Academy & U21s

[arbitro]

2 hours ago, rover23 said:

Not sure if this has been posted in here before, but has anyone any knowledge of the sale of Brockhall Farm which sits next to the current Academy? Currently Sold subject to conditions.
 

I know there was a lot of talk last year about moving the senior training centre to the academy site, but would surely make sense for Rovers to have bought this if they really are keen on developing a single site training complex. 

I posted on here a few weeks ago that I had been told that the trees/bushes were being removed to make the Academy bigger with a view to moving the STC down there. It was told to me by an excellent source. Although to be fair I wasn't told about any land for sale or sold. It seems strange though as the owners have just bought the STC unless there is something afoot like circumventing rules and regulations.

Incidentally that shrubbery was put up when the STC was there to stop any spying on first team training sessions. The instigator was Roy Hodson.

[inflikted]

Annesley played his guts out tonight, playing the full 90 mins as Gibraltar held Bulgaria to a shock 1-1 draw. This is the country that produced Stoichkov, Berbatov and the two Petrovs. Next season's gonna be crucial for him to prove he can play at a good level, Was a regular at Woking until the new manager arrived and decided he didn't want to play the loanees.

Edited June 9, 2022 by inflikted

[rigger]

14 hours ago, inflikted said:

Annesley played his guts out tonight, playing the full 90 mins as Gibraltar held Bulgaria to a shock 1-1 draw. This is the country that produced Stoichkov, Berbatov and the two Petrovs. Next season's gonna be crucial for him to prove he can play at a good level, Was a regular at Woking until the new manager arrived and decided he didn't want to play the loanees.

Having watch Annesley for our U23s, in my opinion he is nowhere-near good enough for our first team. Non-league is his level  

Edited June 10, 2022 by rigger

[bluebruce]

21 hours ago, inflikted said:

Annesley played his guts out tonight, playing the full 90 mins as Gibraltar held Bulgaria to a shock 1-1 draw. This is the country that produced Stoichkov, Berbatov and the two Petrovs. Next season's gonna be crucial for him to prove he can play at a good level, Was a regular at Woking until the new manager arrived and decided he didn't want to play the loanees.

That should impress his next club.

[inflikted]

3 hours ago, bluebruce said:

That should impress his next club.

Suspect he'll get another National League loan next season. Maybe a League Two loan if he's lucky.

Not sure if this is testament to the improvement of Gibraltar as a defensive unit (aided by Dayle Coleing making some top draw saves), or the decline of Bulgarian football since Berbatov and Stilian and Martin Petrov retired.

[bluebruce]

12 hours ago, inflikted said:

Suspect he'll get another National League loan next season. Maybe a League Two loan if he's lucky.

Not sure if this is testament to the improvement of Gibraltar as a defensive unit (aided by Dayle Coleing making some top draw saves), or the decline of Bulgarian football since Berbatov and Stilian and Martin Petrov retired.

I suspect he will be released next summer when his contract expires. Without making an appearance for us.

It's probably a testament to both of those things.

[rigger]

51 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

I suspect he will be released next summer when his contract expires. Without making an appearance for us.

It's probably a testament to both of those things.

In my opinion, we have two central defenders who are already better than Annesley, in Phillips and Pratt.

[chaddyrovers]

Has our head of Academy coaching Tony Carss left us now since we are advertising his job on the Rovers website?

[inflikted]

12 hours ago, bluebruce said:

I suspect he will be released next summer when his contract expires. Without making an appearance for us.

It's probably a testament to both of those things.

Reckon he'll feature in pre-season to get clubs to take him on loan or even make an offer to buy if possible.

PS that result on Thursday might be mostly down to Bulgarian football being laughably bad now - Gibraltar and Bulgaria played again today in the U21 qualifiers and that finished 1-1 too. Same fashion too. Bulgaria score first slightly against the run of play and then Gibraltar equalised through a penalty and maybe should've won it late on. Only difference being this time a Bulgarian U21 was sent off. It was strangely poetic how similar the two games were.

[Sparks Rover]

9 hours ago, inflikted said:

Reckon he'll feature in pre-season to get clubs to take him on loan or even make an offer to buy if possible.

PS that result on Thursday might be mostly down to Bulgarian football being laughably bad now - Gibraltar and Bulgaria played again today in the U21 qualifiers and that finished 1-1 too. Same fashion too. Bulgaria score first slightly against the run of play and then Gibraltar equalised through a penalty and maybe should've won it late on. Only difference being this time a Bulgarian U21 was sent off. It was strangely poetic how similar the two games were.

