Closing academy

[TheJuryeffsOut]

Awaywego wrote:

Wasn’t the closing of the academy announced on 14/15 july and yet people are trying so say the boys didn’t find out till the 8th of August, were they wrapped up in cotton wool?

My understanding was the U18s were continuing. Unless I misunderstood the previous announcements/u turns/hearsay from fans forum/screenshots from Facebook.

[Interested Bystander]

https://twitter.com/LincolnCity_FC/status/1689683029663666176?s=20

[TheJuryeffsOut]

Good move for a professional football league club.

[Interested Bystander]

Deereyme66 wrote:

Either way, it’s starting to get reminiscent of DH’s previous Twitter spats. Unsavoury and not advisable from a club owner…

‘Wendi Betts kind people that put them up
You’re on here having been paid extremely well by the club slating that very entity because you’ve lost your little earner. Stop spouting rubbish and portraying you were doing this out of the goodness of your heart to help the lads. Your motivation like most in that academy set up was financial.
You are just angry it’s come to an end.’

The topic has now been deleted! Complicit.

[Anonymous]

The Lincoln / Bottesford Development Centre reference from Twitter.

The likes of Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds, Hull, Grimsby, Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley are all likely to come fishing in our waters and open up development centres for their Academies.

[ironfromafar]

Anonymous wrote:

The Lincoln / Bottesford Development Centre reference from Twitter.

The likes of Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds, Hull, Grimsby, Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley are all likely to come fishing in our waters and open up development centres for their Academies.

All the clubs you mention are established FL clubs not a potless outfit languishing in the second tier of non league so yeas more than likely they will ..

[TheJuryeffsOut]

Aside from how the academy closure has been done by Hilton – very badly – which is only to be expected from what I’ve seen from day 1 of his ownership.
The fact that a team, which used to be one of our main rivals, has partnered with one of the main non league clubs in the Scunthorpe area, and were quite obviously poised waiting for the official demise of the SUFC academy is horrendous.
Here’s a quote from the Lincoln forum ;

“ Bottesford is basically in Scunthorpe. Perhaps they could become a feeder club for us….”

Those saying “cut your cloth”, “we don’t need an academy”, “waste of money” etc etc, Wake Up ! The club has abandoned the young players of the area, now and in the future, to be picked up by the likes of Lincoln City.

[Awaywego]

Lots of young lads have been going to these other clubs for years not because they wanted to, but because their parents did and obviously how they sold there clubs to them, this is not something new, so long as the young lads get a chance it doesn’t matter where they go, no loyalty will be shown by the lads or parents who see something better in there eyes somewhere else, bit like trade apprenticeships we’d take 20 on and expect to keep 5 after a couple of years out there time, good for the firm good for other firms good for the country, hopefully we’ll get back to the league and get the academy back, up till then we’ll have to rely on others.

5 users thanked author for this post.

open hearth iron, Just Iron, Northumbiron, ironfromafar, Iron-awe

[ironfromafar]

The list of negatives that come into play when a club tumbles down the football pyramid is a lengthy one .. compounded if it coincides with ownership turmoil and a lack of cash which it usually does IT CAN BE TERMINAL

The only bright spot at he moment is we seem to have a decent squad..so long as they are kept sweet n paid etc.

Im wondering where all the income has gone from ST, the numerous sponsorship deals , advertising , new directors , car parking, 1899 , shirt sales, etc etc must be a few boB ?? … towards new players, debts inc taxes , running costs perhaps.

Good news is no sign of the 2000 cap on GP attendance …yet

[Iron-awe]

Spot on Awaywego, anybody who follows grassroots football in the Scunthorpe area know that local lads have been going to clubs, some a lot bigger then the Iron, for many a year. Strangely enough it also happens to youngsters in Grimsby , Lincoln , Hull etc, it’s how football scouting works.

[Northumbiron]

Being a football apprentice is as precarious as entering any entertainment business.

Few make it to “stardom”.

When I was teaching we had a number of kids who were on Newcastle’s books. Most never became a Waddle or a Gascogne. The vast majority were released as went into a totally different profession, or at best hit the dizzy heights of Darlington or York.

We’re NLN for the foreseeable future. It’s something we have to accept.

The way the closure was handled is a different matter entirely.

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ironfromafar

[cassidystash]

TheJuryeffsOut wrote:

Those saying “cut your cloth”, “we don’t need an academy”, “waste of money” etc etc, Wake Up ! The club has abandoned the young players of the area, now and in the future, to be picked up by the likes of Lincoln City.

