There's a GK camp at SGP this week; James Beadle (Charlton), Kieran Flavell (Barnsley), Toby Savin (Accrington) among those there.
Spurs, City & Chelsea eliminated from UEFA Youth League. Liverpool through to Round of 16 with Derby in the play-offs. Their potential opponents are Club Brugge, Red Star, Dinamo Zagreb, Atletico, RB Salzburg, Lille, Dortmund or Lyon. Would definitely hope to avoid Salzburg, Dortmund & Lyon.
Is there much point of Swansea having a Category 1 academy if they are just going to becoming a finishing school for Chelsea's talented youngsters? Also, if they do go up, which they aren't a million miles from doing so this agreement falls apart. Seems a hard equation to balance for Swansea, how do you continue to attract boys when the reality is they will be dictated to by Chelsea with regards to players in that 18-20 age range that need to play.
They've been chopping at their academy for the last few years already. As always, the impacts of it won't be felt for a few years while the existing structure carries them along for a while. That'll be what harms it.
They've only recently gone to Cat 1 which must have been a big investment, plus a big continued investment - the latter is going to be hard to stomach on Championship turnover with no big backer or Parachute Payments going forwards. Seems an especially strange tack to take when you see the money they have raised through James, McBurnie and the quality they have added through Rodon and more
It's always the case. Academy/youth recruitment usually the first to take the brunt of mismanagement of first team transfers/contracts. Perverse really.
I've been looking at Palace's planning application for the academy training ground and one of the main supporting statements surrounding the implementation of a full size indoor pitch – which, incidentally, is the main reason for objections from local residents – is that it is "highly likely" that a full size indoor pitch will be necessary for Category 1 status in future. The FA letter to the club says it will need to be 105m x 68m
I haven;t seen this anywhere, or searched for the initial reports, but mentioned on BBC Welsh Football podcast Swansea City are looking to downgrade to Cat 2, with Cardiff looking to go up to Cat 1.
Entirely possible that Palace will be Cat 1 next season. Bromley Council approved their planning application to redevelop the academy training ground. Has to go to the Mayor of London but seems a formality with a few minor amendments. https://theathletic.com/1678456/202...ademy-planning-approval?source=shared-article
So Palace and Burnley to Cat 1, and maybe Leeds, while Swansea are expected to drop out, although all of it is contingent on audits being completed. If that happens, we're up to 26 teams. Two additional North teams would require one existing North team to go South, that'd probably be West Brom (Wolves the only other option).
And now Palace ✅ Category 1 status confirmed. We are delighted to confirm that the Premier League has awarded our Academy Category 1 status – the highest category possible for academies in the country. #CPFC | @PLYouth— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) July 7, 2020
Better in terms of bringing through more talented players? I would guess so but I’m not really sure to be honest of what the subtle differences are as I had similar thoughts myself when looking at the mess our FA is in and the consequences of the coronavirus, our Academies are our saviour I guess when it comes to producing talent.
Yeah, I meant better for producing English players. Just wondering if there’s a negative to being a Cat 1 academy. On a slightly different note, French pathways are obviously ahead of ours but how do their academies stack up?
Leeds are getting it too, means 27 Cat 1 teams. I don't know at what point, and we might be there already, it begins to mean less and dilutes the quality of the top tier and in turn potentially damages the entire point behind the categorisation process. You could make good arguments that Sunderland, Newcastle and Swansea probably don't merit that status any more by comparison to everyone else, and you could extend question marks to a small handful of others. Southampton have always scored really high and are in no danger of losing their status but it'll be interesting to watch them in the next couple of years. 20% of the players in their last four scholarship intakes were taken on after being released by City/Chelsea/Arsenal/Spurs, and more than half have been signed from elsewhere overall.
I thought the purpose of the categorisation system was primarily to encourage academies to improve their facilities and overall quality, not to group clubs by how good their actual teams are.
Probably should move it into here. Do we know what the situation is at WBA with Rico Richards ? Heard Chisom Afoka and Reyes Clearly have even given doubts over whether they will sign their scholarships.
https://www.theposh.com/news/2020/august/club-proposal-for-category-2-academy-status-accepted/ Peterborough join Luton and Bournemouth in trying to join Cat 2 for next season. Fleetwood are trying for 2021-22.
I wonder how much the new squad salary cap rules in League 1 and League 2 are going to affect things like this - in some ways it is good to grow your own but the rules being put in place just don't help out in lots of ways. A couple of my favourite bits are those deemed as being U21 are those 21 or under on January 1st in the season, so a huge swathe of players born September to December have now seen themselves become much more unattractive as have one year less before being forced to be named in the 22 (reducing to 20) man squad and being eligible. Plus the selling of players, if you sell them you can't then invest back in squad in anything but fees - in ITFC case, we are smack back up against the cap as it is, why sell someone like Flynn Downes or Luke Woolfenden* when you can't stick the money back in the squad. *2 players who have been in the same team since the U9s, but because one is an October birthday and the other a January they now are seen as different ages (unless they are playing in the U23s, or were in a PL squad, or nearly every other facet of domestic football)