City Academy

[Dune]

The Derby County manager Billy Davies said at the press conference last night that ” We can't compete with the resources of Manchester City, so we have to do our best with the money we have”. While this of course is true, another just as true view could have been something as this: “We can’t compete with a club like Manchester City, who’s youth system is far superior to ours. We just don’t get that many good young players coming through the ranks which means we’ll have to rely on transfers to get the kind of players we need. This is of course more costly and makes it hard to compete for a team with limited resources like us”.

My point is that with all this publicity and attention that City’s transfer moves and new players have got, people seems to forget that City so far has started both matches in the league with 4 academy players on the pitch (Schmeichel, Richards, Johnson, Ireland) and against West Ham United 5 were on the pitch at the same time when Onuoha was brought on. All of these with the exception of Schmeichel will most likely feature a lot throughout the season even when more new players is brought in. At to that young players like Daniel Sturridge, Shaleum Logan and a few others who the club holds in high esteem and may very well see first team action during the season.
The high number of home grown players is even more impressive when one takes in consideration that troughout the years City has been forced to sell the most talanted. Wright-Phillips at Chelsea, Barton at Newcastle United and Etuhu at Sunderland are all City acadamy graduates who now play for other Premiership clubs.

I do not think it is wrong to say that in the last years the acadamy has been one of the biggest reasons that City still is a premiership side. In what shape would the clubs finances be without the huge transfer received for Wright-Phillips? And would City have survived in the league last season without the contributions of Barton and Richards?

Sven-Göran Eriksson now has a totally different transfer budget then then what his predecessor(s) had. But I hope he will continue to give chances to those coming up through the academy ranks. I am convinced that is something the club will benefit from over the years to come.

[CityBlues]

I don't think there is any doubt that City's Youth Academy is one of the best in the business. The amount of class youth players we have on the pitch now is a testament to that. Combined with the key transfers Sven made we have a solid team this year.

[Alan D]

The Derby County manager Billy Davies said at the press conference last night that ” We can't compete with the resources of Manchester City, so we have to do our best with the money we have”. While this of course is true, another just as true view could have been something as this: “We can’t compete with a club like Manchester City, who’s youth system is far superior to ours. We just don’t get that many good young players coming through the ranks which means we’ll have to rely on transfers to get the kind of players we need. This is of course more costly and makes it hard to compete for a team with limited resources like us”.

My point is that with all this publicity and attention that City’s transfer moves and new players have got, people seems to forget that City so far has started both matches in the league with 4 academy players on the pitch (Schmeichel, Richards, Johnson, Ireland) and against West Ham United 5 were on the pitch at the same time when Onuoha was brought on. All of these with the exception of Schmeichel will most likely feature a lot throughout the season even when more new players is brought in. At to that young players like Daniel Sturridge, Shaleum Logan and a few others who the club holds in high esteem and may very well see first team action during the season.
The high number of home grown players is even more impressive when one takes in consideration that troughout the years City has been forced to sell the most talanted. Wright-Phillips at Chelsea, Barton at Newcastle United and Etuhu at Sunderland are all City acadamy graduates who now play for other Premiership clubs.

I do not think it is wrong to say that in the last years the acadamy has been one of the biggest reasons that City still is a premiership side. In what shape would the clubs finances be without the huge transfer received for Wright-Phillips? And would City have survived in the league last season without the contributions of Barton and Richards?

Sven-Göran Eriksson now has a totally different transfer budget then then what his predecessor(s) had. But I hope he will continue to give chances to those coming up through the academy ranks. I am convinced that is something the club will benefit from over the years to come.


Don't worry, Sven will develop and use the academy and youth system even further through the substancial financial backing he now has. The plan is to build City academies all over the world according to Shinawatra, partly to increase support outside of the UK and also to try and get the best talent and to tap into places with hidden talent. And last season, it showed how important the academy was to us because while the foreign signings failed to impress on many occasions, the youth system saved us from relegation. Barton, for how arrogant and stupid he was, he was our top goalscorer and him in midfield supplying goals and drive and also Richards at the back saved us many points. We survived relegation by 4 points so you can imagine us being in the Championship if we'd scored 7 goals less or kept less clean sheets because of the youth products. Onouha, Richards, Johnson and Ireland will be used a lot this season so it will still be very important to us. It will be much harder for the likes of Logan and Sturridge to step up and perhaps they won't have as many opportunities to shine because of the new quality of players brought in by Sven, but like the others if they are good enough they will make it. Obviously SWP made a massive difference with his goal supply and then his sale fee and it would have helped our debt, the funding for the academy and funding for players that we would not have been able to afford. Without the academy, we would have needed to splash out millions and millions of pounds on players to replace it.

The academy is one of the most successful in the world, having produced England regulars like SWP, who left for £21m, and now Richards. Ireland is an Irish international regularly, Onuoha has massive potential as he showed in the U-21 tournament for England, Daniel Sturridge is regarded as one of the best youth players in the country at the moment and again he has massive potential. Barton is a good, driving midfielder albeit his attitude brings him down a lot, but he has played for England. Our U18 team has gone out to Spain the past couple of years to take part in a World Tournament and we've won both times.