Southampton academy/ louis Carey involvement

[KnowleUtd City]

I've met Louis a number of times down the years, including playing 45 mins with him in a charity game for our mate in the summer of 2021 at Parson Street, he's always been absolutely sound as a pound! 

Edited January 19, 2023 by KnowleUtd City

[cidered abroad]

46 minutes ago, KnowleUtd City said:

I've met Louis a number of times down the years, including playing 45 mins with him in a charity game for our mate in the summer of 2021 at Parson Street, he's always been absolutely sound as a pound! 

I have never met Carey so I have no opinion about him as a person.

Where I'm coming from is going back to his last season as a player. A poor side with poor results. Evident from the way the team was clearly separated into two camps. As team captain, was he a leader of one camp? The way that he got his appearances to one more than the greatest Bristol City player of all time with minutes only was appalling. And he was reportedly by those in the know, not welcome by the hierarchy of City at Ashton Gate after he retired.

 

 

[slartibartfast]

2 hours ago, NcnsBcfc said:

Am I right in saying that LC has never had a proper testimonial from the club?

I'm sure there was various events to recognise him hitting the record, but no big game. If so, that's some indictment on how the club hierarchy see him

Christ I still remember going away to York City for his debut (1-0 win Kevin Nugent, I think).

and me 

[petehinton]

1 hour ago, MarcusX said:

He definitely limped across the line, not saying he didn't deserve it but he didn't smash through it in the best of form. Wasn't it a number of late substitutions for his last few appearences?

Always said he feels embarrassed to have broken the record as he was out the side so long until Cotterill came in and basically shoe horned sub apps in for him to break it 

[petehinton]

1 hour ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

Southampton’s involvement in Bath has been pretty high profile for a long time, and one school in particular has a strong feeder-network to Southampton.  What surprises me is how little attention City pay to kids in Bath.  Admittedly they picked up Zak and Max, but that was ten years ago and very little since then.  One particular youth team in Bath is probably the strongest at its age group in the region outside academies, but only one boy has been offered a trial by City.

Pretty much all (well, vast majority) get filtered through to academies after playing at RTCs, in our case BIC (where the Edwards brothers were and a few others), SGS (not technically a talent centre but near enough, Semenyo being there) and North Somerset (the GOAT in the area, where one of their talent scouts has immaculate eyes for players *cough*). Mid-Somerset covers BANES areas, but tbh I’ve not come across many people from there and as you say they only seem to have strong links with Saints given the training base at the uni. 
 

More often than not it’ll just come down to relationship and contacts between the talent centre and clubs in the area, quite rare for club scouts to pick players straight up from grassroots out of nowhere unless they spot someone at a summer tournament whos recently joined From another area or something. 
 

Long & boring way of saying I totally agree. Even the longwell green and keynsham teams I’ve seen are very strong tbat technically fall outside of Bristol area but could train at either mid Somerset or north/BIC
 

 

[Kid in the Riot]

47 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

And he was reportedly by those in the know, not welcome by the hierarchy of City at Ashton Gate after he retired.

Certainly not the case now. I was in hospitality for the Millwall game last season and he was doing the interview rounds, which I assume he gets paid for.

It's true he's not on good terms with Lansdown though. Not just over the move to Coventry because of wage disparity at the club (he re-signed don't forget; so that was resolved to an extent), but also over monies associated with his testimonial. The long and short of it was that he basically made no money from it, and he was not best pleased. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

It's a while since I've looked at this stuff but EPPP and Academy Categories. From memory this is quite heavily weighted towards PL sides.

Category One Academy can give an advantage but those who know more, what tangible advantage if any does EPPP give say Southampton over us in this area? Is that still a thing?

[Nogbad the Bad]

46 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Always said he feels embarrassed to have broken the record as he was out the side so long until Cotterill came in and basically shoe horned sub apps in for him to break it 

Very much doubt that was Cotts' preferred way of doing things without being asked to from above.

If not from SL, maybe JL?

It was no skin off Cotts' nose to put Carey on for a few late sub appearances to break the record if, in doing so, it generated what the club felt would be much needed good publicity.

Always rankled with me though.

Edited January 19, 2023 by Nogbad the Bad

[Rebounder]

Regardless of what he was like off the pitch Louis was quality at times for us and led from the back. Seems he's doing well post playing career, and it's good to go away from what you know like Tinnion eventually did. 

Some people appear more aloof, or find smaller interactions harder to manage. I'd imagine for the role he has now he has to have good interpersonal skills, commitment and boundaries to support the young people in their transition. Good luck to him.

[Selred]

3 hours ago, Kid in the Riot said:

The long and short of it was that he basically made no money from it, and he was not best pleased. 

I'm sure he was struggling on thousands a week...

[Will Rollason]

15 hours ago, PHILINFRANCE said:

 

 and as for his insistence on wearing a hat indoors....

 

I used to be fond of wearing a cap myself till i saw this

Every time i go to wear it i just think.... cock bonnet...

Edited January 19, 2023 by Will Rollason

[Calculus]

4 hours ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

Very much doubt that was Cotts' preferred way of doing things without being asked to from above.

If not from SL, maybe JL?

It was no skin off Cotts' nose to put Carey on for a few late sub appearances to break the record if, in doing so, it generated what the club felt would be much needed good publicity.

Always rankled with me though.

Yup, thought it was very poor - particularly the last appearance which had him larking about in midfield for a few minutes.

No doubt Atyeo appeared for many more minutes that Carey and therfore always the leader for appearances to my eye.

[downendcity]

41 minutes ago, Calculus said:

Yup, thought it was very poor - particularly the last appearance which had him larking about in midfield for a few minutes.

No doubt Atyeo appeared for many more minutes that Carey and therfore always the leader for appearances to my eye.

An unbroken 15 year career with City and the club's all time top scorer. Also had 6 England caps and would have had many more, but was dropped by the selectors due to his semi pro status with City at the time. Atyeo turned down the chance to sign for a number of top clubs, both here and abroad, and had he done so would probably have broken to transfer record at the time.

While being a legendary player and a top defender for us I don't think LC's status matches that of Atyeo, and certainly doesn't  justify  his latter  appearances being "manufactured", just so that he could break Atyeo's record.

As far as Southampton's academy is concerned. For too long they seemed to have been well ahead of us in terms of picking up the best young talent in the south west. However, in recent years we seem to have got our act together, with joined up writing right through the club as far as  how the academy fits within the club's long term strategy - both playing and financial. 

There is also a chicken and egg factor at work, so that the crop of youngsters we have seen come though and into the first team over the last fe season's must have an impact on talented youngsters deciding which club to join. As a premier league club, Saints have a lot going for them, but under pressure managers there will tend to be reluctant to turn to untried youngsters, no matter how talented, when premier league survival is at stake. 

On the other hand NP has not only been prepared to do just that, but an increasing number are becoming established regulars in the first team. With such a clear pathway to first team being demonstrated we must be an increasingly attractive club for prospective academy players, even when up againts the likes of Southampton.

If we are able to attract more talented players to start with, then there is an even beter chance that with our academy set up, more of them will be able to push for first team consideration, and so the chicken and egg process continues.