Youth football

[Eastside Urchin]

Been thinking about this topic again and I think in this current climate that youth football needs to be pushed to the forefront of the clubs plans.

A couple of months ago I was at the ricay away game and couldn't help notice how the interaction between the club and their youth section was so good.After the game there were awards and it seemed that youth players from all ages were present at the game.I spoke to a couple of their fans who said the youth players attended the majority of the games when they weren't playing themselves.To be honest,I can't remember the last time I saw one of our youth players at a first team game and to be honest,it's pretty much vice versa with fans attending their games.From speaking to the few ricay fans about it their youth games are quite well supported.I just feel that our youth teams are good sides but they appear to be so far disconnected from the club it's almost like they are different clubs.

Youth football should be at the forefront of every club but apart from Frankie Williams who has had a few games for us we haven't really had anyone come through from our youth team

[cup of tea]

Be great to see youth players coming through.

[missunderstood]

Be great to see youth players coming through.

 

 

Apologies for name dropping but premiership players Jon Jo Shelvey and Nile Ranger both come through the youth ranks at Romford, as did a number of our current first team squad. Having a decent youth setup is important for all clubs, whatever level they play at, as it brings the clubs closer to the heart of the community, and hopefully acts as a feeder for the first team. the two big problems are finding the right people to run the teams, and losing out on any financial gain because the bigger clubs will always entice the best kids away, knowing they they wont have to cough up a penny because the majority of youth players will not have a contract.

[Eastside Urchin]

It's great that those players came through but you want players coming through who play for the first team for a while,those two ended up going to charlton and Newcastle at an early age and Romford got nothing for them.

Any club who has a young player,whether on a contract or not should be entitled to a percentage of their transfer fees upto an age of maybe 21 or if they stay with that club over that age a percentage of that players first move