Youth academy - disbanded?

[AugustaHibs]

SSN are reporting that we are completely binning the youth set up? That would be a terrible decision imo

[CapitalGreen]

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SSN are reporting that we are completely binning the youth set up? That would be a terrible decision imo

If we have to keep East Mains bio-secure then the youth teams won’t have access.

[CMurdoch]

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SSN are reporting that we are completely binning the youth set up? That would be a terrible decision imo

This wouldn't surprise me. The joys of American ownership. Ron clearly said he is looking to concentrate on the 1st team so could easily bin the rest meantime.

[BlackSheep]

There’s no youth/development league until 2021 now due to coronavirus

[Vault Boy]

With the development league off for the foreseeable, it just makes financial sense for now. It's unfortunate, but needs must right now.

I think we'll see it reinstated in the future.

[Sioux]

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This wouldn't surprise me. The joys of American ownership. Ron clearly said he is looking to concentrate on the 1st team so could easily bin the rest meantime.

Aye the same country that has probably the best youth sporting facilitates in the world, costing billions($) on an annual basis.

[MrRobot]

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With the development league off for the foreseeable, it just makes financial sense for now. It's unfortunate, but needs must right now.

I think we'll see it reinstated in the future.

I’m certain we would start it up again in the future, but for now it makes perfect sense to be honest.

[matty_f]

I think just for the cost and practicalities of running a youth set up, it was inevitable. Really harsh on those involved and they won't be the only people impacted by coronavirus.

[Peevemor]

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This wouldn't surprise me. The joys of American ownership. Ron clearly said he is looking to concentrate on the 1st team so could easily bin the rest meantime.

From what I remember from his interviews, I think Ron wants big things from the youth set up.

[bingo70]

Devastating for the kids in the set up, I hope they manage to keep their spirits up and Hibs support them in whatever way we can mentally and practically in terms of finding a new club.

That said I don’t think an academy is really needed for us, if we produce really good ones the chances are they’ll get cherry picked by a bigger club and if they don’t there’s no guarantees they’ll be able to develop the way we want them to do and even then, if there’s an established senior player in their position it can be even more difficult for them to make the break through.

I think a club of our size should be copying the Brentford set up and picking up the bigger clubs cast offs, better chance of getting the good ones in positions we likely need at a fraction of the cost and resources spent on it.

It won’t be a popular decision but it’s the right one imo.

[BroxburnHibee]

I suspect its more likely mothballed then discontinued completely.

However going forward there may end up being a review of the whole setup to see what costs can be saved.

The running costs of East Mains may be prohibitive for example while we go through this.

[CMurdoch]

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From what I remember from his interviews, I think Ron wants big things from the youth set up.

Yet it is the first thing to be ditched in a crisis.
He looks to be about to remove all he can in an attempt to balance our budget for next season.
In practical terms it removes lots of bodies from the equation with the bare minimum of people at East Mains to stay Covid 19 free

[green day]

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Yet it is the first thing to be ditched in a crisis.
He looks to be about to remove all he can in an attempt to balance our budget for next season.

It's about the club surviving. Youth academy or first team player salary?

Not even a debate imo

[The 90+2]

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Yet it is the first thing to be ditched in a crisis.
He looks to be about to remove all he can in an attempt to balance our budget for next season.

I’ll take that. The pathway from youths to the first team has been farcical for years.

[CapitalGreen]

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Yet it is the first thing to be ditched in a crisis.
He looks to be about to remove all he can in an attempt to balance our budget for next season.
In practical terms it removes lots of bodies from the equation with the bare minimum of people at East Mains to stay Covid 19 free

And what of all that has to do with the fact he is American?

[CMurdoch]

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I’ll take that. The pathway from youths to the first team has been farcical for years.

Probably just mothballed for the season but this enforced disruption will see a lot of thinking going on about the right model for the club moving forward.

[Henderson2Del]

Also allows for a complete overhaul to aim to become far more effective

[The Modfather]

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Devastating for the kids in the set up, I hope they manage to keep their spirits up and Hibs support them in whatever way we can mentally and practically in terms of finding a new club.

That said I don’t think an academy is really needed for us, if we produce really good ones the chances are they’ll get cherry picked by a bigger club and if they don’t there’s no guarantees they’ll be able to develop the way we want them to do and even then, if there’s an established senior player in their position it can be even more difficult for them to make the break through.

I think a club of our size should be copying the Brentford set up and picking up the bigger clubs cast offs, better chance of getting the good ones in positions we likely need at a fraction of the cost and resources spent on it.

It won’t be a popular decision but it’s the right one imo.

Fair points IMO. I’d prefer to have a youth academy but only if it’s done properly and we actually use it. Otherwise I’m in agreement that it becomes a millstone. The current setup costs a fortune but I don’t think we’re particularly serious about developing our own players.

There’s no clear out pathway to the first team IMO. We can see that anecdotally, but I’ve linked before to an article that analysed clubs in the SPL from 2009 - 2019 in terms of how many players from the academy made their debut, and probably more tellingly the total minutes played. The stats for both, particularly minutes played, didn’t reflect well on us.

We need to be brave and have giving youth as one of our core principles. There’s never a perfect time to introduce youngsters, we just have to give them their chance as and when they come through. The 3 seasons in the championship the consensus seemed to be that it wasn’t the time to play youth, we had to get promoted. The first season back up wasn’t the time as we needed to consolidate and push on, the last two seasons haven’t been the time as we’ve struggled and needed to make the top 6. There won’t ever be an easy time to do it IMO.

