Officially the least used academy in Europes top 5 leagues.

[Bridgejunky]

And Chelsea?

Chelsea Fan

Abraham, Mount & Tomori you know but all of the other players in the Chelsea matchday squads for those two games are on loan or have moved on.

Loans
Dujon Sterling, Wigan
Ike Ugbo – Roda JC
Jake Clarke-Salter – Birmingham
Josh Grant – Plymouth
Nathan Baxter – Ross County
Trevoh Chalobah – Huddersfield

Moved On
Charlie Wakefield – Coventry
Isaac Christie-Davis – Liverpool

Jared Thompson - Free Agent (ASFAIK)​

Jay Dasilva – Bristol City
Kyle Scott - Newcastle
Mukhtar Ali – Vitesse Arnham
Ruben Sammut – Sunderland


I haven't read the whole thread, so forgive me if the point I'm about to make has been made before. I imagine it must have been because it's pretty much a statement of the obvious...

I don't think the facts that yours has been the least used academy, and that you have been the best team, are unrelated. The best squad has to be the hardest one to break into.

 

[Bob Hope]

Chelsea Fan

Abraham, Mount & Tomori you know but all of the other players in the Chelsea matchday squads for those two games are on loan or have moved on.

Loans
Dujon Sterling, Wigan
Ike Ugbo – Roda JC
Jake Clarke-Salter – Birmingham
Josh Grant – Plymouth
Nathan Baxter – Ross County
Trevoh Chalobah – Huddersfield

Moved On
Charlie Wakefield – Coventry
Isaac Christie-Davis – Liverpool

Jared Thompson - Free Agent (ASFAIK)​

Jay Dasilva – Bristol City
Kyle Scott - Newcastle
Mukhtar Ali – Vitesse Arnham
Ruben Sammut – Sunderland


I haven't read the whole thread, so forgive me if the point I'm about to make has been made before. I imagine it must have been because it's pretty much a statement of the obvious...

I don't think the facts that yours has been the least used academy, and that you have been the best team, are unrelated. The best squad has to be the hardest one to break into.

Really surprised that Jay Dasilva isn't still on your books.What I remember of him he was a cracking little player.

 

[mexico1970]

We are making money out of the academy by selling players, if academy players were all local lads brought up on the back streets of Manchester kicking a casey against ginnel walls then I'd say some would have a point. As it is we have all bought into this multinational team set up and bleary eyed nostalgia has no place in the business model that it football.

 

[Bridgejunky]

Really surprised that Jay Dasilva isn't still on your books.What I remember of him he was a cracking little player.

He was, and is, I think. Bristol fans love him. They describe his signing as, "100% a steal."

Jay was offered a contract extension last summer but chose to move on instead. I think he lost patience at exactly the wrong moment because he's a better player than Emerson, and would certainly have played had he stayed. Hopefully the relatively small fee we received, reflects not only the length of contract remaining and lack of first team minutes, but also that a buy-back clause is included.

 

[JASR]

I don't think the facts that yours has been the least used academy, and that you have been the best team, are unrelated. The best squad has to be the hardest one to break into.

Indeed.

And it produces plenty of money on sold/loan players.

whered you rather train and be educated, the city campus (with its equipment, coaches and ethos) or on a muddy field with poor facilities, easy choice.

 

[MarsLlama]

It's not hard to see why.

I can name countless players who broke into their senior teams just because there were no fit senior options. Hell, that's even how Wan-Bissaka and Rashford came up. At City this is a rarity. Foden has no choice but to earn his place on merit, not have it handed to him by virtue of being the only choice.

 

[cleavers]

I haven't read the whole thread, so forgive me if the point I'm about to make has been made before. I imagine it must have been because it's pretty much a statement of the obvious...

I don't think the facts that yours has been the least used academy, and that you have been the best team, are unrelated. The best squad has to be the hardest one to break into.

The subject of the thread is actually rather misleading, it might be statistically correct but it misses the point thatwe have numerous players out on loan (the best are generally loaned out around europe or the championship), and have made money out of many others. Some (far too many for me) get hung up on the fact that not many make our first team, and of course its true, but we're full of either world class, or top class footballers, and there are only 18 places available in any match day squad, so it shouldn't be a surprise. Our younger teams aren't in general doing tat great, but that is because the best are out getting first team experience at places like leeds and middlesbrough, that's better than being stuck in our stiffs or sat on our bench, if they can force their way onto it. Foden and Garcia are the cream, and have forced their way onto it, or into the first team like Foden, who is waiting to take over from a super star next year.

Just like chelsea we generate footballers, a kind of football factory (university in reality), and whatever a few on this thread think, that is the point of our academy. It produces footballers, young men (and women now) who are well rounded people, get a very good education in case football fails them. Some of them go on to great things elsewhere, some maybe not so great, but in general it produces revenue for the club, and it also produces footballers who go on to have good careers, and for that, rather than constantly moan, it should actually be congratulated just like chelsea's should, for being one of the best academy's going, and doing just what it was designed to do. If in that production/education it produces a few first teamers then that should be considered a bonus.

