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and of course, crowds are fantastic for the world’s most famous cup competition in the world’s most popular sport:
5519
5335and therefore based on the made-up figures above, the crowds should be much higher.
Have you totally ignored my last post Mutty?
Also, who was the last Sunderland player to play for England? I know who it is….[/quote]
He only answers selected posts Standish.Bit like a politician :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Have you totally ignored my last post Mutty?Of course he has ignored it. Thats what he does when he cant twist something into some anti-Latics drivel, just ignores them and sticks fingers in his ears and pretends he never saw it in the first place.
Have you totally ignored my last post Mutty?Of course not. I was doing what Mr 32 does and avoid answering for as long as possible when the answer isnt what I’d like it to be. :D :D :D
Also, who was the last Sunderland player to play for England? I know who it is….err. That would be Darren Bent against Japan on 30 May 2010.
But of course if you meant Sunderland-born, then it would probably be Jordan Henderson who represented England U20s on 11 Aug 2009.
But back to your question as to why Wigan has not produced an international footballer since 1995….
Its 15 years on, and there should be someone lurking in your youth team that is of international standard. Its 9 years since you bought your way into the Championship and 6 years since you entered the premier league. That means you have been relatively high-profile for 9 years. So the talented 8 year old in 2001 will now be a very talented 17 year old about to burst onto the stage with Wigan.
Except we wait and wait, and meanwhile money is spent on other clubs’ talented youngsters (Moses).
Wigan is a football town that simply doesnt produce footballers. In its 80,000 population, there is not a single top-flight professional player of any note that hails from Wigan, yet there is one of the largest and longest running youth leagues run from Wigan (The one that Burnley-supporting vicar founded). I remember him from when I was growing up, and in all that time, the best that has come from Wigan is Andy Bloody Griffin and Gary Walsh.
Why doesnt it produce quality footballers? In my opinion its because the kids in Wigan are not “hungry” enough to want it. The “better yourself” society that the rest of the country has embraced seems to have bypassed Wigan, leaving it in a time-warp. Is that good? Is it hell.
I’d hate to be bringing my kids up in Wigan in the 21st Century.
Some of it, I suppose, might be down to the fact that we have a “Centre of Excellence” and not an official youth “Academy”. Therefore, we cant do what the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool, Everton, Man City etc do and have 500 kids playing for us, throughout all the age groups, hoping that one might turn out half decent.
I wouldnt have thought we could, at the present time, afford the £15m or so it costs to built a separate youth Academy pitches, dorms for a load of foreign kids to live in etc.
There are quite a few Premiership clubs who have, and continue to throw money at their Academies, even boasting that they are “among the best Academy facilities in Europe”. Yet what are they producing despite having five-star facilities ? Perhaps one player here and there who makes half a dozen appearances from the bench before being sent to some Championship or League 1 club after they’ve been exposed as not being good enough even for the teams down the lower end of the Premiership.
At present, with the very odd exception, the Adacemy production lines around Englands big clubs, and the self professed big clubs, has ground to a halt. They need to look at themselves, find out the reasons why, and address said reasons, instead of pissing money up the wall building these five star white elephant facilities.
The original question that started this thread was ….
always thought that when people stated that most of the thugby fans are from out of town a bit of a myth .
No longer the case what I witnessed today dropping a relative off at the train station at 5:10 toneet all platforms were swamped with the sods heading for Prston and the North and heading Warrington and the South also a shed full on the scouse express as well are their any from Wigan
It is now 9 days since I posted this and all we have had from Mutty and chums is about local talent progressing in a game that no one cares about south of Eccles not an answer oh dear :lol: :lol:
Wigan is a football town Well said mutty at least you’ve conceded one point
Its 9 years since you bought your way into the Championship
How can a Ex supporter of the tics come up with a comment like that when the thugby did in the nineties and nearly bankrupt them at the same time mores the pity
This really was a tragedy!! heart breaking stuff :(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_MillettBut back to your question as to why Wigan has not produced an international footballer since 1995….Its 15 years on, and there should be someone lurking in your youth team that is of international standard. Its 9 years since you bought your way into the Championship and 6 years since you entered the premier league. That means you have been relatively high-profile for 9 years. So the talented 8 year old in 2001 will now be a very talented 17 year old about to burst onto the stage with Wigan.
Except we wait and wait, and meanwhile money is spent on other clubs’ talented youngsters (Moses).
Wigan is a football town that simply doesnt produce footballers. In its 80,000 population, there is not a single top-flight professional player of any note that hails from Wigan, yet there is one of the largest and longest running youth leagues run from Wigan (The one that Burnley-supporting vicar founded). I remember him from when I was growing up, and in all that time, the best that has come from Wigan is Andy Bloody Griffin and Gary Walsh.
Why doesnt it produce quality footballers? In my opinion its because the kids in Wigan are not “hungry” enough to want it. The “better yourself” society that the rest of the country has embraced seems to have bypassed Wigan, leaving it in a time-warp. Is that good? Is it hell.
I’d hate to be bringing my kids up in Wigan in the 21st Century.
