Most liked posts in thread: City Youth Players ‘making’ it at Bradford City

Because anyone who's half decent is sold before they reach 16.

 

Lee Duxbury and Des Hamilton spring to mind.

 

Did we not earn a good fee selling Ormonroyd to Aston Villa?

 

Also add Andy O'Brien. Sold for over £1m and went on to play a lot in the top flight after leaving us.

 

The recent academy players sold are:

• Darryl Ombang - Leeds, he signed a 2 year that is up this summer. He's currently 18 and the back up keeper for the U23s in PL2.
• Sahil Bashir - Brighton. Signed for Brighton in 2022 and signed a 2 year pro deal this summer. Played 16 times for their u18s last season and in his last year as an U18 this season.
  
• Victor Musa - Well thought of at Man Utd, only turned 17 this season and played 23 games for the U18s getting 6 in 19 last season. Got caps for both Spain u16s and England U16s. In the summer Athletic Bilbao
  
• Alfie Bradshaw - signed for Forest this summer
  
• Alvin Ayman & Max Ruddock - currently in the u17s at Wolves

 

There were others before those Rod , but a different era.
Dean Richards 92 , Bradford born, ex Rhodesway, first team debut 17 years old, sold to Wolves aged 21 for a total of £1.8m
Stuart came to City aged 15-16. On that basis I’d call him “homegrown” Released by Leeds before he was a teenager ( I think)
Bruce Stowell again released by Leeds as a youngster ( Bradford born) picked up by City as a mid teenager.

@Bronco Any more Dave?

Can’t think of any more in my time.

 

As you say different era, most teams had 2/3 possibly more local lads in their ranks, Bruce Stowell, Bruce Bannister, Ian Cooper, Joe Cooke, Gary Watson, Brian Kelly, John Hall, Bobby Ham, Peter Jackson, Terry Dolan, Malcolm Devitt, Trevor Hockey who wasn't at the club long as he was a class act, so many mate, again you knew the starting 11 week in week out baring injuries.

 

I read Martin Drury's comments on twitter regarding Bobby Pointons debut and that the lad had worked hard and was a late developer in terms of standing out, which kinda tells me why he's flown under the radar of the bigger clubs scanning the lower leagues for youth development players. Had he stood out at a younger age, say 13 or 14, he wouldn't still have been at Valley Parade.

 

Story was,and I don't know how true it is,that Taylor offered £350.000 for sticks initially.When Dolan heard this he said Taylor must be joking,as he valued sticks a lot lower.When Taylor heard this,he thought Dolan must have thought the offer was not enough,and doubled it.

 

If they do make it it will be a proud grandad! Their chances are likely zero , nothing but encouragement though.

 

Danny Devine made over 50 appearances but I think a lot of them were purely down to him being in the squad for club developed rules. Cousin-Dawson will have made most of his appearances in the behind closed doors season when he was first choice right back for a bit.
The problem we'll also have is that the best academy players are snatched off us by the Premier League clubs. Also recruiting players is harder with having the likes of Leeds and the 2 Manchester clubs close by, now with EPPP there's no 90 minute rule for the top clubs so they can take whoever they want. Even if our players make it to the scholar stage there's a huge gap from U18s to 1st team and we've got no link in between apart from local loans. There were probably 2 reasons McBurnie made it like he did, better coaching and time to develop. Players like Sykes-Kenworthy were rated highly but we struggled to get him game time to develop past U18s. With Pointon if his form drops we can't give him a break in the U23s to rediscover form and confidence so he could follow their path.
For me we need to invest in the academy to get it to category 2 then the players are playing against better quality teams and it makes it easier to attract and keep players.

 

Going back to the late 70s we had Peter Jackson, Barry Gallagher as well as before them Joe Cooke, Gary Watson and Ces Podd. In the 60s there was the schools Bradford boys team where we got Stowell, Bannister. It’s a shame now that we rarely get to see our promising youngsters as they are snapped up by the big clubs when they are 14/15 years old.

 

£650,000 at the time I believe Graham Taylor paid for Sticks, gob smacked was an understatement, he then went on to manage England but never capped Sticks .

 

The twin grandsons have been offered training positions at Ipswich Town …Aged 9!

 

I know . 16 year old is a youth to me. I’m not really bothered if he didn’t come from junior school direct to City …it’s all tad semantic. 16 is a youth in anyones book Dennis.

 

That's the advantage of training at a school then.

 

Hughes actually mentions Tomlinson in his book as a potential future partner for him at OT. Didn't he have a very bad leg break that effectively ended his career ?

 

I believe the decision to scrap the reserves league several seasons ago contributed greatly to the lack of youth prospects. Also many are moved on to big academies when they are U12 so you probably don't realise they were at Bradford at all if & when they finally "make it"