Southampton sack academy coaches

ChicagoAddick

Appears odd.

"Southampton are in meltdown after they fired their two fabled academy coaches Jason Dodd and Paul Williams ‘for not spending enough time with the players’.
Dodd and Williams were sacked despite being credited with bringing through Luke Shaw, Calum Chambers, James Ward-Prowse, Harry Reed and Sam Gallagher through the club’s highly-regarded academy to the first team."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2633682/EXCLUSIVE-Southampton-sack-academy-coaches-Jason-Dodd-Paul-Williams-not-spending-time-players.html

ShootersHillGuru

Someone else's opportunity ?

TelMc32

You never know what happens in the background, but it looks like these guys are worth their weight in gold and maybe the club should have done more to sort out whatever issues there were between their coaches long before it got to this stage. Maybe they tried, but the comments from the likes of Shaw would suggest that this is out of the blue.

We've heard rumours about Paul Hart leaving for some time. I really do hope that isn't true, but Southampton have had a top class academy for many years and either/both of these guys could soften any blow of losing Paul.

ShootersHillGuru

I'm sure Paul Hart will be well aware of their value regardless of whether he's leaving or not. Common Roland quick sticks.

C_A_F_C

We already have very good academy coaches...

ShootersHillGuru

And we need more

Callumcafc

Sign them up.

kentaddick

ShootersHillGuru said:

And we need more

this. We need more full time coaches to get tier 1 status.

JohnnyH2

Wonder if Les Reed was the one who sacked them?

killerandflash

A bizarre decision, especially when you consider Jason Dodd is a club legend, with well over 450 appearances for the club

The_President

When you consider that Southampton covers a huge area including Channel Islands,Isle Of wight , this would be a great move for a club like us to try to 'tap' some of the areas that historically havnt been our 'hunting grounds'

ShootersHillGuru

We have a good and ambitious academy programme and those two will be aware of its reputation.

I would love to see them hired at Sparrows but I suspect their expertise will very highly sought after. We can but hope RD sees that this would help his plan and that they would see Charlton and it's academy as a decent option but I think on both counts it's unlikely.

AFKABartram

I think SHG there is probably much more likelihood of reducing staff count rather than adding to it at the mo

ShootersHillGuru

AFKABartram said:

I think SHG there is probably much more likelihood of reducing staff count rather than adding to it at the mo

Why do you think that AFKA ? I would have thought the expansion and intention of reaching Cat 1 would mean more ?