[Albion] New: Barber on Ashworth, recruitment, u23s, and the vision.

Peter Grummit · May 8, 2019

Incremental improvement.

Young players coming through and playing in the first team.

These are the pillars of the vision. I think what PB is setting up is the cohesive articulation of that vision.

On the first of these, I'd score the club 5/10. We've got 4 less points than last season, with a game to go. But we reached the FACSF.

On the second 4/10, but it is incredibly difficult to do, given the demands of the PL.

PG

Green Cross Code Man · May 8, 2019

Herr Tubthumper said:
This sounds very encouraging and realistic and above all acknowledges we need more than survival.

Yes, if the intention is more than surviving, then that will address some of the dissatisfaction expressed this season. I hope.

chaileyjem · May 8, 2019

Creaky said:
What is the “next vision” if not to simply remain in the PL?
At what point do you think we will be given an idea?

Barber is talking about the upcoming Board awayday(s) where he plans to discuss this.
He literally discusses in the interview how to move beyond merely staying in the Prem as a vision/objective.

kjgood · May 8, 2019

chaileyjem said:
There's a new interview with Paul Barber in the Argus this morning
https://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/17...e-for-seagulls-in-the-summer-transfer-window/

"Staying in the Premier League" isn't very inspiring.

"One of the things we have been talking about since Dan has been here is what the next vision for the club is?
"That's a really important discussion for us to have as a board of directors this summer.
"Certainly for the first half decade I was here, preparing ourselves to play in the Premier League, to have a category one academy, putting ourselves in a position where women's Super League was a possibility and a reality, has been the internal and external mantra.
"That's a vision that has been very clear, very tangible, very easy for people to relate to.
"Now what is the next vision? Because staying in the Premier League isn't very inspiring to the outside world.
"Internally it's still very important, because people internally understand what it drives and how important it is.
"But our next challenge is to identify clearly and articulate clearly what the next vision is. And we need to make sure it is reasonable but aspirational, that it is exciting but achievable.
"All of those variables in-between are what we are debating. We don't want to set expectations so high that we set ourselves up to fail but what we don't want to either put out something or talk about something that people say 'Well is that it?
'After all these years of struggle, of hardship, of going through the lower leagues, is it just about surviving now?'
"That's quite a challenge and we are not the first club to have faced that challenge. I think people know now we will always be very honest.
"The chairman is very focused on what is important to the club. Staying in the Premier League is really important but he is also realistic enough to know it's very difficult.
"At some point in our future we may have to drop back down and fight to come back up. We hope we don't. We try to put in place all the things that make that as unlikely as possible.
"But this is the Premier League, as Stoke, West Brom, Swansea, Derby, Aston Villa, Newcastle have seen, it's not impossible for clubs bigger than ours to fall out of it."

Ashworth central to recruitment.

"Dan has been looking at recruitment with Paul Winstanley (head of recruitment) from the day he arrived," Barber (below) said.
"He will have started to talk players with Paul, the manager, the chairman, and that work has been going on behind the scenes.
"Already there are a number of different targets identified and once again it's about strengthening the squad where we can, how we can.
"Dan will be integral to that process. The other thing he is very focused on is the development of young players and that's something he created his reputation from at West Brom.
"The same with England. Dan is the first person to give Gareth Southgate all the credit for what is happening with the senior team but people need to look deeper than just the senior team and what has happened with the younger teams since Dan took over as technical director there.

Ashworth wants more of a pipeline from the u16s, 18s, 23s.

"His commitment to young talent is significant. He's already had many meetings with John Morling (academy chief) and Simon Rusk (under-23s coach) and the under-18s and under-16s coaches about the talent we have got in the pipeline, how we can bring that forward faster, what we need to do to make that talent pipeline even more productive over the years to follow.
"One of the significant things about bringing Dan in for Tony and I was having another very senior technical voice around the club overlooking all the things that are football in the club.
"It sounds on the outside obvious but you actually need to have a certain size of club and stature in order for that role to be truly effective.
"We felt we had reached that point, reached the Premier League, women's Super League, category one status, we've got state of the art facilities both at the stadium and training ground.
"We've got all the infrastructure in place, now we need to make the infrastructure even more productive and efficient, create even more value for money.
"In order to do that we felt we needed a more senior, technical voice, somebody that was independent if you like of the first team and academy teams - that could have a very clear vision."

via https://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/17...e-for-seagulls-in-the-summer-transfer-window/

I think this is a very sensible article and one that tells me that behind the scenes we have a team with realistic expectations in place. We cannot afford to take the spend billions and then implode route as others have done, we need to have sustainable improvement year on year and gradually work our way up to attempt promotion to the top six super premier league (Or European league that will come soon).

Its OK encouraging the youth and other progression teams in the setup to develop and ready young players for first team action, but its a very brave manager that actually plays them especially in a team that is going to be on the fringes of relegation each year. I hope that happens, its how it should work for the upcoming talent, but is our manager brave enough?

Past history tells me that in my opinion he isnt a brave manager, he does play safe and including fifteen to eighteen year old potentials just doesnt seem to be in his makeup, the production line then stops. I really like Chris and am pleased he has been with us, we needed a Chris after our previous few managers including half of Gus's reign (The first part of his reign was good, second half i'm not so sure about). But where does this development of young players to the first team leave Chris?

