NYCFC Academy - General Discussion

I think what everyone is saying is do it right from the 14 year old level and going forward. That's fine and makes sense. But lay claim to the 15-18 year olds when you start. We're integrating raw talents in their 20s like Khiry, Mikey, RJ etc... So why not lay claim to some local youths and maybe get lucky?

I get that. But maybe they didn't think they could mold them for only a couple of years. Or maybe MLS said it doesn't matter what you do but kids that are 15 and up won't qualify for Homegrown status.
 
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I get that. But maybe they didn't think they could mold them for only a couple of years. Or maybe MLS said it doesn't matter what you do but kids that are 15 and up won't qualify for Homegrown status.

Well if they were worried about "molding" why bother drafting Harrison & Lewis at 18 & 19 respectively? That's where the logic falls off.

The 2nd part doesn't make sense since Atlanta is already graduating players. And even if it did. They could still lay claim to the players, even without the HG status. Get some more cap friendly youths on the roster.
 
Well if they were worried about "molding" why bother drafting Harrison & Lewis at 18 & 19 respectively? That's where the logic falls off.

The 2nd part doesn't make sense since Atlanta is already graduating players. And even if it did. They could still lay claim to the players, even without the HG status. Get some more cap friendly youths on the roster.
I would have set up the older Academy teams just to strengthen the claim on BAJ. Wouldn't that mean we could have had him and our draft pick (Rosenbarry, anyone????)?
 
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I think you guys raise good points but here's one counterpoint:

Maybe the decision was based on the number of people they felt they could effectively hire. It is much easier to control the quality of a small and growing program.
I don't disagree that it'd have been more difficult to enact total quality control, but would that have mattered for these few years?

Jack developed just fine under non-CFG tutelage; there are plenty of fine youth coaches that were spawned by differed professional & grassroots organizations. Even if we assume that the Barcelona/CFG(MCFC) way is what we want from a youth technical perspective, Pep's Munich teams ran rampant without any of those players, so I don't think the CFG philosophy is an end-all-be-all.

My belief is that when there are rosters rules, one does not shut the door, or limit in any way, the mechanisms that help skirt/reduce the arithmetic involved. And if even only (1) older player was deemed a diamond in the rough, then it'd be worth it.
 
I dont think we can really compare our academy situation with Atlanta's. Red Bulls were already in our geographic area with an established and successful academy scooping up talent, whereas Atlanta did not have to deal with that. Atlanta also did not have to build anything from the ground up since they just basically bought out Georgia United, which was already one of the best academies in the nation and pushing out multiple youth NTers. I give props to them for some savvy moves, but I don't think its realistic to say that we should have expected the same results if we started our academy earlier.

I don't think that it excuses the lack of a full academy at all though. I would personally attribute it for CFG not really understanding how MLS works in those early days. If we had started our teams in fall 2013, we would have had a full academy squad by now, and perhaps had been able to make a claim on Harrison as homegrown.
 
Well if they were worried about "molding" why bother drafting Harrison & Lewis at 18 & 19 respectively? That's where the logic falls off.

The 2nd part doesn't make sense since Atlanta is already graduating players. And even if it did. They could still lay claim to the players, even without the HG status. Get some more cap friendly youths on the roster.


Would you prefer that they didn't draft players?
 
Would you prefer that they didn't draft players?

Quite to the contrary, I love what they did this draft. From both a talent and cap perspective. I just don't understand the logic of doing one and not the other. Why waste limited assets (GAM) to grab 18 & 19 year olds in the draft who were not brought up in the city way. Yet choose not to expend an unlimited resource (funds for an academy) to lay claim to local players who are the same age as the players they are drafting. It's not logical.
 
Maybe since we'll have a training facility now they will add all of the age groups. There's certainly a missed opportunity not being able to sign at least some depth positions from academy kids.
 
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We throw around the "unlimited resource" concept a lot. Is it possible that our owners don't consider money quite as burnable as we make them out?

"Un-limited" to me means what it says. Not limited by the MLS or any cap constraints. This is different then GAM which is restricted or limited to a specific amount per team. I wasn't actually saying CFG can spend forever (though they might be able to).

That said, the MLS rules allow for a team to work around those rules creatively. And one of those ways is through our Academy. If our owners don't care to do that, then do they really care to win? It's one of the advantages we've always felt we would have over the rest of the league. I sure hope the decision not to field older players in the academy from the start was more of a mistake then an overall strategy of austerity.
 
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For many of the important decisions the club makes, they really need a few dedicated fans to be there to vet the ideas and quickly quip: "are you guys fcking serious - that's an absolutely wretched idea that lacks any form of common sense."

I barely trust fans to reach a smart consensus on chicken buckets, let alone long-term strategic decisions that impact the club's entire future. Wretched idea indeed.
 
Cute

Seriously though, what entitles you (or any of us on here) to a seat at the aforementioned table? Or do you genuinely think Ulrich knows best?
Lovely trolling bud. Never said I deserved a seat not did I say anybody on this particular board did either. The devil is in the details and you so often miss them when trolling me.
 
Lovely trolling bud. Never said I deserved a seat not did I say anybody on this particular board did either. The devil is in the details and you so often miss them when trolling me.

Quit being all sensitive and answer the question. Fan involvement is one of the most important aspects of any club, but it sounds like a terrible idea when it comes to player recruitment and long-term strategy. I'm genuinely interested to hear how you justify the idea (I don't really think it's your ego at work).
 
We throw around the "unlimited resource" concept a lot. Is it possible that our owners don't consider money quite as burnable as we make them out?
As Adam indicated, in this context I think it's fair to distinguish between monetary resources limited by league rules, and those not. But otherwise I take your point, and I've long thought that the OPM mentality regarding CFG's cash was very strong here. But even with that, shaving costs via a diminished academy capacity seems particularly unwise. If that's why they started the way they did (and I've no reason to think it's the case) that's pretty weak.
 
Quit being all sensitive and answer the question. Fan involvement is one of the most important aspects of any club, but it sounds like a terrible idea when it comes to player recruitment and long-term strategy. I'm genuinely interested to hear how you justify the idea (I don't really think it's your ego at work).
Again, the devil is in the details. We were talking about player development and short-term strategy. Please just stop now.