Bell and the Academy.

[TinMan's left peg]

3 minutes ago, Simon bristol said:

Awesome! A lot of us have fond memories of mickey,a lot of us will be very proud to see sam come in and make that impact!

Time to resurrect his Dad’s song for Sam 

[Vidal]

29 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Reminded me of Bergkamp, & I’m not joking.

How good were we today?

Pretty much everyone at the top of their game & to end a 3-0 win against West Brom with Bell, Francois & Taylor-Clarke as our front three was insane.

Scott head and shoulders best player on the pitch today.

[RedinSpain]

Didn´t Tinnion say fairly recently something along the lines of "watch out for what´s coming from the academy, it´s going to be quite something"?

[GrahamC]

11 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

I was sat near Mickey in the Lansdown and can confirm that his face was a picture of pure joy when Sam scored his first and ran over to his Dad to celebrate.

I think I may even have seen a tear or two...

It must be incredible for him, although he’s originally from the North East like Tinnion & Owers he’s been down here for many years now, to see your lad do that so many years after playing here yourself must be a tremendous feeling.

[BCFC Rich]

2 minutes ago, RedinSpain said:

Didn´t Tinnion say fairly recently something along the lines of "watch out for what´s coming from the academy, it´s going to be quite something"?

Oohhh haven't hear of Quite-Something! Are sure sure it wasn't Palmer-Holden? Or Taylor-Clarke?

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, cityal said:

Its super early days for Bell in his career, but he has something about him.

His timing of forward runs for through balls looks good. He looks pretty good dribbling the ball (he seems a bit 2 footed?)

His finishing though, it is just . The goal against swansea, the disallowed goal against blackburn, both goals today are all very good finishes - as was pointed out earlier, the second finish day would have pundits puyrring if it was some superstar doing it.

I hope he gets more chances.

I saw aspects in Sam’s game today that I’ve never seen in the u23s/u21s.  There were a couple of things he did back to goal at Rotherham also.

He’s surprised me, not gonna lie.

Furlong is a streetwise Championship RB, and he was made to look poor today.

Well done Sam.

[BCFC Rich]

4 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I saw aspects in Sam’s game today that I’ve never seen in the u23s/u21s.  There were a couple of things he did back to goal at Rotherham also.

He’s surprised me, not gonna lie.

Furlong is a streetwise Championship RB, and he was made to look poor today.

Well done Sam.

His movement looks great, constantly getting in behind, both out wide and in the middle. 

[Supersonic Robin]

Bell's turnaround in the last couple of weeks has been excellent.

Prior to the last few games, he'd looked way out of his depth when playing for the first team and was offering very little. For whatever reason (confidence?!), he's now taking his chance. 

Happy for him, and excellent timing for us with Semenyo leaving (though I do still think we need a replacement). Let's hope it's part of a longer term breakthrough for Bell, rather than just a bout of form. 

[BCFC Rich]

6 minutes ago, Supersonic Robin said:

Bell's turnaround in the last couple of weeks has been excellent.

Prior to the last few games, he'd looked way out of his depth when playing for the first team and was offering very little. For whatever reason (confidence?!), he's now taking his chance. 

Happy for him, and excellent timing for us with Semenyo leaving (though I do still think we need a replacement). Let's hope it's part of a longer term breakthrough for Bell, rather than just a bout of form. 

I think getting a goal makes a huge difference. Did with Conway too. 

[ChippenhamRed]

Have to say, Bell’s performance today makes the sale of Semenyo that bit easier to stomach. What a privilege is it to have an increasingly reliable stream of talent emerging from the academy!

[1960maaan]

I've watched a bit of Bell in the U21s, it was obvious he could finish. You could see he had a bit about him, but he is showing he has so much more all round game than I'd imagined. I didn't see that burst of pace, he makes good runs and that 2nd shows a real calmness. I really wish that he hadn't had that heavy touch, would have been great for him to get a hat trick today.

[ralphindevon]

Bell’s second goal reinforces my opinion that he’s the most exciting striker prospect to come out of our academy.

The first goal was well taken but probably every player on the pitch has the ability to score that.

The second goal very few on the pitch would have been capable of that, that’s pure striker instinct, going at speed after a brilliant first touch then to bring out a cool chip like that. I’m not sure you can learn, you’ve either got it or you haven’t.

[Elruliri]

I can see him driving around in a TR7 next season with his own fan club.

[BCFCGav]

One Sam Bell thread doesn’t feel like enough but I have too much respect for the mods to start another.

[RedM]

1 hour ago, GrahamC said:

It must be incredible for him, although he’s originally from the North East like Tinnion & Owers he’s been down here for many years now, to see your lad do that so many years after playing here yourself must be a tremendous feeling.

The first time I saw Sam he was a couple of weeks old in his Dad's arms. Hard to believe he is upfront scoring goals for us now. 

While I am obviously enjoying seeing this, God it makes me feel old!

[DingleRed]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

I saw aspects in Sam’s game today that I’ve never seen in the u23s/u21s.  There were a couple of things he did back to goal at Rotherham also.

