Wasn't Stuart Wilkinson the Head of Youth at Leeds when all the current 1st team players were coming through?

John worked under Stuart and took over when Stuart left for Wigan.

Kevin Sinfield debut 1997 v Sheffield Eagles
Rob Burrow debut 2001 v Hull
Danny McGuire debut 2001 v Salford

These are hardly the products of Johns time at Leeds, I think people should do a bit of research before giving someone credit for another persons work.

John was coaching Leeds under 16's in 2005 and their under 18's in 2006 before taking over from Mr Wilkinson. I could be wrong but I don't think John will have coached the above players at all during his time there.

johny is a wire
johny is a wire

and that will do for me + and he doing a grand job.

pat on the back for twinkle toes Jimmy lowes for bringing John to the club

Nice...

A well researched, intelligent and thought through response.

The point wasn't whether John was doing a good job there, it was with him being labelled as being "the mastermind" behind the Leeds youth system and according to the Wire fans the main reason Leeds have won the last 3 GF's.

Try spending half an hour in the company of John Bastian and Stuart Wilkinson and then say who is the most intelligent.

John Bastian claimed to be the person responsible behind the producion of the above mentioned players.

Secondly, you must be one of the most intelligent people to grace this planet to determione someone's IQ after thirty minutes of conversation.

Thanks for that, I knew the PhD would be worth it in the end lol...

That should read 'never claimed' a typo on my part.

Pizza Hut Deliveryboy?

....and theres me reading this Topic expecting to have some sort of narrative on the events of last night, like, what did Hicksy say, what did Clarkey say, was he surprised that when he came out on Sunday he was cheered, and not the usual boo's (which I think have tongues firmly in cheek by the way...).
But no, it has deteriorated into the usual inane slagging off of posters, I knew there was a reason I haven't bothered here for a while.

Good night last night with a great top table of guests who all contributed well (the umbrella organisation of all Trusts) and she talked about how the more RL Trusts there are and the more members each one has, the more weight SD has when it does things like talking to Government about support for the Sport. If anyone has any (geniune) points or queries they want to raise, feel free. Either here, or via one of the Trust Board members. Check out the website too for more info: www.squadbuilder.co.uk/

Good night last night with a great top table of guests who all contributed well (the umbrella organisation of all Trusts) and she talked about how the more RL Trusts there are and the more members each one has, the more weight SD has when it does things like talking to Government about support for the Sport. If anyone has any (geniune) points or queries they want to raise, feel free. Either here, or via one of the Trust Board members. Check out the website too for more info: www.squadbuilder.co.uk/

How about leaflets handed out at home games with info about Squadbuilder?

Bastian had nothing to do with the real 'stars' of the Leeds youth, Burrow Mcguire, Mathers, JJB, and Bailey.

The vast majority of the great youngsters that have come through the Leeds system were nurtured by Dean Bell who set Leeds' youth structure up, and, IMO, it's no coincidence that Wigan's youth structure turned out top class players after Dean Bell joined them after Leeds.

No dis-respect to what John Bastian has been doing at Leeds, but he's not been as succesful as most people think

Glad someone agrees with me.

For the record, the Wolves Squadbuilder is a fantastic initiative and should be supported by everyone as should the other similar schemes at other clubs. The people behind the scenes at Wire do a great job and have done for a great many years, and for a fraction of John Bastians £60k salary (couldn't help the last dig, sorry).

They haven't agreed with you, quite the opposite. You clearly state it was Stuart Wilkinson who yielded Sinfield, Burrow and McGuire, not Dean Bell.

So to whom do we credit?