Academy Win Again.

[Bert]

Headers from Craig King and Lathanial Rowe-Turner either side of half time were enough for Leicester City to see off MK Dons at the Belvoir Drive training ground on Saturday.

City started the game brightly and almost took the lead on ten minutes when Fraser Tuttle latched onto a Ryan Beswick corner, but the midfielder dragged his shot wide of the upright.

Elliott Chamberlain saw his header drop safely into the hands of the Dons' goalkeeper five minutes later after Joe Cobb picked out the striker in front of goal.

The deadlock was broken in first-half stoppage time. Beswick delivered a free-kick from the left and King was on hand at the far post to put the Foxes ahead.

Robbie Burns almost doubled City's lead moments after the restart but his long range effort was halted by the underside of the crossbar.

Beswick was again the provider as the Foxes doubled their lead on 67 minutes - his in-swinging free-kick found Rowe-Turner rising above the put the game beyond doubt.

Leicester City's academy side return to action next Saturday (23rd) when they face Cardiff City in the FA Premier Academy League

City: Pentney, Garner, Rowe-Turner, O'Neil, Cobb, Tuttle, Watson, C King, Beswick, Burns, Chamberlain

[Moreton]

COME ON YOU YOUNG FOXES!!

[davieG]

Beswick the Provider

[Moreton]

Beswick the Provider

I say we give him and some of the other youngster a chance. It wouldnt hurt to try..

[Babylon]

I say we give him and some of the other youngster a chance. It wouldnt hurt to try..

It might.

[DB11]

I say we give him and some of the other youngster a chance. It wouldnt hurt to try..

It did when that last manager tried it

[GianEmmo Zola]

Craig Kings the one too watch he has a bright future (also Beswick!)

[Thracian]

It might.

Just out of curiousity have you ever offered any sort of praise or encouragement to our Academy players either as under 18's, reserves or first team players?

There may be instances, I just can't remember any. Not that you'd be alone if you hadn't.

PS: Well done the Academy, a good result against a normally strong side, which should cement second place in the League behind Aston Villa.

Well done Craig King for continuing a spell of having greater impact on games, well done LR-T for a rare yet important goal from the centre-back position and well done Ryan Beswick for continuing a run of games where he's always either scored or made goals.

[Babylon]

I just can't remember any.

Well there's your problem then.

[Thracian]

It did when that last manager tried it

Excuse me? I've not kept track of these things but I rather think it's just lately, with a more senior team, that we've dropped to the lowest position we've held in the League this season.

And we won yesterday with the type of virtually through-the-team attacking approach the young players would have relished.

[Wezleylowski]

Excuse me? I've not kept track of these things but I rather think it's just lately, with a more senior team, that we've dropped to the lowest position we've held in the League this season.

And we won yesterday with the type of virtually through-the-team attacking approach the young players would have relished.

Playing youngsters too early can ruin there carreers. The smaller, slighter lads like Beswick would get knocked about like a rag doll in the Championship. And would end up with a body like Micheal Owen. Perhaps thats why managers are relectant to play youngsters.

[Thracian]

Playing youngsters too early can ruin there carreers. The smaller, slighter lads like Beswick would get knocked about like a rag doll in the Championship. And would end up with a body like Micheal Owen. Perhaps thats why managers are relectant to play youngsters.

Beswick didn't look particularly small and slight when I saw him last week.

Holloway would hardly have been big and powerful when he was playing nor is Campbell, Hume or Clapham.

Laczko may be taller but he's hardly one you'd call Mr Muscle. Nor Stearman.

There's always some excuse.

Managers tend to play seniors because:

a) They're much more highly paid.

b) They've more experience.

c) It's easier to justify selecting a senior than a junior, especially when things go wrong.

d) Seniors, I suspect, often have some sort of selection guarantee. One player was quoted when he arrived as saying his previous club culdn't guarantee him a place and he didn't want to spend periods sat on the bench, or words to that effect. That suggests to me that Leicester could guarantee him a place, whatever form that guarantee might have taken.

Lots of young players have made their senior debuts early but gone on to do well in the game, and not all of them big guys.

There is something in what you say about the physical demands that requires a bit of sense to be used - like not playing Weso or King, for instance, when they were not properly fit.

But otherwise the demands are there for everyone and seniors get injured just as often as youngsters, N'Gotty, Clemence, Campbell, Cort, John, Hammond (ankle ) having all been injured so far this season.

