A while ago now I was speaking with MFW regular Alex Bain and somewhere in the conversation there emerged the concept that when it comes to buying low and selling high, it doesn’t always work out that way. And nor does it for many home-grown Academy lads either.
For every Emi there’s an Aidan Fitzpatrick, for every Madders a Conor McGrandles and for every Ben Godfrey a Sean Raggett.
When Alex posed the question I responded: I haven’t got time to think of all those who stalled here [the dogs wouldn’t get out this evening if I did that] but a few off the top of my head would be Declan Rudd, Jed Steer, Darren Kenton, David Smith, Darel Russell, Adrian Coote and latterly Josh Murphy.
Alex snapped back with his well-researched review of our FA Youth Cup winners of 2013:
Will Britt: Goalkeeper brought in on loan from Southampton, forced to retire in 2016 after serious knee injuries and took up boxing.
Cameron Norman: Right-back’s brilliant spell at King’s Lynn earned a move to Oxford United and now playing regularly in League Two for Walsall.
Kyle Callan-McFadden: Centre-back recently joined King’s Lynn in the National League after playing in the Irish top flight for Sligo Rovers.
Harry Toffolo: Now an established left-back at Championship level for Huddersfield after a successful 18 months at Lincoln City.
Ben Wyatt: Left-back was on the books at Ipswich at Colchester before venturing into non-league, now a League Two regular for Sutton United.
Jacob Murphy: Forced his way back in at Newcastle after loans at West Brom and Sheffield Wednesday, has scored three goals in 55 games for the Magpies.
Henry Randall: Midfielder had non-league stints at Histon and Bishop’s Stortford.
Cameron McGeehan: Spells at clubs including Luton, Barnsley and Portsmouth, joined KV Oostende last summer and currently has three goals from 15 games in the Belgian top-flight.
Cameron King: Played locally for Thetford before a spell in Ireland with Shamrock Rovers. Back for a second stint at King’s Lynn after a successful National League spell with Halifax.
Josh Murphy: Relegated from the Premier League with Cardiff in 2019, has scored 11 goals in 76 matches for the Bluebirds.
Carlton Morris: Playing regularly for MK Dons in League One this season, his eighth loan spell, ahead of a permanent move to Barnsley.
Reece Hall-Johnson: Full-back missed the Youth Cup final with an ankle injury. Almost 50 League Two appearances at Grimsby and Northampton, now a regular for Wrexham in the National League.
Alex then hit me with a broadside of our more recent Academy departures as in Rob Nizet, Melvin Sitti, Aidan Fitzpatrick, Jordan Thomas, Ethen Vaughan, William Hondermarck, Zach Dronfield, Louis Lomas and Simon Power.
Reeling under the blows I came back with Eboue Adams at Forest Green [doing well] and Akin Famewo at Charlton Athletic.
The man from Blackpool wasn’t finished though and we agreed on a few more as in Sebastian Soto, Danel Sinani, Glenn Middleton and Rocky Bushiri.
Then I searched the canyons of my mind and remembered Chris Martin and Micky Spillane – Roedent’s *Spice Boys*. Martin did have a decent career at a Championship level and played for Scotland but he had, erm, off-field issues – allegedly. Spillane ended up at Dagenham & Redbridge.
Chris Llewellyn was another one downed by off-piste issues. Allegedly. Paul Dalglish was a tidy little player. but never heard of again. Same as his contemporary Neal Fenn who we loaned from Spurs and could have stayed but Mike Walker said no in the end – dunno why.
Philip Heise played for us twice and is now happily in Bundesliga II.
Cedric Anselin, Jean Yves de Blassis and *Le Juge* aka Julien Brellier signed from Hearts, later admitting he couldn’t pass over anything more than 20 yards. Cedric ended up at Kings Lynn and F-knows what happened to the other two. Marc Libbra completes the French quartet.
What surprised me is that over the course of the original chat for a rainy afternoon is just how many names we came up with between us and that was without too much soul-searching.
There must be some we’ve missed between us. All suggestions from you MFW readers out there would be most welcome.
I seem to remember that at a recent AGM it was disclosed that the academy cost £5m p.a. to operate so the likes of Lewis and the Murphy brothers have effectively covered a decade of the operation before we consider assets unrealised (Aarons and Cantwell) and the added value for Maddison and Godfrey. The issue is that the success rate is by its nature low so we need to put a lot of players through the process to find one or two gems. The other aspect is the buying of players who we look to add to our first team squad and possibly develop. The obvious success being Buendia, the failures being Watkins, Franke and Husband with Ben Marshall probably being the biggest failure in every sense. In between we have players who add value to the squad without being sold for mega bucks, Hanley, McLean and Vrancic are the type of players I’m thinking about. The success rate is low but that is the nature of the beast, this is why I don’t share the usual over excitement when we sign a handful of players as I would regard 40% success rate as the expected return. The big question is do we regret the ones that slip through the net? I am keeping an eye on McGrandles as he seems to be making decent progress after his injuries but would he be ready for a top26 club? I can think back to the likes of Korey Smith and Tom Adeyemi along with Chris Martin who would have been first team regulars if we had remained a lowly Championship club but that isn’t a viable option for us. Is the success rate lower than it was in the 70s/80s? I can think that for every Barham and Fashanu we would have a few Fleetings, Nightingales, Symonds and Gobles. Recruitment and Development is key to the club and we need to make sure that it continues to pay for itself
Hi John
Very well said. The success rate seems to incredibly low and I can’t do anything more than guess for obvious reasons [eg lack of data] but, combining the academy with buy-ins for the under-23s I wouldn’t put it any better than 1: 20 and even then I’m probably being generous.
