News round-up plus update on Youth System

First off, an update on what is exactly happening with regards to the youth system at the club. As Stevenage announced the signing of Stacy Long late last week, further down the same article was the news that all the junior players had been released.

“All the junior players have been released and the 22 man senior squad now looks virtually complete.” Stevenage Borough Official Website – June 2009

This statement is still not totally clear as I don’t know who really classes as ‘junior’ or not? Is Jerome Anderson classed as a junior or is he on a full time contract and therefore part of the 22 man senior squad? I think it needs to be cleared up by the club, who is still at the club or not, as there have been quite a few players who have left the club over the last few months without a mention.

A comment from one of the visitors to this site has cleared up what is currently going on with the Boro Youth System.

Well now Stevenage Boro FC and AVC/EFCO have officially seperated which was expected due to the much publicised disagreement between the two, for which the club gave the reason that they wanted to create there own youth set-up run by them. Which beg’s the question why they would then go on to form a link with the Protec Academy who have just had a similar break-up with Barnet FC. The two schemes are very similar and are the two best in the county, which shows the club may have been regretting the split with AVC and tried to get the next best thing. Or they may have simply made a mistake in thinking they could run there own academy.

So the outcome of all this is….

AVC/EFCO are now taking all there players over to Hitchin Town FC and Brentford FC, which can be seen here http://www.avcsports.com/uk/. In the picture is Brentford Youth Manager Darren Sarll and Robbie O’Keefe.

Barnet’s Protec scheme disembarked because Barnet wanted to run there own academy which will probably be a much greater success than the school of excellence set-up we had last year.

Protec will now run out academy the same way AVC/EFCO have done. The club will also run there own “Community” academy that is not for the elite players, but can be used as the spring board for our own academy if we get into the football league. – Youth Info

So it looks as if the club are going to start from scratch this summer and a whole new reserve/youth team will be assembled in time for the Reserve Combination league in September. To be honest I don’t think this club will ever produce good enough players until they reach the football league. Good, young players will always opt to go to football league clubs over non-league clubs and whatever is left ends up in the non league eventually. It will interesting to see how this new Protec system works out in the coming seasons.

Away from the youth politics and again there is pretty much no news coming from the club. Crawley Town assistant manager Paul Raynor has spoken out on his club missing out on the signing of Stacy Long. Crawley have used the same excuse as they do for every player they seem to miss out on.

“We made an enquiry about Stacy Long but we couldn’t afford him – simple as that. We have to live in the real world. We liked Stacy, but Stevenage were offering him more money, but we are happy with the business we’ve done.” Raynor on missing out on Long

Lastly, Chelmsford think they’ve signed Justin Richards. Oh…..