway to the first team is non-existent. Even if they do end up training with the first team, two or three managers a season means they'll get no meaningful coaching that will actually improve them as a player.
He's probably on at least £1-2k a week to keep fit and play football at 2o years old. If you'd offered me that at 20 I'd have bitten your hand off. He's also probably got one eye on us going down and potentially getting more game time which will help him secure another contract at some point. He'll then be 22 with 30+ appearances under his belt, someone will offer him another 2 years maybe at £3-4k a week. So by age 24 he's earned £400k minimum, excluding bonuses and signing on fees, even by the lowest amounts. It would take 10+ years on the average UK salary to earn what he will have done in 4 Complete speculation on the figures on my part but even the concept with that level of rudimentary maths you can see why even the most unambitious young players would do anything to stay around the game for as long as possible
Either way we're cheating these kids or they're just here for easy money. The whole under age set up is embarrassing, there's absolutely no plan for them. It's the same for the first team and the whole club in general though so I shouldn't be surprised.
What youth players have we had in the last 10 years, aside from those nicked by other clubs, do you think we've stopped from progressing to the first team?
Completely agree. Going even further than that why would you want to come here and be part of the coaching / back room staff? all the chopping and changing at first team level combined with knowing the output of your work will never benefit the club you work for
Well we don't know because the whole set up isn't serious and geared towards getting them in the first team. To not have a single player come through and contribute to the first team squad in god knows how long isn't just down to the quality of the players, it's a systematic failure and maybe even engineered by the club. It clearly hasn't been a priority for the club under the Gino, I'm not sure why we're continuing with it to be honest.
None have gone on to great success elsewhere. The small % that would have become stars, the Sanchos, are taken before we can charge a proper fee. In the later days under God, where we did have young players coming through, the likes of Tim Sherwood, Malcolm Allen, Dean Holdsworth, Iwan Roberts still had to move on to become better players after stunted development here. Even Alan Mayes was struggling here and wouldn’t have had his time at Chelsea if he’d stayed so we’ve never been perfect at developing our players.
