Row between Hughes and Cassell?

This weeks piece from Neil Ashton in the NOTW suggests a problem at the club between Mark Hughes and Jim Cassell:

The simmering tensions between Mark Hughes and legendary academy director Jim Cassell erupted after his office was cleared without his knowledge.

Cassell, who has recently been promoted to work in Abu Dhabi, discovered files and paperwork from over 10 years' service had been dumped in a corridor at Manchester City's Platt Lane academy.

City's former academy chief fears he is being forced out of the club after falling out with City's hardline manager last season. Cassell returned from Abu Dhabi last week, where he splits his time heading up City's worldwide coaching programme, to find new academy director Andy Welsh in residence at his office.

Welsh knew Hughes when he was a player at Manchester United and is part of a coaching set-up that has been labelled "The Taffia" by some disaffected members of staff.

Rumours of a problem between the pair have circulated since the end of last season, yet any 'issue' has remained nothing more than that. There have also been interviews with Cassell regarding his new role and at no stage has he even hinted at a problem with Hughes or the coaching staff.

Merely mischief making?

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.

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.