Kidd given Academy position

From telegraph.co.uk:

His brief will be to coach both the talented youngsters coming through Platt Lane and also head up the in-service training of the staff.

City's football administration officer Brian Marwood said: "Brian has vast experience at both club and international level.

"He will help maintain the excellent development programme we have in place at the academy," stressed Marwood.

"He was much in demand when it became clear he wasn't going to stay at Portsmouth and we are delighted that Brian has chosen to come and work with us."

There is no doubt that Kidd has a proven track record as a coach, with experience at a variety of set ups at club and international level, and is far more suited to that role than as a manager.

Despite the riches available to the club, a constant message that has come out from those in command has been the continued importance of the Academy set up to the club.

There have however been a number of changes to the personnel and structure of the Academy the past few months, importantly with Jim Cassell taking on a new role.

Norfstander takes a very interesting look at some of these changes, the reasons for them and what they mean for the club in this excellent post.

Well worth a read.

Academy to expand globally

The major success story of the past decade at the club has undoubtedly been the emergence of the Academy, and the procession of players brought through to senior leve, which shows no sign of abating.

The club today announced plans to expand the Academy on a global scale, with an initial Academy in Abu Dhabi, followed by a venture into America. I posted back in 2006 about the seeming lack of vision that the club had in terms of scouting at the time but it does appear that the club have changed philosophy and we have already seen a handful of additions of younger players from Europe - something that all succesful sides have done for some time.

Possibly the most positive aspect of this is that Jim Cassell, the architect of the success of the Academy will oversee the initiative rather than being ushered aside by a new arrival. The Academy has more than paid for itself since being set up in its current guise and if this success can be replicated on a wider scale, it is a clearly a win-win situation.

Hughes looking to blood youngsters

"There are a number of players who are very much in my thoughts. It's about circumstances leading into games, and the expectations, and whether or not we get into the position in games where we can bring players on in a positive atmosphere and allow them to develop slowly in the correct manner.

"We have to look at how the squad is. We've probably lost Pablo for a number of games and the opportunities will present themselves. We still need to win Premier League games, that's important for us. But if the opportunity presents itself to blood a young player, we'll have a look at that.

"Sometimes when you have a game like West Brom, for instance, to throw a young kid on wouldn't be fair to him or the team, so it's about getting the timing right when you are introducing young players.

"You look to try and introduce them in front of a home crowd when maybe you are leading a game and are in a comfortable position. That's when you look to blood them."

>>mcfc.co.uk

It is always good to see young Academy players given their head in the first team, and there is no doubt a talented crop on the cusp of the senior side at the moment.

If we do haul ourselves back into the race for seventh spot and given some of the difficult fixtures we have, I do wonder quite how many opportunities there may be though.

Youth team lose in semi's

City's youth team have been knocked out of the Dallas Cup on penalties after drawing their semi-final with Sao Paulo 0-0, but Academy Manager Jim Cassell is proud of the mark the lads have left on the tournament.

It was an entertaining affair at the Pizza Hut Park Stadium, with City trading blows with a strong and skillful Brazilian outfit, who eventually saw off the young Blues 4-2 in the penalty shoot-out.

>>mcfc.co.uk

Hey Big Spender

Excerpts from an interview with Chief Executive Alistair Mackintosh have appeared in the press over the past few days and as well as trumpeting the fact that we kept hold of Micah Richards and Daniel Sturridge when 'we could have cashed in', but the main thread that has been picked up was the clubs strategy when bringing new players to the club.

"We've also invested heavily in our wage bill. And while the players may have come here on Bosman transfers, they generally have a high wage attached.
But it's important and we want to support Stuart bringing in the players he wants.
Ideally you use the wages in the most efficient way. And everyone always wants better and better players.
So, if we can use them in a more efficient way we should do that. But we are very comfortable at what we've done.
It's a strategic choice to have a high wage bill. But then you want performance that is commensurate to that as possible."

The MEN stated that we have the sixth highest wage bill in the Premiership, and it is apparant that since Pearce has become manager (and to be fair it was something Keegan started towards the end of his reign) we are deliberately targeting Bosman players around 30 years old on relatively short-term deals.

As this has been a deliberate transfer strategy, have we missed out on younger players with more upside as a consequence? Ollie draws a nice comparison with signing of Didi Hamman against the potential signing of Reading's Steve Sidwell - who we were linked with in pre-season. Something that Mackintosh didn't comment on was why this is a 'strategic choice'.

Or is it a case that in general the top young talent is simply not available or would be snapped up by the 'bigger' clubs, which has meant the club taking the path of adding experienced veteran players to the squad, albeit it a likely higher cost?

One thing that the club has been blessed with is the players coming through the academy in recent times, and the current crop who have forced their way in or are on the cusp of the first team have meant the club can add older players to the club whilst still maintaining a balance age and experience wise in the squad - something which Keegan was definitely moving away from looking at the make up of the sqaud at the time of his departure.

It does strike though as somewhat of a PR move by Mackintosh in lauding up both the Academy success and the spending on player wages as a sign of the boards commitment to Pearce, coming at a time when there are questions being asked of the board in terms of financial support to the manager.

Whilst I appreciate that the top players are not going to look outside the top four clubs, looking back over the past few years and the club is littered with examples of Bosman's who have frankly not delivered (you don't need me to name them) and seeing us linked recently with a couple of lower league players is it perhaps time to abandon the tactic of bringing in thirty-somethings on two or three year deals on guaranteed money where the performances do not end up matching what they are being paid (again, you don't need me to name them) and focus on younger (hungrier?) players?

One positive at least is that Pearce has not solely restricted his more recent purchases to the older end of the age scale, gambling more on potential upside and experience with the capture of Isaksson and Samaras this past year.

Many of Pearce's early signings were perhaps forced a little by the lack of experience in the squad and the fact that the Academy players were not quite ready, but as the likes of Richards, Jordan, Onouha and Samaras in particular begin to gain more experience he will be less reliant on having to bring in players solely based on experience, and can add players whose upside is that their best years are still ahead of them - resulting in a squad that in five years time could theoretically still be together and at their peak.