My heart goes out to Kevin Hodges, Kevin Nancekivell, Phil Stokes and the rest of the coaching staff, they are doing a fantastic job with the limited resources of a category 3 academy where the odds are stacked against them compared to cats' 1 & 2.
My son Matthew joined Brentford (cat 2 academy) as an u10 and was with them to u13 when the owner decided to close the academy this time last year, as he did not feel it paid its way. The u13 squad had some fanastic talent and were practically unbeaten so when the closure was announced scouts from all over the country were swooping like vultures. Matt and a majority of his teamates were in an enviable position of recieving offers from a number of clubs and as they were out of contract could talk or trial with any of them.
Although living in Surrey Matt has green blood so came down to trial with Argyle, or at least put himself on their radar. He played with the u15 against West Brom and Southampton but had to cut his trial short with an injury.
Kevin Hodges wanted to offer Matt a contract but the number of various cat 3 restrictions re age, distance ( 40 mile radius) education etc invariably tied his hands behind his back. If Argyle were category 1 there would have been no problem.
Matt had a final choice of either Chelsea or Brighton, both cat 1, and chose Brigjton due to their state of art training, education and psychology facilities. He has spent the last year playing with the u15s & 16s and feels that most of the players he played with at Argyle would easily meet the standard of his teamates at Brighton.
At nearly every game there are club & international scouts, etc, so these kids are getting on 'the radar' something that Argyle kids are missing out on due to distance and category status. As mentioned earlier Argyle needs some radical thinking regarding the academy. My late father was a contributer to the Argyle foundation which is doing a great job in the circumstances but a lot more thinking and investment is needed if Argyle are to compete at youth level