[Babylon]

Just for you Thracian i'll state my stance on youth. Now please remember it because i'm not going to do it again. I love kids come through the ranks, especially local lads. I'm chuffed for them and I hope they all make it... The sad truth is they won't!!

Do well in the youth and move them to the reserves, do well in the reserves and make the bench/get loaned out. Do well when you're getting your first team chance (here or on loan) and eventually get your chance to start in the first team.... If they are better than what we currently have in place.

Weso, Stearman and Mattock, have all taken their chances and shown glimpses of talent and deserve to be around the first team, either as first choice or back up. The manager, who sees them day in and day out, thinks they are good enough to be in the first team squad.

The same manager thinks that King, Beswick, Gradel are currently not better than the other options we have. I do not presume to know more than the manager who sees these player play against each other... not just against other kids!! For the record I do actually think Gradel could have been an asset. Is he currently that much better than Hume and Bori though?

I've heard yours and others rants about how great the kids are since I started supporting city.... Wright, Dawson, Oakes, Mcmahon, Stevenson, Campbell, Heath, Petrescu, Shush!... all of whom have gone on to be at best crap/average. The cream will rise to the top (stearman, mattock, weso), you like to make out the managers have some kind of vendetta against them, when in fact it could be the players just aren't that good.

You put yourself in a no lose situation, pick out the best kids and champion them. If things are going wrong you call for their inclusion knowing full well it's not going to happen here or anywhere else!! If they do make it you acclaim yourself some kind of prophet. If they fall by the way side, you blame the manager for wasting talent by not including them.

Saying throw the kids in it can't hurt, is frankly a stupid point of view... because yes it bloody could.

[Babylon]

Managers tend to play seniors because:

a) They're much more highly paid.

b) They've more experience.

c) It's easier to justify selecting a senior than a junior, especially when things go wrong.

d) Seniors, I suspect, often have some sort of selection guarantee. One player was quoted when he arrived as saying his previous club culdn't guarantee him a place and he didn't want to spend periods sat on the bench, or words to that effect. That suggests to me that Leicester could guarantee him a place, whatever form that guarantee might have taken.

e) they are better than the kids.

Name me two players, who played in the reserves/youth team and left us to go on to better things without getting a chance in the first team?

[Thracian]

e) they are better than the kids.

Name me two players, who played in the reserves/youth team and left us to go on to better things without getting a chance in the first team?

You talk about "a chance" as if it's a finite thing. Along the lines of, we'll give so-and-so one game, three games, a month, to make an impression - or else.

In fact it's a continued part of their development and might well last another two years or so.

And how they perform might depend on a whole stack of things.

[Babylon]

You talk about "a chance" as if it's a finite thing. Along the lines of, we'll give so-and-so one game, three games, a month, to make an impression - or else.

In fact it's a continued part of their development and might well last another two years or so.

And how they perform might depend on a whole stack of things.

So you can't then.

The cream rises to the top eventually... end of.

[Jimmy]

You talk about "a chance" as if it's a finite thing. Along the lines of, we'll give so-and-so one game, three games, a month, to make an impression - or else.

In fact it's a continued part of their development and might well last another two years or so.

And how they perform might depend on a whole stack of things.

answer the question, who is the last academy product we released and he then went on to be a star?

[Thracian]

So you can't then.

The cream rises to the top eventually... end of.

I don't actually understand the purpose of your question. Indeed it seems such a complex question it sounds like some sort of contrived catch-all.

What young player is likely to move from a Championship club to "better things" anyway, however you define "better things" before they become fully established.

And how do you define "chance" as it's clearly different from my definition.

Perhaps I'm being dim but if you explain what you're trying to get at, I'll perhaps try to answer.

[Jimmy]

I don't actually understand the purpose of your question. Indeed it seems such a complex question it sounds like some sort of contrived catch-all.

What young player is likely to move from a Championship club to "better things" anyway, however you define "better things" before they become fully established.

And how do you define "chance" as it's clearly different from my definition.

Perhaps I'm being dim but if you explain what you're trying to get at, I'll perhaps try to answer.

answer the question, who is the last academy product we released and he then went on to be a star?

can you understand the point of my question?

[Thracian]

can you understand the point of my question?

Yes, that's a perfectly simply question.

What I don't understand about that question is it's relevence to anything.

Are you saying that just because Leicester cannot make something of a player then they are definitively no good?

