That's true but occasionally administrators are unwiling to spend market value to get their man

We'll agree to disagree. I don't believe that FC spend £25k on average to its British players, which would have to be the case for your claim that FC spend only 33% of the cap on them. It's not "spin" it's a fair analysis of your claim.

In terms of ordinary overseas players we've only got Berrigan, Fitzgibbon, Lauaki and Manu contracted for next year and will be well over the homegrown requirement (and actually fielding these players rather than having them as token squad players). That seems in the spirit of the quota strategy to me.

Sorry, I stopped reading after that bit...

And Huddersfield have exactly how many more seasons in Super League to build up their british contingent and how many more mergers to cherry pick their British players than Rovers.

Rome wasn't built in a day....but our squad is buliding nicely , in only its third full season in S.L. and AFAIK fits in perfectly with R.L. quota's.

They have also spent time outside the top flight and never negelected their YD.

Not those three no, but if you think some of the other players are on more than about £25,000 then your wrong.

I know at least three that are on less than that, 2 at Hull 1 at Rovers and he played in the World Cup



You also need to remember that Crockers £150-£200k will be off the cap now and I dont see anyone else coming in to command that sort of money so the club will only be spending £1.4.

Also the club lost in the first round of the CC so all those bonuses that are on their cap are now free.


As you say it is an average, everyone has their own deal but there will be a fair few in that squad on quite small wages compared to the big earners.

I do know that one Prop at Hull keeps getting less and less every year

1 season in the last 11 is a fairly skinny definition of "time"

Coupled with 700k parachute payment for the 2002 season, I should think they did continue with youth development!

Fair enough (though i don't think they got 700k).

Whichever way you look at things over the past few years Rovers have negelected their YD and even now are just paying lip service to it. They have no real strategy or structure in place hence the continual flow of coaching staff 'chucking it'.

Beyond signing promising youngsters, training them properly and providing foundation, academy and U-21 teams for them, what sort of startegy or structure are you looking for? By every measure available to me, it looks to be progressing reasonably well, albeit from a poor starting position.

You are right, it was only 150k parachute money.

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I'm scratching my head as to where the fig of 700k came from. Perhaps that was their salary bill for the 2002 season when they became the 1st lower league team to run a full squad of full timers.

Either way, I would dispute the term "lip service" without any evidence to support it.

Yet Castleford have kept faith with using local players despite shuttling between divisions and have brought through Westerman, Shenton, Owen, Huby etc and are actually playing them regularly in the first team. The question is how many games Esders, Watts and Spaven will get in total this season if commitment to youth policy is as robust as you suggest.

The true test of a youth set up is how many make it to regular first team action. At youth level Rovers have gone through umpteen coaches since they got promoted in a way that suggests they have not thought enough about the appointments.

Continuity is important to a players development something sadly lacking at the club at YD level. It is true to say they have some decent youngsters at the club (as do most SL clubs) but the continual upheavel of the coaching staff will do nothing to bring them on.

In other words 'Rovers are trying to find the right man but seem to be struggling to find him'.
Now if we are only paying lip service to YD why would we bother?

Because you have to in order to meet the SL criteria.

There is a whole world of difference in "shuttling between divisions" - 2 years outside SL in total, and 12 consecutive years with no Sky money. The right time to judge Rovers youth development will be the 2nd round of franchises, when the kids who are playing academy level right now are filling 1st team slots.

So you are now saying we are trying to improve it then?
Surely if we have a team in place for YD why would we change it all the time unless we want it to improve?

Thats not true it can't be true all the teams with years of SL money say so.

It would appear that changes in managerial structure = "paying Lip Service"

In that case, my company have been "paying lip service" to making a profit for the last 5 years. I best tell the shareholders!

No.

There is a world of difference between having to do something and wanting to do it.

If Rovers had any real idea what they were doing at that level they would never have gone within touching distance of Lee Crooks let alone give him a two year deal. On top of that both reserve team and U-18 coaches have chucked it this season.

Yet, strangely, both reserve & U-18 teams have shown significantly improved results compared to last season.

Progress appears to be measured in staff turnover now, nowt to do with results on the pitch then?

Ah I see so a club making mistakes on recruitment is not wanting to do something?
I hear after looking at this thread hudge is on the lookout for a crystal ball as apparetly that is what you need to improve YD as mistakes arn't allowed

Results are not a measure of successful youth policy. Putting a good team together to play in an age group is the easy part.

Making them into First Team players, now that's something totally different.

If you were turning over as many coaches at first team level you would be rightly wondering wtf was going on.

We did that until we got the right man


Seems we are going through the same situation at youth level.
Or are you saying we were also 'paying lip service' to getting into SL??

On that I would agree, however, at this early stage of the development curve, you have to look at other KPI's and the academy league table is certainly more of an indicator than how many backroom staff have left FFS!