I think the youth set up needs a complete overhaul, as well as expanding our youth scouting network across Scotland. There are lots of good players out there, Motherwell & Hamilton being particularly testament to that. I appreciate none of that comes cheaply, but that’s one area I’d be looking to invest in and change as it’s an area we have badly underperformed the last decade or so IMO. I’d also supplement that with quality young players released higher up the food chain and find the next David Murphy.

[ronaldo7]

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Devastating for the kids in the set up, I hope they manage to keep their spirits up and Hibs support them in whatever way we can mentally and practically in terms of finding a new club.

That said I don’t think an academy is really needed for us, if we produce really good ones the chances are they’ll get cherry picked by a bigger club and if they don’t there’s no guarantees they’ll be able to develop the way we want them to do and even then, if there’s an established senior player in their position it can be even more difficult for them to make the break through.

I think a club of our size should be copying the Brentford set up and picking up the bigger clubs cast offs, better chance of getting the good ones in positions we likely need at a fraction of the cost and resources spent on it.

It won’t be a popular decision but it’s the right one imo.

It'll be interesting to see what they do if grassroots gets up and running in September.

Will they release the boys from their contracts, or make them wait until January before releasing them.

[Fanforlife]

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I suspect its more likely mothballed then discontinued completely.

However going forward there may end up being a review of the whole setup to see what costs can be saved.

The running costs of East Mains may be prohibitive for example while we go through this.

Has more or less been mothballed since start of pandemic.I assume all age groups will be the same as the 2006 squad (grandson plays for them) as in recieving keeping fit & dieting etc. information every week,so minimum expense involved in this,also a fair few attend the football performance school at Broughton so when schools go back and if academy has been stopped i assume kids place of education may have to be changed as well?grandson travels from Tranent to Broughton every school day when its normal conditions. As of yet and as far as im aware nothing has been mentioned to kids/parents in regards to this so think status qou will be preserved.

[Victor]

It cannot be stated enough that these are unprecedented times. Things are tough for everyone, but for businesses they are tough now and are going to get tougher. As government aid starts to diminish all businesses (apart from undertakers) will need to find ways to cut costs and inevitably this will mean people losing their jobs. Football clubs and Hibs in particular, are no different and lots of savings will have to be made so that we can concentrate our or primary core business i.e. putting a first team on the pitch to play matches. Those that expect the owner to finance any extras from his own pocket are failing to grasp the difference between running a business and philanthropy.


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[CMurdoch]

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It's about the club surviving. Youth academy or first team player salary?

Not even a debate imo

Depends on the 1st team player. The club had very little value out of a number of them last season.

It will be interesting to see if in these brutal times, the club look to move David Grey or Daz into the coaching part of their contracts should they move on the current coaching staff.

It all pretty hellish this stuff.
First team players are on cast iron contracts so it's not easy to reduce costs without going for the easy targets like the youth set up.

[Brightside]

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Devastating for the kids in the set up, I hope they manage to keep their spirits up and Hibs support them in whatever way we can mentally and practically in terms of finding a new club.

That said I don’t think an academy is really needed for us, if we produce really good ones the chances are they’ll get cherry picked by a bigger club and if they don’t there’s no guarantees they’ll be able to develop the way we want them to do and even then, if there’s an established senior player in their position it can be even more difficult for them to make the break through.

I think a club of our size should be copying the Brentford set up and picking up the bigger clubs cast offs, better chance of getting the good ones in positions we likely need at a fraction of the cost and resources spent on it.

It won’t be a popular decision but it’s the right one imo.

As we talked about in another thread, i totally agree on this. I will argue for a long time that kids are much better off sticking with Youth Clubs till 16. Its a sickener for the kids right now but so many get dropped from "Pro-Youth" every year for no real benefit. I do wonder what we are doing with the Foundation element though. We have loads of teams that play under that banner and train at HTC.

[H18 SFR]

Total common sense decision to patch it for a year minimum.

[ronaldo7]

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As we talked about in another thread, i totally agree on this. I will argue for a long time that kids are much better off sticking with Youth Clubs till 16. Its a sickener for the kids right now but so many get dropped from "Pro-Youth" every year for no real benefit. I do wonder what we are doing with the Foundation element though. We have loads of teams that play under that banner and train at HTC.

The foundation element just let's boys and girls play football. Nothing more as far as I can see. The cream have been harvested long before the community get anywhere near them.

[Brightside]

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It'll be interesting to see what they do if grassroots gets up and running in September.

Will they release the boys from their contracts, or make them wait until January before releasing them.

If every kid isn’t released right away there would be serious bother. I think that’s a no brainier.

[ronaldo7]

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If every kid isn’t released right away there would be serious bother. I think that’s a no brainier.

Lots of clubs will be watching with anticipation.

[Brightside]

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The foundation element just let's boys and girls play football. Nothing more as far as I can see. The cream have been harvested long before the community get anywhere near them.

Yeh but they do train at HTC. Will be interesting if that is stopped.

[Billy Whizz]

We’ve got a great group of 16 year olds, wonder what the plan is for them

[JimBHibees]

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If every kid isn’t released right away there would be serious bother. I think that’s a no brainier.

That would be shocking. Can they not be mothballed until Covid passes? Good ones will get picked up immediately