Fair play to you mate sitting through Gibraltar u21s v Bulgaria U21s 👏👏

[RoversClitheroe]

Great to see Isaac Whitehall getting back to fitness and a new contract.

He's the one to watch in our academy isn't he? Class player

[arbitro]

16 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Great to see Isaac Whitehall getting back to fitness and a new contract.

He's the one to watch in our academy isn't he? Class player

Pre injury I would have said the he was a young player with huge potential. Big, strong and can play in a number of positions. My fear, as with any player coming back from a serious injury is how it has affected him. Hopefully he will get an opportunity in pre season to prove himself to the new man and we see him in and around the first team squad.

[MarkBRFC]

2 hours ago, arbitro said:

Pre injury I would have said the he was a young player with huge potential. Big, strong and can play in a number of positions. My fear, as with any player coming back from a serious injury is how it has affected him. Hopefully he will get an opportunity in pre season to prove himself to the new man and we see him in and around the first team squad.

Pretty sure i read in the article where he signed his new contract that he's still 4 or 5 months away from being fit.

[bluebruce]

3 hours ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Great to see Isaac Whitehall getting back to fitness and a new contract.

He's the one to watch in our academy isn't he? Class player

He's one to watch, if the injury hasn't caused longer term issues, but clearly THE one to watch as you put it, would be Ash Phillips.

[arbitro]

1 hour ago, MarkBRFC said:

Pretty sure i read in the article where he signed his new contract that he's still 4 or 5 months away from being fit.

Could well be. I saw the article headline without reading it and assumed he would be fit.

[bluebruce]

On 31/05/2022 at 12:30, AllRoverAsia said:

Jay Haddow in on the bench for Japan U19s v Algeria today, it's showing as being on BeIN at 1pm UK time

Did you watch this game btw?

[AllRoverAsia]

1 hour ago, bluebruce said:

Did you watch this game btw?

I tried too but the steam was unwatchable, too much buffering. Quite unusual for the sources used.

[bluebruce]

14 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

I tried too but the steam was unwatchable, too much buffering. Quite unusual for the sources used.

Do you know if he got on the pitch?

[AllRoverAsia]

28 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Do you know if he got on the pitch?

Unused sub.

He did play the first half v Argentina in the 5th place game, 3-2 win to Argentina.

Edited June 13, 2022 by AllRoverAsia

[unsall]

Tony Caras leaving for premier club, big loss.

[bluebruce]

1 hour ago, unsall said:

Tony Caras leaving for premier club, big loss.

Wow, we really leak academy bosses in recent years! I'm going to take it as a compliment on the whole, that our successful academy draws attention to them, but we always seem to replace them with internal promotions. That can't keep working indefinitely. I hope we headhunt this time. It's also a slight concern we never seem to be able to keep them, although they're probably getting better job offers and money tbf.

I wonder if it has anything to do with us appointing a new DoF with a clear focus on the academy. As Head of Academy Coaching, he was already under Stuart Jones, maybe he felt like he was going a further rung down the ladder of importance and influence on Academy issues. Maybe the timing is coincidental though.

Do you know what club and what role he is leaving for?

[chaddyrovers]

44 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Wow, we really leak academy bosses in recent years! I'm going to take it as a compliment on the whole, that our successful academy draws attention to them, but we always seem to replace them with internal promotions. That can't keep working indefinitely. I hope we headhunt this time. It's also a slight concern we never seem to be able to keep them, although they're probably getting better job offers and money tbf.

I wonder if it has anything to do with us appointing a new DoF with a clear focus on the academy. As Head of Academy Coaching, he was already under Stuart Jones, maybe he felt like he was going a further rung down the ladder of importance and influence on Academy issues. Maybe the timing is coincidental though.

Do you know what club and what role he is leaving for?

Carss has been here 4 years and 11 months. 

Stuart Jones has been our head of academy for just over 5 years ago. (6) Stuart Jones | LinkedIn

[bluebruce]

21 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Carss has been here 4 years and 11 months. 

Stuart Jones has been our head of academy for just over 5 years ago. (6) Stuart Jones | LinkedIn

That's fine and all, I'm just not sure why you're telling me?

[chaddyrovers]

1 minute ago, bluebruce said:

That's fine and all, I'm just not sure why you're telling me?

look at this comment. which seems not to be true does it

1 hour ago, bluebruce said:

Wow, we really leak academy bosses in recent years!

 

[bluebruce]

6 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

look at this comment. which seems not to be true does it

 

Just because we haven't lost those two in recent years (we are losing one right now though) doesn't mean we haven't leaked others. Dunn moved on, and I'm sure we have had at least two other u23 managers move on in the last few years. I think you've misunderstood what I meant by 'bosses'.