Fair play to you there mutty, I wouldn’t normally give you credit because everyone knows the main reason you come on here is to stir it but what you’ve said is absolutely spot on. The added complication in Wigan is that kids are forced/encourage delete as appropriate to play rugby in many schools and of course the council has for many decades encouraged it, offered subsidies to local rugby clubs and trips to oz while football changing rooms get burned down and never get re-built. Lots of lads at Fisher were good footballers even though they only played after school, played decent Sat & Sunday league but at RL represented the county and country in some cases, they weren’t born great RL players they had it coached into them at school. There’s no denying that the popularity of rugby in the town will result in fewer footballers being produced – which is no doubt the bite/answer you were looking for
But even if you look up the road at Bolton, they used to produce loads of international footballers, Alan Ball, Paul Mariner, Franny Lee etc. They had a top flight football club before WAFC existed and they’re just doing the same as Latics now, importing left, right and centre and sending what youngsters they do bring through out on loan until they release them.
There have been young footballers coming out of Wigan but the big clubs of Liverpool and Manchester sweep em out and dump them in their academies at a ridiculously young age. The academies are also full of foreigners now who make the grade because they as you say are hungrier than their English counterparts who get lost in the system and dumped on scrapheap
but none of this has got anything to do with why so many Warriors fans come from out of town ;)
Have you totally ignored my last post Mutty?
Of course not. I was doing what Mr 32 does and avoid answering for as long as possible when the answer isnt what I’d like it to be. :D :D :D
Also, who was the last Sunderland player to play for England? I know who it is….err. That would be Darren Bent against Japan on 30 May 2010.
But of course if you meant Sunderland-born, then it would probably be Jordan Henderson who represented England U20s on 11 Aug 2009.
But back to your question as to why Wigan has not produced an international footballer since 1995….
Its 15 years on, and there should be someone lurking in your youth team that is of international standard. Its 9 years since you bought your way into the Championship and 6 years since you entered the premier league. That means you have been relatively high-profile for 9 years. So the talented 8 year old in 2001 will now be a very talented 17 year old about to burst onto the stage with Wigan.
Except we wait and wait, and meanwhile money is spent on other clubs’ talented youngsters (Moses).
Wigan is a football town that simply doesnt produce footballers. In its 80,000 population, there is not a single top-flight professional player of any note that hails from Wigan, yet there is one of the largest and longest running youth leagues run from Wigan (The one that Burnley-supporting vicar founded). I remember him from when I was growing up, and in all that time, the best that has come from Wigan is Andy Bloody Griffin and Gary Walsh.
Why doesnt it produce quality footballers? In my opinion its because the kids in Wigan are not “hungry” enough to want it. The “better yourself” society that the rest of the country has embraced seems to have bypassed Wigan, leaving it in a time-warp. Is that good? Is it hell.
I’d hate to be bringing my kids up in Wigan in the 21st Century.[/quote]
Mutty, to echo Scholes’ comments, I think you’ve made some very valid points there. I expected an anti-Wigan Athletic / Pro Rugby rant, but fair play, you have come up with a good argument.
There have always been a lot of good young amateur players in Wigan, but they seem to vanish as they hit their late teens. In my opinion, the football set up within schools has always been woeful in Wigan, and there is little to keep them interested and steer them in right direction within the sport once they leave school. Although the kids have embraced football, the people necessary to set up a development infrastructure have not.
I wouldn’t say it was a lack of hunger, as Wigan kids have still managed to excel at other sports, so it must be failing in guidance, facilities and support to harness the talent.
On another note, in answer to the last Sunderland (I omitted the word born) player to play for England, it was Adam Johnson. He’s a Sunderland lad who was missed by Sunderland but picked up by the Boro Academy. I was not aware of that until recently.
I’d hate to be bringing my kids up in Wigan in the 21st Century.I hate the fact that there is even a possibility that you would be allowed to have kids.
To counter a few arguments made on here, I went to Abraham Guest, and we played a lot more football than rugby
Well countered but what about the original question ?
–“:3dqjghrf]To counter a few arguments made on here, I went to Abraham Guest, and we played a lot more football than rugbyI remember you from the last time the w@nkstaines lovers tried infiltrating this forum. why don’t you run along and have a whole roast chicken for a snack. look at mutt he as been banned. I think the mods will sack you off if you put one foot wrong . your club makes my skin crawl and if it was down to me you would be gone from here faster then you can say pie barm 8-)
–“:3p8vjqau]To counter a few arguments made on here, I went to Abraham Guest, and we played a lot more football than rugby
I remember you from the last time the w@nkstaines lovers tried infiltrating this forum. why don’t you run along and have a whole roast chicken for a snack. look at mutt he as been banned. I think the mods will sack you off if you put one foot wrong . you club makes my skin crawl and if it was down to me you would be gone from here faster then you could say pie barm 8-) [/quote]
You tell him BOB… If you dare to go on their site you get banned as soon as something that can be deemed as negative to the fat shitheads gets said.
I haven’t tried (yet)… But have been told!
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