Our current status and our youth academy

[JonChap]

I think academy players will get there chance if they are good enough, look at the teams around the world in similar positions to us, although its not a huge number but the good young players get in, bojan and iniesta at barca, ok madrid to my knowledge don't have a lot apart from casillas but i think city can bring in world class players from else where and still have a steady stream of good quality youngsters come through. The owners are business men and will see as a free top quality player as good business.

PS

I think Kieran Trippier could really push for the first team soon good defender with a great football brain for a lad of his age

 

[mad4city]

As long as the academy continues to make money, it will be maintained and even encouraged.
I know that this isn't the answer that romantics (including me!) don't really want to face but it is the truth - and 'the truth', said Mr Dylan, 'don't need you to make it true'.

Manchester is a big place and, by sheer weight of numbers, will continue to produce many excellent footballers. They won't all be attending City's academy, though. That's the pity of it - but it is the way of the world.

If you (God forgive me but I'm going to say it...) were, by some accident of birth (or some such thing) a rag fan for the past twenty/thirty/forty years and your son (of average to good ability, let's say) was getting admiring glances from both City and Them say, about five years ago... would you have encouraged him to join your beloved reds, where he'd have to compete with schoolboy signings from the world over and then (if he's lucky!) get to try and fight his way past the latest multi-million pound signing - or would you have swallowed your pride and packed him off to City, where Stuart Pearce was fielding teams full of academy products and imports signed at a grand cost of about £10m in total?
The answer to that dilemma is one major reason why City's academy has been so successful over the last few years. It'd be niave to think otherwise. Now, it's going to count against us.

It's a no-brainer. You'll give your kid a chance before anything that you hold dear (unless you're an idiot). City fan or not, you'll do your best for him. And, depending on his ability, sending him off to City's academy may not be doing that in years to come. It's a price of success, I guess. Not very palatable, though, is it?

 

[stockportblue]

what has basically happened with the takeover and the money is, the bar has been raised even higher when it comes to players progressing through the accademy, they will have to be world class players to make it at city now.

in my opinion citys accademy has punched well above its wieght for a long time now due to the limited funds it has had to work with and it just goes to show what a great job jim cassell has done over the years, i would have thought there will be big investment in the accademy to allow city to compete for the best young talent out there.

here is an example of how manure gobble up a lot of the local talent bearing in mind that clubs sign youngsters from U9 onwards,

utd have 26 what are termed satalite schools (basically this is where lads go from the age of 6 for special training for 4-6weeks to asses there ability, these schools are invite only after being scouted playing junior football) these schools have between 12-16 lads at each and are spread throughout the northwest and as far as stoke, sheffield and preston

i think city have around 5 i also think these are around manchester only so straight away there opurtunities are limited

if you consider manure have 26 and there are 2 scouts at each centre this gives them a minimum 52 scouts scattered around the northwest,yorkshire, stoke and lancashire.

how can city compete for these lads when the network is not in place, city do not have a great record with players coming through from 10 the majority of players who make the 1st team have actually been brought to the club at 14 from other clubs when the rules for accademmy players change
this for me is where city need to invest to ensure they have the best opportunities when it comes to picking up young talent

City have expanded their academy in Yorkshire by opening a centre there.We also have a tie up with Chester which givws access to North Wales so the money from the takeover is being used to expand the coverage.

 

[Skip Donoghue]

what has basically happened with the takeover and the money is, the bar has been raised even higher when it comes to players progressing through the accademy, they will have to be world class players to make it at city now.

in my opinion citys accademy has punched well above its wieght for a long time now due to the limited funds it has had to work with and it just goes to show what a great job jim cassell has done over the years, i would have thought there will be big investment in the accademy to allow city to compete for the best young talent out there.

here is an example of how manure gobble up a lot of the local talent bearing in mind that clubs sign youngsters from U9 onwards,

utd have 26 what are termed satalite schools (basically this is where lads go from the age of 6 for special training for 4-6weeks to asses there ability, these schools are invite only after being scouted playing junior football) these schools have between 12-16 lads at each and are spread throughout the northwest and as far as stoke, sheffield and preston

i think city have around 5 i also think these are around manchester only so straight away there opurtunities are limited

if you consider manure have 26 and there are 2 scouts at each centre this gives them a minimum 52 scouts scattered around the northwest,yorkshire, stoke and lancashire.

how can city compete for these lads when the network is not in place, city do not have a great record with players coming through from 10 the majority of players who make the 1st team have actually been brought to the club at 14 from other clubs when the rules for accademmy players change
this for me is where city need to invest to ensure they have the best opportunities when it comes to picking up young talent

City have expanded their academy in Yorkshire by opening a centre there.We also have a tie up with Chester which givws access to North Wales so the money from the takeover is being used to expand the coverage.

good to hear thanks for that

 

[Skip Donoghue]

.

 

[Skip Donoghue]

As long as the academy continues to make money, it will be maintained and even encouraged.
I know that this isn't the answer that romantics (including me!) don't really want to face but it is the truth - and 'the truth', said Mr Dylan, 'don't need you to make it true'.

Manchester is a big place and, by sheer weight of numbers, will continue to produce many excellent footballers. They won't all be attending City's academy, though. That's the pity of it - but it is the way of the world.