I also think that many forget that the CFA (Etihad Campus) has only been open for 5 years and a month, so a 15 year old then is now only 20, early days for many but the real elite in a footballing career, we have a couple who've played first team this year who are a year or two younger still.

I'd rather what we have, than try and boast that "we've played an "academy" product" in every game for the last 60 (or whatever it is) years, its not such a great boast, when a fair number of them have turned out shite, apart from one year some 28 years ago.

 

[cleavers]

I can name countless players who broke into their senior teams just because there were no fit senior options. Hell, that's even how Wan-Bissaka and Rashford came up.

You can probably name 50 from one local club, if you could be bothered.

 

[Bridgejunky]

The subject of the thread is actually rather misleading, it might be statistically correct but it misses the point thatwe have numerous players out on loan (the best are generally loaned out around europe or the championship), and have made money out of many others. Some (far too many for me) get hung up on the fact that not many make our first team, and of course its true, but we're full of either world class, or top class footballers, and there are only 18 places available in any match day squad, so it shouldn't be a surprise. Our younger teams aren't in general doing tat great, but that is because the best are out getting first team experience at places like leeds and middlesbrough, that's better than being stuck in our stiffs or sat on our bench, if they can force their way onto it. Foden and Garcia are the cream, and have forced their way onto it, or into the first team like Foden, who is waiting to take over from a super star next year.

Just like chelsea we generate footballers, a kind of football factory (university in reality), and whatever a few on this thread think, that is the point of our academy. It produces footballers, young men (and women now) who are well rounded people, get a very good education in case football fails them. Some of them go on to great things elsewhere, some maybe not so great, but in general it produces revenue for the club, and it also produces footballers who go on to have good careers, and for that, rather than constantly moan, it should actually be congratulated just like chelsea's should, for being one of the best academy's going, and doing just what it was designed to do.

I also think that many forget that the CFA (Etihad Campus) has only been open for 5 years and a month, so a 15 year old then is now only 20, early days for many but the real elite in a footballing career, we have a couple who've played first team this year who are a year or two younger still.

I'd rather what we have, than try and boast that "we've played an "academy" product" in every game for the last 60 (or whatever it is) years, its not such a great boast, when a fair number of them have turned out shite, apart from one year some 28 years ago.

Ninety-nine percent agreement. A lot of good points in those four paragraphs. I think you must have been reading some of my posts on various Chelsea forums. :)

I'd like to emphasise two of the things you said and mention that one percent where we may have differing views: -

"If in that production/education it produces a few first teamers then that should be considered a bonus."
Academies are indeed educational establishments. Nothing more, nothing less. The only honest promise an academy can make to a youngster is to help them become the best player they can be. That's it. They can no more promise a young lad that he'll one day play for their first team, than a reception class teacher can promise a young girl that she'll one day be the headteacher. Academies should, and do, sell the service they can offer, not vague dreams. They provide high quality Infants to A-Levels education. After that the brightest students get to enjoy the university experience via the loan system, while the others are offered a job placement service where their academy helps them find jobs with suitable clubs. It's a good deal.

"5 years and a month"
In 2005 Chelsea recognised that its academy was failing so they tore it down, literally as well as figuratively, and started again. The criticism they've received since, for not bringing graduates through, shows a lack of understanding. Only footballers who have enjoyed the whole of their education at an academy are genuine examples of that academy's work. Chelsea's new academy opened in 2007. One of its first group of six year olds signed a long term contract extension yesterday. He's a terrific player, but it takes a long time for the youngest recruits to reach first team level.

It is way, way too soon for people to judge just how effective the CFA is. Come back in a decade and then we'll see players who have been entirely educated the CFA way. That's when we will be able to get the full impact of its methods.

Potential disagreement.
I've inferred from your comments that you perhaps feel what City, and maybe Chelsea, are doing is different from other clubs. I don't think it is. All the top clubs are following the same basic structure of academic and social education alongside football work and then loans for those who can benefit from them. England's top five divisions, as well as leagues around Europe, are littered with footballers developed by Premier League clubs. Everyone of those lads (it is mainly lads for now) is a sign that academies are doing their work. Not all of those kids is working for a premier league club but they all have great jobs which pay them better than any other work they are likely to have been able to get. No matter how much the media tells them they have been let down, they should have the good sense to know better.

 

[salfordbluetrue]

Strange is it not when we were crap we held the record for the most players brought through to the top flight, now were one of the best we are the worst, yet we have our academy players at nearly every top side in Europe, there is a problem though and it is age/experience of our EDS team, we play with one of the youngest EDS teams in the league and because of that Peps ability to use them is limited and as such so is his first team
PS Valdes cherishes his EDS medal far more than his CL medal