Soriebah Kajue @SoriebahKajue 59m More Watford's Ogo Obi, 16, is on trial at Manchester United this wk. Obi won the Golden Boot at the Milk Cup last yr. #mufc #watfordfc #hornets
This is what's wrong with EPPP and youth development in England Any hint of talent gets snapped up for peanuts and will never see light of day at first team level.
Why are we giving this guy a free option? Surely he should be told that if he goes for the Man Utd trial then there is no place for him at Watford. The way it is at the moment is we only get him back if Utd think he is garbage.
We can't turn them down as they're Cat 1 and we're Cat 2 and Obi has not signed a scholarship contract with us so he's free to look around and see if another club suits him more. Even if he verbally said that he would sign with us that doesn't stop him moving elsewhere. Because the fees under EPPP are laughable you can understand why clubs scrap their academies. I doubt that the inital fee we'd get for him would cover the cost of his training over the past few years.
Off to Manure never to be heard of again the next Harry Forester?! Will be farmed out loan if he is lucky.
I've worked out the absolute maximum money we'd get from a 16 year old leaving our academy, assuming he joined the club at 9: £71500 initial payment (as we're Cat 3 academy) Maximum of £1.3M after 100 Premier League appearances. 20% of the transfer fee if he moves before turning 24 and 5% of all future domestic fees.
Just not worth the bother is it? Seems more economical to let the big clubs train everyone and then just sniff around the cast offs when they are 18 and on free transfers.
The issue is that very talented youngsters don't fulfil their potential when they're thrown into huge clubs where they'll never see the first team.
To be fair to them Moog, Macheda proves United are quite willing to ruin foreign prospects as well English ones
also why it as right for Panos Armenekas to be sent to Udinese, out of the clutches of the big clubs and why it was pointless going for academy category 1 status
OK, how about if Ashley Young had left us for Villa as a 16 year old. We would have got £1,371,500 for him directly from VIlla after he played 100 games for them and then 20% of the transfer fee from his move to Manchester Utd. Assuming that fee was around £20M, we'd have got £4M So Ash would have earned the club a grand total of £5,371,500 VIlla paid us £9.6M Villa for him and we got £1.2M+ we got from the Man Utd deal. It certainly wouldn't have been a good deal at less then half the money we actually got. Now take Harry Forrester. I think we got £250K from Villa for him (plus addons that AFAIK were never activated) Under EPPP we'd have the initial £71500 and nothing else as he's been released by every club he's been at and never played for Villa. So in a financial sense it's not a good deal for clubs and even Premier League clubs have the same problems. Last year Arsenal took a player from another EPL club for £250K
If it were me I'd transfer the academy over to udinese. That way young prospects can't be stolen under EPPP.
Perhaps he sees no way through for young English players at Watford as superior first team ready players are brought in ahead of you rom abroad? Hoban, Bond and Murray were around before the Pozzos and the only recent youth team graduate O'Nein, they tried to realise until Sannino intervened.
Indeed it would be. More home grown players in their squad than us and they produced a few well known players in the past few years...
If he reached the standard to be in Man Utd's first team squad then he'd be in our team many months before that. He certainly isn't going to Man Utd because he sees an easier route to the 1st team.
Just another example of a Premier League club desperately trying to hoover up as much potential they can in the hope one or two make it.
Couldn't we make Harefield nominally belong to Udinese, but in practice belong to us to exempt all the youngsters from EPPP?
I don't really get the criticism for the lad on here. He's been offered a chance to go and train with United's youth setup. There can't be many/any players who would turn that down. I'm sure Watford have taken the time to explain to him and his parents what we're offering and, more to the point, how that contrasts with United's way of doing things. We have nothing to hide. Harefield only has a chance of working if the players buy into it. We don't need passengers along for the ride looking for their next move. So either he goes now and we draw a line under it or he signs and stays for the foreseeable. I call that win win in what is a pretty crummy system for all clubs interested in developing youth talent.
The reason england are crap is because they don't play with any ****ing heart, or any ****ing passion. Plus, for the last ten years, England have been playing the most over rated player of a generation in Steven ( I keep my head down and let my feet do the talkin ) Gerrard.
I don't see any criticism of the lad only disappoint with the system which allows the premier league elite to systematically hoover up young prospects with minimal compensation and then them having no real path of progression into the first team.
