Nottingham Forest Academy And Under 21's

[Jean_claude_killy]

I like Gary Brazil and there is no doubt that he has done a very good job and I don't want to take anything away from that.

However I also think it's worth pointing out that our outstanding Academy was put in motion long before Gary Brazil.

Paul Hart and later Nick Marshall transformed our Academy and put our Academy on the map.

Gary Brazil has been in charge for 10 years now and we have seen a handful of talents break through in all that time who have gone on to play at the highest level. Not a huge amount for a period of 10 years. Matty Cash, Brennan Johnson and Yates all PL standard but is there anyone else? Worrall, Osborn and Burke all Championship level in my opinion.

Compare that with the likes of Michael Dawson, Jermaine Jenas, Andy Reid, Karl Darlow, Steve Stone, Scot Gemmill, Wes Morgan, Jamaal Lascelles, Marlon Harewood etc who all came through under Hart and Marshall. Then there was the likes of David Prutton and Gareth Williams etc.

I think there is a bit of food for thought.

That's is perfectly true, Sniffer, but you overlook one important fact - the fact that the poisonous dwarf ran the Academy into the ground in a very short space of time - Davies had no time for the Academy and took great pleasure in sacking Marshall and Pemberton; he probably did not get as much pleasure as Pemberton did when he floored the gobshite.

He got his brother in law in to run the Academy and got game time for his sons; to say he adopted a scorched earth policy is an understatement.

Hart may have been the architect of the Academy, and Marshall took it to new heights, but the manner in which Brazil recovered the situation, with two Cat 1 Academy's on the doorstep, was nothing short of remarkable.