Yes. For it to make just categoric financial sense for Wycombe I can't believe other clubs weren't or aren't in the same boat. They've mostly made different decisions on where to cut costs and I don't really ever change my mind that Wycombe made the wrong choice.
The problem is that it is now much more costly to restart from scratch. I keep thinking about the excitement of a new talent getting close to the first team. I used to love FA Youth Cup nights. Some may argue they get a similar thrill from improving a loan star or seeing a player like Mehmeti. It doesn't for me.
Getting a youth set up back would be my main priority.
Without knowing the finances and the alternatives at the time, it is impossible to know whether we made the right choice back then.
Even if over five years it would have been net profitable, if the finances were so bad that there was no way of getting through year one and two without closing it, it was still the right thing to do even if profits in year five would have paid for the costs in year one and two.
Woodward certainly concluded there was no alternative. He was the guy in the hot seat facing huge pressure and a very difficult situation.
It is clear from the recent book that Ainsworth and Dobbo still do not agree and that there is significant resentment about the decision that was taken. You would have thought that better financial brains (eg Howard who Ainsworth clearly trusts) would have told him that their analysis was that there was genuinely no alternative if that was the case.
We'll never know the truth either way but clearly once disbanded the costs and time of reestablishing are now much higher. It feels unlikely frankly that we will ever do so.
So why do you think so many other clubs with financial problems have not gone down this path? We pretty much stand alone which makes it odd.
I think quite a few have haven't they. Brentford, Huddersfield, Tranmere, Torquay and Barnet by a quick google search. Probably more if you look a bit harder.
Its plainly a big decision to close because once you do all investment in existing youth players has gone and its an almost impossible task to reverse the decision in future years.
As I say I have no way of knowing whether Woodward was right that we had no alternative but to close it or whether there was in fact another way. We'll never know for sure.
@peterparrotface said: @DevC Barnet aside, none of those examples are particularly recent - like you say a big decision to reverse.
I tended to think that the move to private ownership would include re-starting a Cat 3 Academy, but it obviously involves significant investment.
I'd love to think that some of the Championship 'football fortune' (remember that phrase well for some reason) would be earmarked for a youth set up but they've gone down this B team path.
I think you are picking up players too late in their development at this stage but maybe that is partly because I think every club should have a youth set up.
If Holmer Green or Flackwell Heath can run one that something is wrong with the world if it's cash prohibitive for a Championship club not to have one.
Trouble surely is that to restart an academy now means getting kids in at nine years old knowing that the earliest you could get a financial or on the pitch return would be c 10 years away. Ten year guaranteed substantial cost zero income is not going to make any businessman excited.
Frankly now even if we were to restart and your eight year old kid showed substantial promise, would you really send me to a brand new start up academy or would you send him instead to one of the many already well established academies within the same geographic area. Would you really set your kid up as the guinea pig to prove our new system.
Its a real shame to lose it but once gone it looks almost impossible to set it back uop again.
If Holmer Green or Flackwell Heath can run one that something is wrong with the world if it's cash prohibitive for a Championship club not to have one.
Presumably they're not subject to the same rules and expectations that we would be.
If Holmer Green or Flackwell Heath can run one that something is wrong with the world if it's cash prohibitive for a Championship club not to have one.
Presumably they're not subject to the same rules and expectations that we would be.
@floyd is right. There are now so many stringent rules at youth level regarding physios, medics and a whole host of other things that cost money. As someone said above, it takes a long time for a promising player to mature into a first team prospect and even when you find a gem they can be snapped up by a bigger club for a limited fee.
If Holmer Green or Flackwell Heath can run one that something is wrong with the world if it's cash prohibitive for a Championship club not to have one.
Presumably they're not subject to the same rules and expectations that we would be.
I guess that too but how has it got to the point where a pro club can't afford it.
If Holmer Green or Flackwell Heath can run one that something is wrong with the world if it's cash prohibitive for a Championship club not to have one.
Presumably they're not subject to the same rules and expectations that we would be.
I guess that too but how has it got to the point where a pro club can't afford it.
As others have mentioned I think the problem now is not so much that we can’t afford it, but 1) has the EPPP rendered the effort pointless and 2) people were upset when we signed b team players, I can’t imagine how they’d react if we started spending money we wouldn’t see in the first team for at least 4 to 6 years. It’s a great shame, but I can’t see us ever having a full youth academy set up again.
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So why do you think so many other clubs with financial problems have not gone down this path? We pretty much stand alone which makes it odd.
I think quite a few have haven't they. Brentford, Huddersfield, Tranmere, Torquay and Barnet by a quick google search. Probably more if you look a bit harder.
Its plainly a big decision to close because once you do all investment in existing youth players has gone and its an almost impossible task to reverse the decision in future years.
As I say I have no way of knowing whether Woodward was right that we had no alternative but to close it or whether there was in fact another way. We'll never know for sure.
@DevC Barnet aside, none of those examples are particularly recent - like you say a big decision to reverse.
I tended to think that the move to private ownership would include re-starting a Cat 3 Academy, but it obviously involves significant investment.
I'd love to think that some of the Championship 'football fortune' (remember that phrase well for some reason) would be earmarked for a youth set up but they've gone down this B team path.
I think you are picking up players too late in their development at this stage but maybe that is partly because I think every club should have a youth set up.
If Holmer Green or Flackwell Heath can run one that something is wrong with the world if it's cash prohibitive for a Championship club not to have one.
Trouble surely is that to restart an academy now means getting kids in at nine years old knowing that the earliest you could get a financial or on the pitch return would be c 10 years away. Ten year guaranteed substantial cost zero income is not going to make any businessman excited.
Frankly now even if we were to restart and your eight year old kid showed substantial promise, would you really send me to a brand new start up academy or would you send him instead to one of the many already well established academies within the same geographic area. Would you really set your kid up as the guinea pig to prove our new system.
Its a real shame to lose it but once gone it looks almost impossible to set it back uop again.
Presumably they're not subject to the same rules and expectations that we would be.
@floyd is right. There are now so many stringent rules at youth level regarding physios, medics and a whole host of other things that cost money. As someone said above, it takes a long time for a promising player to mature into a first team prospect and even when you find a gem they can be snapped up by a bigger club for a limited fee.
I guess that too but how has it got to the point where a pro club can't afford it.
Yep, just what we need. More snidey long term grudges
As others have mentioned I think the problem now is not so much that we can’t afford it, but 1) has the EPPP rendered the effort pointless and 2) people were upset when we signed b team players, I can’t imagine how they’d react if we started spending money we wouldn’t see in the first team for at least 4 to 6 years. It’s a great shame, but I can’t see us ever having a full youth academy set up again.