I await Mr Blooms statement in the press that will eventually come regarding his plans for next season, does it include Chris?

Bold Seagull · May 8, 2019

Stat Brother said:
A pipeline to turn Juniors into seniors.

There appears to be a block right at the end of that tunnel.
New singings aren't allowed to play, what chance have the kids got.

That will be the new signings since promotion, league appearances:
Ryan 71
Propper 65
Gross 62
Izquierdo 47
Locadia 31
Bissouma 27
Montoya 24
Andone 22
Bernardo 21
Schelotto 20
Jahanbakhsh 18
Suttner 14
Brown 13
Ulloa 10
Balogun 8

studio150 · May 8, 2019

I'm looking forward to SurvivalPlus as the vision for the next 5 years.

Obviously the Plus part won't be defined in case we fall short, but may well be a combination of reaching the later stages of cup competitions and hopefully seeing say 3 academy players being part of the first team squad at the end of year 5.

El Presidente · May 8, 2019

Bakero said:
Didn't Derby try to sue their ex-chief exec in relation to his dodgy dealings? Aside from the aforementioned youth scout thing he squandered millions on scouting reports, one of which recommended signing Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele

They did sue Sam Rush and he countersued, it was resolved last October with both sides claiming they were happy.

Creaky · May 8, 2019

chaileyjem said:
Barber is talking about the upcoming Board awayday(s) where he plans to discuss this.
He literally discusses in the interview how to move beyond merely staying in the Prem as a vision/objective.

Indeed. He was also quoted in that article as saying, “our next challenge is to identify clearly and articulate clearly what the next vision is. And we need to make sure it is reasonable but aspirational, that it is exciting but achievable.

I was simply asking what others thought might be a reasonable, aspirational challenge for the future that is also ‘exciting’ and at what point this is likely to be ‘articulated’.

n1 gull · May 8, 2019

Bold Seagull said:
That will be the new signings since promotion, league appearances:
Ryan 71
Propper 65
Gross 62
Izquierdo 47
Locadia 31
Bissouma 27
Montoya 24
Andone 22
Bernardo 21
Schelotto 20
Jahanbakhsh 18
Suttner 14
Brown 13
Ulloa 10
Balogun 8

How many of these are starts?

deslynhamsmoustache1 · May 8, 2019

studio150 said:
I'm looking forward to SurvivalPlus as the vision for the next 5 years.

Obviously the Plus part won't be defined in case we fall short, but may well be a combination of reaching the later stages of cup competitions and hopefully seeing say 3 academy players being part of the first team squad at the end of year 5.

Hitting a Europa league place by year five.First a Lancing academy boy playing for BHA, then ultimately going on to play for his country. I think we will see boys coming through before year five, but roughly agree with your assessment. :clap2:

Greg Bobkin · May 8, 2019

studio150 said:
I'm looking forward to SurvivalPlus as the vision for the next 5 years.

Obviously the Plus part won't be defined in case we fall short, but may well be a combination of reaching the later stages of cup competitions and hopefully seeing say 3 academy players being part of the first team squad at the end of year 5.

#SurvivalPlusReady :albion2:

Mr Putdown · May 8, 2019

El Presidente said:
One club paid the mother of a player £700,000 a year when he signed to be a youth scout and these costs were exempt from FFP. I've upset the club and they presently have an injunction out preventing me from mentioning the club name, his name or that of his mother in public, but his father's name is Paul Ince.

Bold Seagull · May 8, 2019

n1 gull said:
How many of these are starts?

5. Maybe 6.

Mr Putdown · May 8, 2019

studio150 said:
I'm looking forward to SurvivalPlus as the vision for the next 5 years.

Obviously the Plus part won't be defined in case we fall short, but may well be a combination of reaching the later stages of cup competitions and hopefully seeing say 3 academy players being part of the first team squad at the end of year 5.

Did you miss this bit?

“But our next challenge is to identify clearly and articulate clearly what the next vision is. And we need to make sure it is reasonable but aspirational, that it is exciting but achievable.”

Fourteenth Eye · May 8, 2019

Paul Barber is joining us on the Albion Roar this week so we will discuss this further.......

DarrenFreemansPerm · May 8, 2019

Nixonator · May 8, 2019

Another 10 points a season would be a good start.

This requires improvements to the first team and an increase in the cap on our wage bill.

Frankie · May 8, 2019

Fourteenth Eye said:
Paul Barber is joining us on the Albion Roar this week so we will discuss this further.......

Excellent , i wonder while your at it , could you ask about the replacement service for Seagulls TV ? unless iv'e missed it (very possible ) iv'e not heard much about what's happening with this other than it's being replaced , cheers .

Iggle Piggle · May 8, 2019

West Brom fan at work pinpoints their decline to the loss of Ashworth. He could be exactly what we need.

Bish Bosh · May 8, 2019

Iggle Piggle said:
West Brom fan at work pinpoints their decline to the loss of Ashworth. He could be exactly what we need.

Is he a 'bell cheese' though?

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