A look at the Academy

One of the big plusses of recent years has been the fantastic work Jim Cassell and his colleagues have been doing over at the Academy - not just in terms of the players who have come through and progressed to the first team, but also both in terms of those who have not quite made the grade but have brought in transfer fees when sold on, and of course the big profits made on the sales of Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joey Barton (although Sam Allardyce's bleating would indicate he feels we should allow these players to move on for nothing).

The official City site does from time to time show some interesting features (although not the recent Q&A's), and one thing they are running at the moment is a focus on all twenty-one players who have come through Academy (in its current guise).

Although they are just two players in at the moment, once they have worked through the list it will surely illustrate just how succesful the Academy has been over the past ten years, and perhaps give an indication of what to expect in the future.