Jeremy Sauer joins as new Academy Director
Starts work on August 19th, comes from Brighton with plenty of academy experience.
https://www.wwfc.com/news/2024/august/07/jeremy-sauer-to-join-wycombe-wanderers-as-academy-director/
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Starts work on August 19th, comes from Brighton with plenty of academy experience.
https://www.wwfc.com/news/2024/august/07/jeremy-sauer-to-join-wycombe-wanderers-as-academy-director/
Comments
Is there already an academy team in place or is it a case of spending this year setting it up
Not sure what the cross over is, if any, between the Development Squad and Academy. I'm sure there must be some, but the devil will be in the detail as they say.
Maybe this is something we will get to hear via an interview with @bluntphil?
Dan Rice said at the trust meeting that we are building (I assume physically and administratively) a CAT1 Academy. He didn't put a timeline on that but that is the aim and he said the work was underway to achieve that. I assume the new guy will be given a plan to fulfil to achieve that and a timeline.
Creation of a bubble over one of the pitches was certainly one of the key developments and welfare and education staff.
It's an extraordinary time folks
A category 1 academy would be a huge undertaking - would take a LONG time. For reference, here are current cat 1 sides (as of June 2024):
Arsenal, Aston Villa, Blackburn, Brighton, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Derby, Everton, Fulham, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham Forest, Reading, Southampton, Stoke City, Sunderland, Tottenham, West Brom, West Ham, and Wolves.
Exciting times indeed.
I wouldn't anticipate having anything up and running until the start of the 26/27 season, but it's a huge step in the right direction. And hopefully a sign of the new owners long term commitment.
Anyone with a category 2 or worse academy has 27 (and with us joining soon to be 28) clubs who can take any academy player that they desire for a pittance, effectively rendering anything bar Category 1 an extremely expensive waste of time. A word of very topical warning, one of those 27 are Reading FC and it is the Bearwood setup as a whole which has been cited as the thing which has been turning would-be investors off. Given we pull a quarter of the crowd that they do, how will this new academy look on our balance sheet and what sort of ‘ingenuity’ will be required for the owner to make good the shortfall in our turnover? And should Mr L ever bore of his side-project, how do we avoid being an even less attractive prospect than the Buiscutpeople?
This is part of the wealthy private ownership model isn't it? You're constantly hoping that the things that excite you in 2024 aren't threatening your clubs existence in 2028.
I agree @floyd but it is refreshing to see someone try to build the club from the foundation upward. The Couhig model, which was exciting while it lasted but the approach of the current owners is certainly much more long term and structured.
However, the new training ground and the associated improvements together with the academy managers, coaches, medical staff, scouts and associated administrators etc, will not come cheap.
If we have a cat1 facility, can we enter two teams into the Bristol Street trophy?
@Ed I would suggest we are looking to emulate Exeter City rather the Biscuitboys, certainly in terms of the fiancial impacts for the first few years. Dan was clear that it was a journey to get to Cat1 rather than something instantaneous.
The team should run out to Who's Your Daddy by Benny Benassi at the start of every game
Very much agree.
Very much do not agree.
Can we include Reading on that list as I doubt they have hardly been funding it correctly?
Only when we have reached the Premier League
I did wonder if the academy might from the perspective of legal and accounts sit autonomously from the football club.
I think at our level that spending is outside the scmp or whatever it is called now anyway
Absolutely. Will be funded by our new billionaire
He doesn't seem to be any fool, will want to see some results in a few years.
I was going to say it all has to be a success as where do you go after a billionaire but then I remembered Chelsea have had a couple and seem worse than ever.
PL2 could happen with once the academy reaches Cat 1 status - PDL before that though for Cat 2 teams.
I think a big part of its success will be not only how many players make it to the first team but how many could be sold on for decent fees. Chelsea's academy has largely existed to legitimise their rampant spending because they can sell off good quality academy players.
As a side note, it would seem Dobbo is unlikely to be working for us again in the near future, sadly. I do hope someone offers him a plum job that works well for him. He is such an asset to the game!
If Blooms can kick on, the timing may be perfect for him as he is an analytics-driven coach in a new setup that is all about that. Ironically, GA would have probably been less of a fit for what the new establishment is trying to do. For that reason, I don't think we would see him back even if Blooms does not make the grade.
Majority of players in an academy squad are released at the end of each season and replaced by new more promising players. Very few are there from under 9s to under 23s or even under 18s, so actually it could be set up initially much quicker than people realise.
The ambition to be a CAT1 self sufficient academy is hella ambitious.
If we can pick up any of the good youngsters from London PL giants who get released. We've got a history of polishing a load of gems to be good L1 and above players.
If we do build a cat 1 academy, maybe it would make sense to have it under its own distinct legal business entity?
In the event that Lomtadze wants to depart from WWFC, he could then try and sell the academy separately to the club, and we wouldn't have those operating costs tied to us.
My thinking. Should the worst happen it would give us a chance to survive without a millstone round our neck like Reading.
Might be hard though to get suppliers and staff to deal with the Academy if not part of the main club and not sure how player registrations and perhaps transfer fees would work in that structure.
Its an interesting and slightly scary period for sure. We might be the next Bournemouth, we might be the next Reading or something in between. Not much we can do to influence beyond trying to enjoy the ride. Have to be honest I cant shake off a sense of foreboding but that might be my Eeyore tendency and hopefully will be proven wrong.
The debate as to whether a other entity would own the academy was a large part of the discussions with Andrew Harman's attempt to gazump the Couhigs. From what I can remember his business partner proposed running an academy owned by his company where they'd finance the start-up costs but would also claim transfer fees/sell-ons. The academy would be using the Wycombe Wanderers name and WWFC would have first dibs on players at the academy.
Essentially it's an equation of risk versus reward. If the club don't find the start up costs, then how realistic is it that it'll profit from income generated by it?
Seeing that in the current scenario the proposed academy would be funded pretty much out of Lomtadze's pocket, it's not an unfair question to ask whether the academy is will affiliated to the club but run by Lomtadze through associates, or 100% under the control of WWFC.
Maybe he'll make a push for 100% ownership of WWFC at some point so it doesn't matter.
Interview with Dan Rice on the club website.
Probably getting some loan players
A season of building things and no major expectations put on the team
Academy is the main thing
Things will take time
Lomtadze has daily chats about WWFC and the way forward.
Whether ML has a 90% or 100% stake is relatively unimportant. In any case it wouldn't stop a potential "arms length" separation of WWFC and the academy. A negative is that sell-on fees may be due from WWFC to the academy owners, a positive is that WWFC aren't on the hook for startup and upkeep costs.
Also mentioned that they were in it for the long term.