Thursday, September 06, 2007

Praise for the academy

A quiet time at the moment given it is international week and the MEN is taking the time to focus on the work of the academy and its graduates with a series of articles this week (something the official site is also doing).

Looking at the list of players who have come through the academy to the first team illustrates just what a fantastic job Jim Cassell and his team have done over the years - with it showing no signs of letting up with more academy players on the fringe of the both the reserves and first team.

The work done cannot be underestimated and credit must be given to Joe Royle for backing the academy after relegation to Division 2, when it was thought academy funding may be one of the first things to be cut but funding was still found and we ae now seeing the fruits of that with the quality of players that have come through in the past five years or so.

Whilst the cost of the running the academy cannot be underestimated, it is also something that is 'paying its own way' gven the amount we have recouped by selling players who have not quite made the grade at the club, not to mention the £24 million received from the sale of Shaun Wright-Phillips.

It is good to see that Sven-Goran Eriksson (and Shinawatra) have talked up the academy and that nationally there has been a lot of focus and praise on the work done, and despite the money now being available following the takeover, it is something that all parties seem keen to continue to develop and we should see even more young players staking their claim for first team positions.

vote it up!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Our academy seems to have become something of a fad. I would have been amazed had Thaksin and Sven supported it with open arms. But it isn't something new. They used to be called apprentice footballers, and later still Youth Opportunites players. Let me just remind you.

Of our last Championship winning team, our home growners were Harry Dowd, Glyn Pardoe, Alan Oakes, Mike (keep United out of Europe) Doyle, and Neil Young.

Without Nelly's goals we wouldn't have won the League, or the Cup the following season.

Then we moved on, and got Willie Donachie, Tommy Booth, Joe Corrigan, Peter Barnes. The list goes on and on.

I'm not complaining - just a nod to Sven and Thaksin in acknowledgement that this is what City is all about.