He’s surprised me, not gonna lie.

Furlong is a streetwise Championship RB, and he was made to look poor today.

Well done Sam.

Reminds me of a young Michael Owen when he burst on the scene ...... 

BTW I can see Kal Naismith slotting into that midfield role like Tinns in his last few playing years - with the young one's around him to do the running. Left foot just as good .... 

[Lanterne Rouge]

But for a heavy first touch he would have had a hat trick today.

[Vidal]

Pros

works hard, pace, makes clever runs, can finish

cons

heavy touches….too many.

[redsquirrel]

1 hour ago, Elruliri said:

I can see him driving around in a TR7 next season with his own fan club.

or a sooty van

 

[David Brent]

59 minutes ago, Lanterne Rouge said:

But for a heavy first touch he would have had a hat trick today.

Without the instinctive and clever finishes he wouldn’t have had any though

[RedRock]

I think after ‘that’ recent Cardiff U21 team performance debacle, I said something to the effect that Bell was light years off the first team.  I also seriously questioned Tins judgement for saying he was ‘ready’.  

Wow, a couple of weeks in football is, indeed, a long time! 

Never been more happy to have been proven wrong..and then some. Truly a revelation. Congratulations, a real talent, performances as sharp as they come . As Tins would say, the hard work start from here. Keep it up Sam.

[Davefevs]

Just seen this!

 

[REDOXO]

3 hours ago, GrahamC said:

It must be incredible for him, although he’s originally from the North East like Tinnion & Owers he’s been down here for many years now, to see your lad do that so many years after playing here yourself must be a tremendous feeling.

Where is Josh in our talent list. Anywhere near a cameo/game?

Edited January 28, 2023 by REDOXO

[spudski]

17 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Just seen this!

 

I just saw that as well...bloody marvelous stuff. How proud must Micky be. And us fans feel the emotion as well.

I can watch this all day long. The movement and speed across the defender is superb... something more mature don't do. Match it with the cross...it's perfect.

 

[CTIDhc]

Bell and Conway is gonna be heat

[Wanderingred]

You can’t fault what the academy is doing for us, but it’s frustrating how we’ve been unable to capitalise on the talent that we produce. For me, the role of an academy should be to produce young players who either benefit the team long term, or net us a substantial profit which we then use to strengthen the team appropriately. 
 

It’s a good business model, but the cycle seems to be something like this:

1) Young player breaks through into the first team after a few mixed loan spells.

2) Young player is snapped up by Bournemouth, Burnley or whoever after just one good season for us, stopping us from building a team around them long term.

3) The money we get from said young player is either wasted on poor recruitment or used to cover our losses.

Rinse and repeat.

At the moment it seems that the likes of Fulham and Bournemouth benefit more from our academy than we do. It’s hard to get excited about the likes of Scott, Pring and Brll when we know that as soon as they are ready,  they’ll be playing for one of the above teams and the money gained won’t be used wisely.

[Sleepy1968]

7 hours ago, redsquirrel said:

or a sooty van

 

remember seeing it in the carpark walking home from school. I assume the reg is meant to say 'shot' or 'shoot', but that's not really the first thing that comes to mind.

[ExiledAjax]

3 hours ago, Wanderingred said:

You can’t fault what the academy is doing for us, but it’s frustrating how we’ve been unable to capitalise on the talent that we produce. For me, the role of an academy should be to produce young players who either benefit the team long term, or net us a substantial profit which we then use to strengthen the team appropriately. 
 

It’s a good business model, but the cycle seems to be something like this:

1) Young player breaks through into the first team after a few mixed loan spells.

2) Young player is snapped up by Bournemouth, Burnley or whoever after just one good season for us, stopping us from building a team around them long term.

3) The money we get from said young player is either wasted on poor recruitment or used to cover our losses.

Rinse and repeat.

At the moment it seems that the likes of Fulham and Bournemouth benefit more from our academy than we do. It’s hard to get excited about the likes of Scott, Pring and Brll when we know that as soon as they are ready,  they’ll be playing for one of the above teams and the money gained won’t be used wisely.

The current management/recruitment team haven't had the benefit of an academy sale yet though. Semenyo is the first major sale for a while. Really the last time we sold an academy (is Semenyo truly an academy product? It's up for debate) player for proper money was Kelly in May 2019. That's 3.5 seasons ago. Reid and Bryan were the season prior to that...and really that's it.

So yes in the past you can make the criticism in your third point, but I think you need to hold fire and see what happens to the proceeds from Semenyo, and ultimately from Scott and anyone else (do you want to track Towler's proceeds?).

Furthermore, Vyner and O'Leary are two academy products who we are enjoying, and who are seemingly staying with us (subject to contract extensions) and are currently key first team players, so it's not true that every academy lad gets sold to Bournemouth and Fulham.

Edited January 29, 2023 by ExiledAjax

[ExiledAjax]

All getting a bit hype now isn't it.

[robinforlife2]

WCB going forwards

Wells, Conway, Bell

Or dare I say it, West Country Brilliance.

Antoine who????