How is anybody, much less our nice, little club by the Thames, supposed to compete with this? http://www.theguardian.com/football...ootball-academy-sheikh-mansour-pablo-zabaleta
So they spent a lot of money on some nice looking facilities. Good for them. I'll say this to that...state of the art facilities only go so far. Coaches and experts using their expertise and knowledge to train athletes using a well thought out training regimen is the most important element. If they don't have that, well there's really no point to the nice looking facilities. They put the cart before the horse, imo. Maybe they fixed that too. But the article makes little to mention mention of the methods used or coaching staff credibility. They could have saved their money and spent it where it's needed most. Recruiting the top coaches, staff and young players.
I'll take the flip side of the coin Heather, without question recruiting the right players and coaches is the number 1 key. That said the top players and their families want to go to the place with the best facilities. That set up gives Citeh an advantage in recruiting. The best example I can give is the U of Oregon football program. That is a state w/very few top level high school players annually so they must recruit California, Texas, etc. What kid from those states want to go to Eugene Oregon (ain't exactly the nation's hotspot)? The answer is the school raised the money (cough cough Nike $$) to build facilities (Nike has put close to 1 Billion dollars in the sports programs at Oregon, yes that's with a B) that are far and away better than any school in the country. Because of that, great coaches like Chip Kelly went to Eugene, who in turn recruited great players, and the Ducks have been transformed into a powerhouse. Simply put if you build it they will come.
They won't unless they get results. I thought about your point as well, that it could be a recruiting tool. But if I was making a decision as a young, promising athlete, would I go to a team like Fulham that have a bunch of youngsters making it at the top level and have decent facilities? Or go to a place that was superb facilities but are not turning out top players? I know my answer if I wanted to be a pro.
Joe, if you go back and check the timeline, Nike/Phil Knight didn't start pumping in serious money until after first Rich Brooks, then Mike Bellotti, had turned the program around and started winning. So not exactly an "if you build it situation." Chip Kelly was a successful 1-AA coach @ New Hampshire, but was still a gamble for a winning program in a major conference at the time.