What U18 players of league standard could have been “picked up” in the last 10 years?

[TheJuryeffsOut]

Recently Wilson, Foster, Shrimpton, Robertson, Pugh, Lewis, Cribb, Sellars-Fleming, and then Watson, Wootton, Slocombe, Godden. I’m aware they are not necessarily all born and bred in Scunthorpe but they are products of the academy. Just as important is the link between the club and the community through the academy. I think closing it is a bad decision for the club and the town. Unfortunately we have been taken over by a non league owner and this is the path the club is going down, nowt I can do but bleat on here…..

[cassidystash]

Of the first 8 none have yet proved to be of league standard. Neither Watson or Slocombe came through our academy. Godden took 7 years to become a league footballer, I’ll give you Wootton but he took his time too. I know it’s not a popular opinion but I think both had every chance here.

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Cliff Byrne's Right Peg, Awaywego

[TheJuryeffsOut]

I forgot Slocombe was at Bottesford, ironic.

[Iron-awe]

We are a non league team and the owner is factoring all these problems into his budgeting, not an easy gig trying to make a football club sustainable, after all the previous owner ignored it and look where we are now as a result.

[WonderGoals]

The closure wasn’t handled the best from what I’ve read but it needed to be done. We can’t keep investing money into things when there’s very little pay off.

We only had 8 players in that age group and 2 of them already had moved to Grimsby. This is a pretty good crop of youngsters we’ve got now, so let’s concentrate on these and hopefully when we’re making progress and stabilizing as a club, we can then reinstate the academy.

Until that time comes, if we start inviting a number of released premier league/championship youngsters in for the off season, starting from next season and run the rule over them. If we find that 1 or 2 of them have something about them, we can add them to the group and have them all train together.

Why wouldn’t that work ?

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Sanfran49

[Anonymous]

TheJuryeffsOut wrote:

Recently Wilson, Foster, Shrimpton, Robertson, Pugh, Lewis, Cribb, Sellars-Fleming, and then Watson, Wootton, Slocombe, Godden. I’m aware they are not necessarily all born and bred in Scunthorpe but they are products of the academy. Just as important is the link between the club and the community through the academy. I think closing it is a bad decision for the club and the town. Unfortunately we have been taken over by a non league owner and this is the path the club is going down, nowt I can do but bleat on here…..

Canavan, Sutton, Adelakun, Vernon, Crook, Howe, Palmer, Muldoon, Lillis

[Anonymous]

WonderGoals wrote:

The closure wasn’t handled the best from what I’ve read but it needed to be done. We can’t keep investing money into things when there’s very little pay off.

We only had 8 players in that age group and 2 of them already had moved to Grimsby. This is a pretty good crop of youngsters we’ve got now, so let’s concentrate on these and hopefully when we’re making progress and stabilizing as a club, we can then reinstate the academy.

Until that time comes, if we start inviting a number of released premier league/championship youngsters in for the off season, starting from next season and run the rule over them. If we find that 1 or 2 of them have something about them, we can add them to the group and have them all train together.

Why wouldn’t that work ?

Why set the ceiling at Premier League?
Let’s pick up Champions League cast offs!
FFS
They were based in a port-a-cabin at the rear of a school and using sub standard school pitches. Facilities were non existent, kits at one point were 4 seasons old and balls, bibs & cones etc were second-hand, hand me downs from the first team from the previous season.
Staff ate at their desks as there was no staff room / canteen and whip rounds were done in order to purchase milk, coffee & tea to give visitors, guests, officials, parents etc as the club didn’t provide any.
Staffing was minimalistic with people undertaking two or three roles (but obviously only paid one salary) and clocking up many hours above a standard 40 hour week.
Hundreds of players & parents, hundreds of trialists & their parents, match officials, EFL staff, auditors, academy coaches, opposition players & parents, opposition staff and indeed some of the school staff have witnessed / experienced “living the dream” at the academy.
They quite literally didn’t have a pot to piss in and had to go inside the school to use their facilities.

[Anonymous]

Monday 28th August 2023.
Bank Holiday Monday.

Half Time.
Scunthorpe United 2-0 Scarborough Athletic

Shrimpton & Wilson with the goals.

Thank god we’ve scraped the Academy!

[RoamingBull]

Non League standard.

The Academy has gone.

[Author]

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