Thetownend.com

Swindon Town teen poised for Chelsea
           
           


  SWINDON Town’s 13-year-old goalkeeper Jared Thompson is set to join Chelsea after the European Champions agreed to pay an undisclosed compensation fee for the youngster.

           

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/9759501.Swindon_Town_teen_poised_for_Chelsea/?ref=rss
           
           
           

'As very proud parents, myself and Andrea would like to confirm to all our friends and family that, as of today, Swindon Town Football Club have accepted an undisclosed fee from Chelsea Football Club for our 13-year-old son Jared Thompson.

We would like to take this opportunity in congratulating Jared for this momentous, once in a lifetime achievement.'

Translates as...

'Wahaay!!  Andrea love, call the estate agent!  The goose has laid a golden egg!  We're in the money!  We're in the money...'

Sorry, but the barely concealed, self-congratulatory tone of that comment really pissed me off.  I wish Jared all the luck in the world - but sadly, the odds of his making it at Chelsea are slim at best.  At Swindon, he was a talent we could have nurtured and developed with a good chance of making something of himself here.  At Chelsea, there will be many others like him...all of whom will be shipped out at some point in the next 6 to 8 years when Chelsea decide they don't need English based keepers anyway because they can buy one from Spain for £30 million.

Just playing Devil's advocate, but would a 13 year old benefit more from the youth training and coaches that a team like chelsea can fund and provide, compared to us?

Probably, yes.  I'm just feeling chopsy this morning.  Really not sure why we bother we a youth set up any more, to be honest.

So that we can get an "undisclosed fee" whenever a local lad gets poached by a big club.

So that we can nurture young players, some of whom will play for us and some of whom will be sold. Which then helps fund the development of the ones we keep. The fact that we keep having stories like this (i.e. young players developed by our youth setup being sold to "bigger" clubs) is a sign of the success of our youth setup in developing young players to a level that the elite clubs are interested in. Surely they should be congratulated for that?

The continued negativity from our fans to our youth setup and young players we do keep (e.g. the shit the 17 year olds got who had the nerve to wonder why Di Canio had slagged them off publicly the day before they found out about their contracts) and the parents (e.g. all the crap these two are getting, the slating of the young outfield player who went to Chelsea last year etc) makes we wonder why any young player would bother coming here. Or staying here for that matter. (EDIT: this last para is aimed more at the comments on the Adver story and general reaction to previous stories about the yoof, not Ardiles btw)

Aren't these fees due to be capped soon anyway.. I understand that quite a few lower league clubs have closed their youth setups because of this

Well one. Wycombe! There are others rumoured to be considering it though.

Great post

I can see both sides of the argument.

Whilst you can't deny that the opportunity to join Chelsea is fantastic, you do have to consider whether it's the best choice for career longevity.

Way too good an opportunity to turn down. More intense training-more often etc.(their set up is the best i've seen)
Release from Swindon probably leads to non league,Release from Chelsea makes things easier to play pro football.

I'd say you stand a much better chance of making it professionally by going to a prem team at that age and dropping down teh divisions at the start of your career, than stick it out at the bottom to begin with.

Compare Wes Foderingham with Mark Scott. Foderingham grew up at Fulham, Scott with us. Foderingham has benefited from the better coaching Fulham will have offered him as a teen, and to a lesser extent Palace, and is soon to be an established league one keeper. Scott has just been released.

Now I know there are other factors that led to those scenarios, and I don't know what a 13 year old Mark Scott was like in goal. But i'd bet he'd stand a better chance of being in the football league last season had he been fotunate to follow the same career path as wes foderingham, rather than the one he did

Would be interesting to know the fee we got versus the fee we would have got under the EPPP

Yep or maybe Wes is and always has been a better keeper than Mark Scott.

Under the EPPP we would have been due approx £24,000 compensation.

For a young lad like that it's a no-brainer. Better coaching, better prospects, easier to become a pro footballer. I can see why people would be peeved if it was an 21 year old, because that is the point where a player needs to be playing games and feeling confident ect. But at the age of 13 the skills and contacts he and his parents gain are gonna be massive in helping him to become an established pro.

Spot on.

I was reacting to the parent's quote more than anything else, which got up my nose for some reason, and the relish with which they seemed to welcome their 13 year old being traded openly on the market, which didn't feel right...so probably went a little over the top with earlier comments.  To be clear as well, I do value having a youth set up - not just because of the possible financial benefit in years to come, but because I believe a club that properly represents its community should seek to develop local talent.  All part of being a 'family club'.

But I do get frustrated with the way that, increasingly, the best of the talent that we uncover is being creamed off by top level clubs at such an early stage.  This has to undermine the financial case for having a youth set up, certainly.

I can also understand the reason a young player might be attracted to a move at the time, but not at all convinced it would be the best path in the longer term.  Who can tell?  Their choice, I suppose.  From a purely financial standpoint, we will need to consider though whether running a youth set up is beneficial when youngsters are now prepared to leave STFC as young as 13 years old if they know a bigger club is interested.  Is the pool of youth players that are left going to be any better than those we can pick up for nominal fees when they have matured?  The business case for having a youth set up is weakening, to be sure.

How does it work if you live in Swindon and sign up with Chelsea? Do you have to travel there for training? Do they run something more locally? How often do you get training sessions?

Yes-No-3 times a week(I think, but a certain amount of hours per week +games)

Probably wont even hear about this kid again, hope he stays in school. :D

Good post.

What really gets my goat is the fact that even better players than this lad(good as he may be) dont stay and flourish like they do at Crewe...then leave for proper money.

What is it that Crewe do that means there starlets stay and play and are not fussed about moving on early...is there acedemy that superior to every other team at there level including ours.

They stay and play in the main.....and leave for much bigger money than we can dream about.

We sold Leigh Mills to Spurs when he was 16 - all that expert coaching lead him to loan spell at Brentford where he didnt play. A loan spell at Gillingham where he played 12 times and now he's at the mighty Winchester City.

Aden Flint on the other hand had his grounding playing first team football for Alfreton Town and is now a L1 defender.

So, it works both ways - much more a talent thing at a young age.

I do, however genuinely believe a footballer is better off playing first team football at a lower level than playing in a Premiership Clubs academy/reserves/under 18s.

I'd say the Mills comparison is misleading. Although it's only 3 years, you've got much more development potential at 13 than you will at 16

 You need to look no further than, Joe Hart....couple of seasons for his home Town club to show he could cut it in league football, then a move up the ladder, at 19.

It wouldn't be ridiculous to suggest that career of the goalkeeper is usually nomadic though would it? They all have to move around before finding some minutes so they've got to start somewhere.

There are currently two first choice goalkeepers in the Premier League who have graduated from the youth set-up of their current employers. It's probably more of a concern that neither are British (Krul and Szczesny).

Steve Mildenhall was our last goalkeeping graduate to command a regular place in Swindon's starting eleven (and that was only half a seasons worth of games) - Jimmy Allen before that? Either way, I doubt we'll ever see the likes of Sam Burton ever again!

Things didn't work out for Mills for whatever reason,but at least he had the opportunity to drop down levels to get opportunities. Not often the case the lower down you go. Even tougher for keepers as they generally don't get thrown on for experience.

There will always be players stepping up from non league but more players will play league football out of academies than non league.

Upto 3million for a 13yr ol!!!!!!$$$$$

£10 up front, the rest dependant on him playing 100 games for England, finding a cure for AIDS and bringing world peace.