General Dan Harris - Leaving

Elechi hasn't signed for Accrington. Played as a trialist in preseason but no mention of being signed on their website.
 
Think Shandon injury issues were the reason we were able to get him in the first place and while Reading seem to pump out a decent amount of players from their youth we seem to be struggling massively to get them to that level . Something is going wrong somewhere .
Reading spend a lot of money on their academy, it is Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) Category 1 status (cat 1 has a minimum budget of £2.5million with a requirement of a minimum 18 coaches), and linked to that they play in the Premier League youth competitions. That a) has a lot of draw, and b) means they have the ability to push wider into other communities (at cat 1 there is no 90min travel limit like there is lower down) - they probably have more dedicated staff in Oxfordshire than we do. Its a route that fewer EFL clubs are going down, because it is very expensive for little likely reward, especially as the compensation arrangements are so weighted in favour of big clubs - ie if a player has been at a cat 2 club for 7 years and moves to a cat 1 club the max compensation is £109000, with addons that top out at £1.3million if they make 100 premier league appearances and max 20% sell on before 24.
 
Reading spend a lot of money on their academy, it is Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) Category 1 status (cat 1 has a minimum budget of £2.5million with a requirement of a minimum 18 coaches), and linked to that they play in the Premier League youth competitions. That a) has a lot of draw, and b) means they have the ability to push wider into other communities (at cat 1 there is no 90min travel limit like there is lower down) - they probably have more dedicated staff in Oxfordshire than we do. Its a route that fewer EFL clubs are going down, because it is very expensive for little likely reward, especially as the compensation arrangements are so weighted in favour of big clubs - ie if a player has been at a cat 2 club for 7 years and moves to a cat 1 club the max compensation is £109000, with addons that top out at £1.3million if they make 100 premier league appearances and max 20% sell on before 24.
Yes I do understand that the cat one level is expensive and should produce quite a decent amount of players as it has done and I wouldn't expect us to have the same amount of players but one or two should have come through I'd have expected .
Think my most frustrated part was a very talented player signed for them after we turned him down which concerns me .
 
Yes I do understand that the cat one level is expensive and should produce quite a decent amount of players as it has done and I wouldn't expect us to have the same amount of players but one or two should have come through I'd have expected .
Think my most frustrated part was a very talented player signed for them after we turned him down which concerns me .
well, if we have capacity/budget for x and we have x+y possibilities there are hard decisions to be made. If they have capacity for xx then they have more opportunity. And its not just as easy as saying stretch budget for 1 more person - there are lots of regulations around academies so 1 more kid could mean an extra coach, an extra shower room, etc etc.
At our level there are constant hard decisions being made.
 
well, if we have capacity/budget for x and we have x+y possibilities there are hard decisions to be made. If they have capacity for xx then they have more opportunity. And its not just as easy as saying stretch budget for 1 more person - there are lots of regulations around academies so 1 more kid could mean an extra coach, an extra shower room, etc etc.
At our level there are constant hard decisions being made.
I'm sure there are and only time will tell and I'll watch on very intently to see how this works out.
Just frustrated that we haven't produced much despite having a excellent training ground and set up .
 
And very impressed with the tour to Italy for the u19's . Really helps makes the Club attractive to potential players .
 
Elechi is one of the stranger players we have had recently, never really got a sniff despite us struggling at left back over his time here, yet had his contract extended a couple of times and has now gone on to a solid league one club. It will be interesting to see how it goes for him.
Pretty good going forward, but not a great defender. Not unlike Sedds.
 
A little late in posting on the said topic but c'est la vie.

The likely outcome to all of this 'what has happened or not' will no doubt leak or snuck out in a month or two's time.

However, here is my take fwiw and I'm trying not to take any side but reading the post back it does seem a bit too heavily stacked in KR's favour so I've hurt myself with drawing pins placed upright in my sandals for doing so.

Anybody who has managed or directed at the sharp end know they are ultimately in need of results absolutely full stop. So, following on from the obvious arguably I haven't seen any young player in the last few seasons (and of course this is subjective and of the limited watching ie:-covid) from the academy or just above who has had me anywhere near to the edge of my seat at any of the games I have been present at (papa johns etc etc) (sorry) and I do hope this is reversed and someone steps up to the plate and overfills mine and every other doubters plate forthwith! But the question is :- who is/was answerable for this aspect of providing the club with a steady stream of food chain future - to me their isn't much guesswork involved?

Looking through layman's eyes it could well be a case of KR thinking along the lines of seeing very little in the tank of any high flyers actually coming through to excite, adding something special/different to the current first team set up and last but not least any big bucks at the end of the day when selling some of the clubs future gold stock?