If you (God forgive me but I'm going to say it...) were, by some accident of birth (or some such thing) a rag fan for the past twenty/thirty/forty years and your son (of average to good ability, let's say) was getting admiring glances from both City and Them say, about five years ago... would you have encouraged him to join your beloved reds, where he'd have to compete with schoolboy signings from the world over and then (if he's lucky!) get to try and fight his way past the latest multi-million pound signing - or would you have swallowed your pride and packed him off to City, where Stuart Pearce was fielding teams full of academy products and imports signed at a grand cost of about £10m in total?
The answer to that dilemma is one major reason why City's academy has been so successful over the last few years. It'd be niave to think otherwise. Now, it's going to count against us.

It's a no-brainer. You'll give your kid a chance before anything that you hold dear (unless you're an idiot). City fan or not, you'll do your best for him. And, depending on his ability, sending him off to City's academy may not be doing that in years to come. It's a price of success, I guess. Not very palatable, though, is it?

this is not actually the case utd look for totally different things in there young players U9 onwards than city do city go for the big strong athletic build who have decent ability utd on the other hand go for the more skilful players the ones that standout for there ability alone and who maybe are not the biggest or quickest
this is where as a parent you have to make a decsision based on what will suit your son and what will give him the best chance to progress when u9s sign for a club no matter who the club is it is a lottery for every sucsess story there are hundreds of failures and that includes city
i know this as my son was courted by all the major northwest clubs liverpool, everton ,utd ,city, bolton and blackburn and oldham for good measure when it came to actually signing for a club it was between 2 of the above our decession was made on where our son would be happiest and where he felt most comfortable it had nothing to do with if he may make it as a proffesional footballer because the chances of failure are far greater than success and if your son is not happy then those odds increase vastly
so there is a lot more to consider than him making it, in fact this is the last thing you think about

 

[mad4city]

Fair comment, Big Blue.
I was looking at it from the outside and thinking from a purely selfish football-fans point of view. You are dead right, of course.

 

[Anonymous]

The bar has been raised but the youngsters still need to be given a chance. Stephen Ireland had the technical ability to play premier league football at 18 but there were other obstacles stopping him from performing. He has become the player he has because he has had 4 years of learning and has been given a chance.

If we are to become one of the best clubs in the world then players like Kelvin Etuhu, Sam Williamson and Bradley Wright-Phillips should be nowhere near the academy let alone playing for the club. The attitude and recruitment policy has to change. As the poster above has mentioned it is well known that if there is a small lad with natural ability that City will turn him down and United will sign him up, that has to change otherwsie you get players like Kelvin Etuhu, big lads who will put 100% in but does not have the ability required.

I think the academy will remain very important. If the owners want the club to be self sufficient in a few years then we cannot be spending £30m on players still in a few years. They will still get their chance if they are good enough.

 

[i8therags]

I can;t see it will be a problem.The important thing is to help them break through into the first team.Who;s first team doesn;t matter.I feel we will see even more kids loaned out,maybe we could start looking at top leagues in other countries to loan them out to ,if that is legal.It would make financial sence to put these on a long term well payed contract as soon as they show some promise.If it costs us 100mil in wages but we get back 3 or 4 top quality world class kids then it would be worth it.We can sit there with our rod in the pond looking for 1 of 6 known massive carp,or we can throw a net the size of the pond in and get all 6.I have a feeling with Cessels apointment as an international youth development bloke that this is where we are heading.

 

[heatonmoorblue]

this is not actually the case utd look for totally different things in there young players U9 onwards than city do city go for the big strong athletic build who have decent ability utd on the other hand go for the more skilful players the ones that standout for there ability alone and who maybe are not the biggest or quickest
this is where as a parent you have to make a decsision based on what will suit your son and what will give him the best chance to progress when u9s sign for a club no matter who the club is it is a lottery for every sucsess story there are hundreds of failures and that includes city
i know this as my son was courted by all the major northwest clubs liverpool, everton ,utd ,city, bolton and blackburn and oldham for good measure when it came to actually signing for a club it was between 2 of the above our decession was made on where our son would be happiest and where he felt most comfortable it had nothing to do with if he may make it as a proffesional footballer because the chances of failure are far greater than success and if your son is not happy then those odds increase vastly
so there is a lot more to consider than him making it, in fact this is the last thing you think about

I get your point about choosing a place for your son to be happy and hope he is doing well.

But based on the players that have come through the city academy i think it is a bit of a generalisation and a slight on the academy to suggest they look for players of a 'big, strong, athletic build' where as united go for the footballers. Obviously we have been in a position where we have had to put youngsters into the team earlier than expected and it seems obvious that as the league is so physical then there would need to be a certain amount of strength and pace required, especially if you were playing in a defensive position like micah and ned. However we have also recruited players and given opportunities to SWP, joey barton, willo flood, stephen jordan, lee croft, stevie and jonno as well. None of these are physically imposing and only SWP is particularly pacey. If your theory about united were true then surely they would have taken stevie on when he had a trial but apparently they deemed him too small and that he wouldnt develop into a premiership player despite having all the neccessary skills in his feet.

The academy has kept this club alive however i can see it becoming increasingly difficult, especially in the next 5 years, to make a breakthrough into the first team. Our owners want to propel us into a position where we are consistently competing for all the major honours including europe, it is now much riskier for the manager and the club in general to place such faith in the academy system as now they pretty much have to be the best players in europe where as before the level was lower and they were only really required to be able to do a job in the league. I still believe that if they are some of the best young players in europe then they will get a chance but the bar has been raised and we can now buy the best if we have weaknesses in our side. It might change after we have established ourselves but i realistically i think we will see fewer and fewer players coming into the first team from the academy.