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Interesting comment on the Argyle Forum about some of our 11 and 12 year old goalies being scouted by the big clubs. Worrying news for us if true but guess it shows our youth system is doing a good job with the young lads.

http://www.pasoti.co.uk/talk/viewtopic. ... 4&start=75

Don't think we have to worry one bit about our 11-12 year old keepers going anywhere, anytime soon, the only keeper who might be of interest is the young lad who has just gone from the U14's to the U16's as academies do not run U15 teams any more, and then only because he is already over 6ft and 6ft 2in tends to be the bench mark height for young keepers now.

Also clubs who are going for a grade 2 academy including some premier clubs who have not already got an advanced development centre system are having to set them up as part of their grading I am led to believe, I know their is few clubs sending scouts out to look for players to fill their new development centre's, and the bigger clubs will be looking around the younger age groups of smaller clubs for players with potential to develop and be filtered into their main academies when they get around the 14-16 age group.

Thats ok just as long as they don't get the chance to spread a few calling cards around to unsettle our young prospects.
Brizzle Rovers had that happen a while ago and they tempted young Scott Sinclair away to Chelsea before he had a chance to make the First team. Imagine what Rovers would have made had they had a chance to sell him like most clubs have. Chelsea didn't even pay out part of the fee set out by the tribunal as they dropped him toward the end of the season to avoid having to pay the extra for the performance based part of the fee.
Another example of the little teams being trodden on by the greed of the big boys.

Speaking to a respected coach recently he explained that clubs look for size first in young goalkeepers as they can teach technique if they get them young enough. He said that one of our young keepers is already 5 foot 6 and just left primary school - hence the interest probably.

Love it,"speaking to a respected coach" Whats the problem naming said respected coach ? One coachs opinion may differ from anothers, and an opinion on what makes a good young keeper is hardly club sensitive information.

As said above the bench mark height for keepers around 16/18 years old is 6ft-2in although in my own recent conversation with Kenny Veysey he did say to me some managers are now moving away from big keepers, prefering defenders to deal with high balls in, and keepers to stick on the line in postion to save any header/shot that may follow, prime example of that for me is Joe Hart /Poland's goal.

Kenny also said look at the height of Bobby now playing at Championship level, and Micheal Poke/Martin Rice none of those three are overly tall.

The thing is schoolboy keepers can grow tall early doors, however if they don't have great degree of natural talent then they are going no where, I know of a Plymouth based lad who is 5ft 7 in, at 12 years old rejected by Argyle, because whilst he was taller than what they already had, he was not any better.

As said above a lot of clubs with the new graded acdamey system are starting advanced development centres, these are likey to be regional, so kids wont be going off to the bright lights of London/Manchester/Liverpool, they will going off to somewhere like Taunton training under the banner of these clubs.

Some parents will be faced with a big decision, in a full acadmey kids have to pay for their kits normaly somewhere between £150-£200, their travel, training and medical cover is provided by the club, with A-D-C's its likely parents would have to cover the full cost, which would be somewhere around £30-£35 a month, plus buying the kits for the games programme.

If it was me and my lad was in a full acadmey of a small club leave him their, different story for a lad still playing at local level wanting to give it shot.

Well I hope whoever is in goal for the youth team tonight in the FA Youth cup at Bristol Rovers has a good game and we can get by them. The winners have a home tie against Staines or Wroxham.

Sorry forevertufc. You obviously know more than me about goalkeeping. Thank you for your insight.

What Dave doesn't know about goalkeeping you can write on the back of an ordnance survey map of Russia.


Of course i'm joking Dave! :na:

won't say names but my half brother (who is a keeper c/o kenny vaisey) has recently been told by Geoff Harrop that Arsenal are keeping an eye on him. Doesnt mean too much, but our academy does seem to be drawing the right kind of attention!

Brooker - wow!

Anyone have a fixture list of where, when and who our young teams play? May pop along to watch. After all they are part if our club and deserve our support I think.

U10, U12 and U14 play Swindon at forches cross this Sunday. 11am kick off

I can put on here weekly home fixtures if you like?

Its not the under 12 guy, bit older, we don't share a surname, and he doesn't want to spread it around too much, being part of a team. Theyre in London at the moment playing a few friendlies, and they beat charlton elite 5-1 yesterday! Our academy really does seem to be coming along nicely with Geoff at the helm.

TorquayTim wrote:Sorry forevertufc. You obviously know more than me about goalkeeping. Thank you for your insight.

What on earth are you saying sorry for, I have not questioned your post or had a go at you, I am not really sure where you get the idea I know more about goalkeeping than you or anyone for that matter, I get the feeling from your posts you know more than your letting on, I get the feeling your trying to tell us something without really telling us.

Who is the respected coach, and you keep going on about this highly rated u-12 keeper, do you know him is he a family member.

My only knowlege of goalkeeping is what I have learnt through supporting my son who is an u-15 goalkeeper,who was with Torquay before going a specialist goalkeeping school, it's more about youth systems that I have some background idea on and how they work, purely as a former youth football coach and volunteer scout for a football coaching school which was linked to a number of pro clubs.

Back in July I spoke to a professional scout then working for Cardiff now with Bristol City, who very much gave me the impression that a lot of clubs would be turning to advanced development centre systems rather than turning lads away who were not quite at the level for their main acadmies.

The big premier league clubs and some of the bigger London clubs have been running satellite/development centre's or soccer schools for years now which are used as a staging post only the very best go through to their main acadamey, thats is all I am saying before we start worrying about our kids being knicked and loss of compensation it doesn't quite work that way, and before some of these kids have their heads turned by thoughts of going to arsenal I would say they seriously need to find out just what they are being offered.

At the start of the season our u-11's beat West ham 4-3 and Brooker says his half brothers team beat Charlton 5-1, these are great results no matter what, but I really seriously doubt they played the main acadmey sides of these clubs, you would be playing against some of the best kids in the whole country, and whilst our acadmey has improved a great deal, they are not any where near the level required to beat the top youth sides from West Ham and Charlton.