Somebody mentioned traits such as ego's? From thinking along the lines of hindsight 'conversations' these may have happened in the heat of the day to day workplace and we all know this can easily lead to falling outs and whisperer's a-plenty and I'm not for one minute saying that this is anywhere near the truth of the ifs, what's, buts and maybe's but to me if the ammunition isn't coming through the academy in his (KR's) eyes and it's glaringly obvious it will not come to anyone's surprise that sometimes it's inevitable that the ocean will part and people will clash and an abscess will have formed but once again this could easily be just hearsay. Nevertheless, this type of scenario was something I experienced regularly for well over 35 years and I'm sort of glad I'm now not anywhere in it to win it lol.

Hopefully, handshakes will be firm and not limp when the day of parting evolves and the club moves successfully into its next phrase. Only time will tell.

COYY'S
 
Youth football is ruthless and some will succeed but so many more won't make the grade for all sorts of reasons. Some don't develop physically as early as others and get left behind. Others struggle with the mental side of the game. On the pitch, some positions stand out more and some get more opportunities than others simply due to injuries higher up the chain. And of course there will be players who attract the eye of managers for all kinds of different reasons.

But what you, and others, are suggesting is that Robinson personally intervenes in the development of youth players in order to look after his favourites, at the detriment of the club, as long as they're signed up to the same agency, and this is the reason Dan Harris has left?

That is pretty serious and something that I hope has a little more substance than rumour and gossip.
For someone who claims they know stuff, it's surprising what you don't know. I'm not ITK at all, but even I've heard from someone completely different that New Era is an issue, and Karl has a conflict of interest between his work at Oxford United and with New Era.

I'll allow you to go off and do your own digging, but this is a good place to start: https://neweraglobalsports.com/representation#players
 
For someone who claims they know stuff, it's surprising what you don't know. I'm not ITK at all, but even I've heard from someone completely different that New Era is an issue, and Karl has a conflict of interest between his work at Oxford United and with New Era.

I'll allow you to go off and do your own digging, but this is a good place to start: https://neweraglobalsports.com/representation#players

Unless I'm missing something, the only players represented by New Era are Cam and Josh Murphy. The concern was that Robinson was favouring youth players based on the agency they signed up to, or that they were pressured into signing. However this doesn't appear to be the case, certainly not by the information you've attached.
 
Unless I'm missing something, the only players represented by New Era are Cam and Josh Murphy. The concern was that Robinson was favouring youth players based on the agency they signed up to, or that they were pressured into signing. However this doesn't appear to be the case, certainly not by the information you've attached.
That wouldn’t make sense. If randoms here are talking about it openly the club would surely be aware of any wrongdoing
 
Unless I'm missing something, the only players represented by New Era are Cam and Josh Murphy. The concern was that Robinson was favouring youth players based on the agency they signed up to, or that they were pressured into signing. However this doesn't appear to be the case, certainly not by the information you've attached.
Hence why I said it's only a start. Scroll down further and you'll find Joe Grayson, who joined us as a panicked signing in January 2020 and looked National League level at best. A tiny bit more digging (although I'm not going to do all the work for you) will find a few more clients here: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/new...ment-limited/beraterfirma/berater/4603/plus/1

Namely Ricky Holmes and Tsun Dai. Hardly signings that worked out. So that's five names just there, and details for young players aren't listed so they wouldn't appear in that list. I'm sure you could - and might try to - dismiss this as agents simply doing business with the club multiple times, but the murky relationship between Karl, who calls the shots with transfers here, and those in charge of New Era, shouldn't be something dismissed out of hand.

As I've said I'm not ITK so don't have any special ways or means to investigate this further. I thought someone like you - who claims to be ITK - could and would want to investigate this using your links to the club to determine the veracity of the claims being made, rather than just dismissing them out of hand because you don't believe they could be true. Stranger things have happened than youth players being pressured by agents and those that seek to benefit from those deals, such as managers.
 
That wouldn’t make sense. If randoms here are talking about it openly the club would surely be aware of any wrongdoing
In footballing terms, Karl *is* the club because he controls everything football-related. If it's his wrongdoing, then the 'club' won't do anything because he's calling the shots.
 
In footballing terms, Karl *is* the club because he controls everything football-related. If it's his wrongdoing, then the 'club' won't do anything because he's calling the shots.
I’m the least itk person ever but I find that hard to believe, he must report to someone , McWilliams? I agree that the board are remote.

And I’d say that the majority of our signings have worked well. Holmes would have been great if he’d stayed fit, but I imagine that’s a different story. And didn’t we get a fee for Tsun Dai?
 
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So are we to believe than KR is some sort of Bond villan who has successfully schemed and operated unseen whilst being employed by and right under the noses of, some of the shrewdest and most successful businessmen that the club has ever seen?
 
What's Karl's link to the people who run New Era?
 
Wasn’t wildshut pictured on insta with the same agent as Murphy? Maybe he didn’t have a uk agency anymore and was recommended one to sign up to
 
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