Or are you saying that Leicester failed to get the best of of them and finally cast them into the wilderness.

Because while City's Academy strength has been strong of late I have long expressed concern about them failing to get players through the last phase of development.

And taken over a longer period, Leicester don't have a particularly good reputation for delivering a production line of talent.

Bottom line: to bring young players through you have to show commitment to them and that is not easy with the results demands of Championship football and the other pressures that apply.

Are you suggesting we shouldn't have an Academy?

Because, unless there is an end product in terms of players coming through to be a genuine part of the first team there is no real point in having an Academy, except, perhaps, as a social service.

[hebangsthedrums]

This thread is funny

Well done lads btw

[Babylon]

Are you saying that just because Leicester cannot make something of a player then they are definitively no good?

No we are saying the facts are that it's much more likely the kids aren't good enough, than the manager having some kind of vendetta against them like you think.

[Babylon]

What young player is likely to move from a Championship club to "better things" anyway, however you define "better things" before they become fully established.

Well if Shush! is as good as you make out, there is nothing stopping him going on to greatness now is there. OR will he slowly drift into oblivion with all the other overly hyped crap.

[Jimmy]

Thrac it's a very simple question, who was the last person we released from our academy who went on to become a star in the Championship or above, Like Man Utd. did with Savage for example

and the relevance is you constant bleating that our academy is so fantastic that the whole 1st team should be academy grads

because the only Ex-academy player that became a star I can remember in recent times is Emile Heskey, whom we sold for £11M

[Thracian]

Just for you Thracian i'll state my stance on youth. Now please remember it because i'm not going to do it again. I love kids come through the ranks, especially local lads. I'm chuffed for them and I hope they all make it... The sad truth is they won't!!

Do well in the youth and move them to the reserves, do well in the reserves and make the bench/get loaned out. Do well when you're getting your first team chance (here or on loan) and eventually get your chance to start in the first team.... If they are better than what we currently have in place.

Weso, Stearman and Mattock, have all taken their chances and shown glimpses of talent and deserve to be around the first team, either as first choice or back up. The manager, who sees them day in and day out, thinks they are good enough to be in the first team squad.

The same manager thinks that King, Beswick, Gradel are currently not better than the other options we have. I do not presume to know more than the manager who sees these player play against each other... not just against other kids!! For the record I do actually think Gradel could have been an asset. Is he currently that much better than Hume and Bori though?

I've heard yours and others rants about how great the kids are since I started supporting city.... Wright, Dawson, Oakes, Mcmahon, Stevenson, Campbell, Heath, Petrescu, Shush!... all of whom have gone on to be at best crap/average. The cream will rise to the top (stearman, mattock, weso), you like to make out the managers have some kind of vendetta against them, when in fact it could be the players just aren't that good.

You put yourself in a no lose situation, pick out the best kids and champion them. If things are going wrong you call for their inclusion knowing full well it's not going to happen here or anywhere else!! If they do make it you acclaim yourself some kind of prophet. If they fall by the way side, you blame the manager for wasting talent by not including them.

Saying throw the kids in it can't hurt, is frankly a stupid point of view... because yes it bloody could.

Your definitive position on youth players is welcome and interesting.

I'll ignore your last three paragraphs because they seem to be more about what I supposedly think than your beliefs concerning youth plays, and seeing that you have based your comment on convenient but inaccurate views on what I think, the comments become irrelevent.

The rest is a perfectly fair and valid opinion. Yes, it's clear we disagree about some players or have a different slant on specific things but that's what makes for debate.

What I don't see is why an alternative player has to be "better" than the current incumbent to be an asset. You mention Gradel, Hume and Bori. I wouldn't say Gradel is "better" than Hume or necessarily better than Bori/Laczko.

What I have been asking at a time when we've desperately need goals is would he have offered a valuable option?

Exactly the same applies to King as opposed to the previously off-form Clemence or Oakley.

I've never in reality thought of Shush! as athe greatest defensive left-back but having him as an option for creating goals from the left has been very appealing at times and, ironically, a whole group of fans were talking about exactly that immediately before we scored our first goal against Norwich.

Anyway the subject's becoming laboured as surely we can both agree. I came on here cos I was delighted with the Academy's latest success and would now like to go back to savouring the quality football in our hammering of Norwich and to looking forward to tomorrow night's Reserves match against Shrewsbury.