You’re quite right about Korey Smith and Tom Adeyemi of course and while you keep an eye on McGrandles I’ll be following Danel Sinani at Huddersfield, who is with them on a season-long loan at the end of which his contract with us runs out.
Good comment – thanks.
Don’t think you should really be putting players that cost the club over two million quid into the examples above.
But thats not going to stop me mentioning McDougall, Boyer, Cross Bone and Paddon all bought for a lower sum than their resale value a few seasons later. It’s been going on for years. Of course we even get the flops, one musical dragon !!
Hi Bernie
I can’t think of anybody mentioned who cost us over £2million?
Sure we paid for all four of the French lads, but not to that degree surely? If we put all four of them together it’s still a stretch!
The five you mention from an earlier era I agree with and you could add Fleck, Townsend, Linighan, Sherwood and so many others to that category – but I’m not sure they were bought with simply their potential resale values in mind but the ones I mention were bought under Chase so you never know!
Cheers
Hi Bernie
I think the essence of the article was those from the academy while your list is strong if my memory serves me back in those days we had no academy and youth players were apprentised to the club and the clubs had a youth team and a reserve team.
Not sure anyone had come up with the idea to train players for a profit
There were the Jarvis brothers not sure what happened to both but did read that one player regularly for Kings Lynn and has now returned to his previous club Lowestoft
Hi Alex
Actually you did mention Ryan and Rossi but I unintentionally missed them off the list.
Mea culpa.
Cheers
Martin, I don’t want to fall out but you’ve made me think of Mark Fotheringham and Ian Murray. This is not good!
Hi Don
I don’t want to fall out either but I doubt we ever bought Fotheringham or Murray with a view to making a profit on them!
I’ve leave you with two words that will really send a shiver up your spine:
Matty. Pattison.
Cheers 🙂
That’s before…
James Husband
Philip Heise
Marcel Franke
Ralf Fahrman
Marley Watkins
Marcus Edwards
Ben Marshall
Felix Passlack
Ondrej Duda
Ibraham Amadou
Patrick ROberts
Josip Drmic
Jordan Thomas
Przemyslaw Placheta
Reece McAlear
Sam McCallum
Liam Gibbs
Flynn Clarke
Daniel Sinani
Orjan Nyland
Sebastian Soto
Melvin Sitti
None of whom were exactly free. in the literal sense. Add up agents and wages and other fees…. especially when missing out on guys like Kris Ajer because we wanted to sign someone from Ipswich or Peterborugh for the difference in cost that Brentford were prepared to pay!
Hi Mike
Some on your list were loans so not really within the remit of the article but many are great examples for sure.
Flynn Clarke is still with us but I must admit I’ve not seen him mentioned recently.
Cheers
Flynn played on Monday at the Walks. Still recovering from injury I think. Did not impress in any event. Another recent name is Regan Riley from Bolton. Another who has slipped from view, I guess owing to injury.
Must say the official coverage of the Academy is dire. The Pinkun is much better.
Hi Nick
Since they revamped the website at the time of the iFollow/Canaries TV switchover NCFC official is never listed in NewsNow and although I still get my weekly update on a Friday I have to go to them for other info and there is normally very little available about the Academy or u-23s.
Bolton fans were fuming when we bought Regan Riley. It’s difficult to keep track of the hopefuls and I hope NCFC official soon goes back to at least the match reports.
I agree with you that the Pink Un do very well in this respect.
Cheers
Yes, sorry Martin, I’m aware they are loans…. But all cost a lot of money one way or the other. Ask me if I’d rather have 2 or 3 of those loans for the price of one Conour Hourihane or go the difference on Kris Ajer and I think you can guess my answer!
Missing out on Ajer was a mistake that is already coming back to haunt us I’m afraid, especially as we were in pole position for a while.
Mike
I might be wrong but I did read a while ago there was 2 budgets one for the Academy and the other for first team recruits so the fee’s paid to Southend, Ipshite and Peterborough shouldn’t have had any knock on effect for Ajer
I think you’re right. As Nick [above] mentioned him, Bolton’s Regan Riley would probably have come from the academy budget too.
Marty, the ratio of success to non-success is quite dramatic and it applies to most situation in life. I read the other day that a Hollywood movie has on average 20mins of film on the cutting room floor for 1min of actual movie. And most places I’ve worked the promotion success rate would be a similar ratio. You mention those players who almost made it but in addition there’s many more hopefuls who leave in tears, don’t know if it’s still the case but at one time young players were encourage to also have an apprenticeship outside of football.
Hi Cutty
That’s a good point, is the educational one.
Jamal Lewis started doing some kind of well-respected accountancy course when he was in the Academy, but apparently intended to complete it during his breakthrough season. Whether he did or not I dunno but the intention was definitely there.
I’m pretty sure the Academy do still insist on forms of non-footy education for the youngsters and although I can’t recall the names a few of ours have certainly undertaken sports science courses very recently and hopefully are still encouraged to do so.
Cheers – good point.
Cripes, there’re more misses there than at a debutante’s ball!
Hi Chris
Just like your quizzes [more please] it’s no fun when you know the answers in advance 🙂
We were never going to recall every one of this class of player between us so, like the debutante’s ball, it was thrown open to the floor.
Cheers mate
How about Jason Shackell? Still playing at the ripe old age of 37.
He had so much promise. I remember he came into the end of a Premier League season and held is own at the highest level. City should have built around him at the time.
A very good centre back who probably should have been retained.
Hi Daniel
I think we were originally concentrating on players who never really made it anywhere of any note, unlike Jason Shackell who went on to a long and pretty successful career, particularly at Wolves.
Good shout though – most of us will have good memories of him.
Thanks