It seems even their fans don't know.... http://www.holmesdale.net/page.php?id=106&tid=130308&page=3 their training facilities are far worse than Sparrows Lane? Does anybody know? AllHell
Wasn't our massive recruitment drive last summer aimed at getting us category 1 status? If so how close are we?
Wasn't our massive recruitment drive last summer aimed at getting us category 1 status? If so how close are we?
Wasn't our massive recruitment drive last summer aimed at getting us category 1 status? If so how close are we?
Category One status was not/is not awarded according to the success of your team. Mainly according to the number and qualifications of your staff and the training facilities you offer (possibly also taking into account other factors like general education opportunities and medical facilities?). I think if your first team is in the Premiership they cut you a bit more slack. My guess is that Crystal Palace gained Category One status when they were in the Premiership and criteria were not so demanding. Maybe once you are already in they are more lenient about meeting criteria for a number of seasons provided you can demonstrate plans to improve. But eventually you would be thrown out if you didn't shape up. The foregoing may be complete rubbish because I don't really have a clue. I am just trying to spark off some responses from those who know more than me. All I know is the sooner we get there the better because it will offer more protection for our bright youngsters or at least gain us more compensation if successfully lured away.
You mean like poaching a neighbouring club's manager on the pretext that he wanted to leave and be near his family in Bolton? Good thing we don't pull more fast ones because we pay dearly for them.
One theory is that they were able to show that their first team squad had been reliant on Academy products. To be fair they do trust their youngsters more than us, although hopefully that may be about to change.
It was shown in court that we didn't actually poach Dowie. Billy Davies was offered the job immediately after Dowie left Palace. When he turned it down Richard Murray went for Dowie as the manager who would take us to the next level. Some people though that Murray was motivated purely by a desire to put one over on Simon Jordan, but I couldn't possibly comment on that.
The categories haven't been around that long, so it'll be down to facilities, staff etc. Perhaps they aren't far off category 1 and are investing to meet the standard. I do wonder if we'll stop playing U16s in the youth cup - perhaps we'd have kept Palmer if he hadn't played against Chelsea. It might partly explain why we've got a bigger than usual U18 squad next season. I think we signed up 11 1st years for this season and 11 for next season, and also signed another U18 (Mikhail Kennedy) a few months back. Easily the biggest U18 squad in recent years.
if our first team is not as funded as we'd like i'd be more than happy letting our U21 have a go in the first team, as apposed to having journeymen, on the way out footballers on high wages and no fee's. our u21 are bossing their leagues, I dunno what else they have to do to prove they're ready to step up.
are we now promoted from cat 2 to a cat 1 league? if anyone can work it out from here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Development_League#League_1 - please let me know
Still in Cat. 2. I assume that Palace proved that their first team is strongly reliant on the Academy (if wikipedia is correct).
We had Solly and Messi from the Youth programme so I guess that wouldn't be enough to be strongly reliant but if we were to have two more from the U21's next season then 3 or 4 in the first team may be enough for 2014-15
A club with a Category 2 Academy must compete in this competition, unless it can demonstrate that its senior side was strongly reliant on its under-21 players in the previous season. You guys have interpreted this as meaning that if the senior side was reliant on u21s the team can play in the Top Tier. Is there any other evidence for this? It could be interpreted as saying that if the senior side was heavily reliant on u21s the team is excused from the otherwise compulsory requirement to play in the u21 league (because they would then be short of players). Not saying you are wrong. It is just unclear. In fact the whole thing is a typical FA/Football League hybrid (and probably an ill-tempered one) like the definition of a camel as "a horse designed by a committee". Look at the names of the sections for example: Premiership, Championship, and ... Division 3. What happened to Divisions 1 and 2? If Premiership and Championship are Divs 1 and 2, why not call them that? Why retain the names Central League for U21s and the Football League Youth Alliance for u18s? It is not as if they represent ancient traditions. Why aren't the sections divided geographically? Why all that extra travelling? Having moaned, I must admit the basic idea is a good one. I remember that when I first started supporting Charlton in the 1950s clubs used to employ complete reserve teams composed of players who would "shadow" each first-teamer. This was in the days when players' positions were more rigidly defined. There were no "squads" and very few "utility" players then. So if you were a reserve left-back, and the first-team left-back kept his form and was rarely unfit, you could play in the reserves for five years and rarely get a chance in the first-team. Wages were so low it often wasn't worth the disruption and expense of moving to another club where you might play in the first team. The league system supported thousands of "reserve' players, who were just employed to complete the reserve team, many of whom passed their whole careers that way. Now if we look at Charlton, we shouldn't have any player on our books who isn't in the first-team squad or has a good chance of being there within two seasons.
I remember those reserve teams, I was a Kilmarnock fan at the time and some of us used to go and see the reserves quite regularly, I remember primary school arguments about which was better, the "Big Team" or the "Wee Team". You didn't get big squads, there were no substitutes, players would be given cortisone injections to help them play through injuries. With the Financial Fair Play rules coming in it surely makes even more sense now to have a club policy, which the manager has to buy into, of developing our own youth products for the first team, even if it means selling some of them on if it's the only way we can balance the books and in the long run become more of a force. This means making specific decisions about players, rather than just adding numbers to the squad. For instance, the position of defensive midfielder. I don't think it will be too long before Diego Poyet will be ready, so what do we do in the meantime? If Andy Hughes could be relied on for one season it would be straightforward. We do have other players on the books who can play there, Hollands or Stephens. But if the manger decides that Poyet is going to be the best of the lot he has to take this into consideration in his planning.
Become men. There is more to being an adult first-team player than football ability. Chris Powell and Nathan Jones have both commented on this aspect from time to time. The regular core of our u21s were only u19s last season (and Poyet was u18). They are still maturing physically and in character. For every 19-year-old who bursts onto the scene and then continues to hold down his place there are twenty who fade from the scene, either for a couple of seasons while they continue their growing up, or permanently if their momentum has been permanently affected. The "real" u21s who played for our u21s proved not good enough to step up to the first-team squad (Ashton, Harris, Mambo, Bover). Michael Smith still needs more work but we can cut him some slack because he came late into full-time pro football, and Pope is a 'keeper and they typically mature later, so he is on track. We have some top people bringing on our youngsters, Powell, Hart, Avory, Jones, Baltacha, Mathew, and others. I trust their judgment as to when they will be ready.
Charlton would typically attract 2000/3000 to reserve games which were usually at the Valley. No wonder pitches were quagmires all over the country by January. Another thing that seems comical now is that the last warm-up match before the league fixtures started wouldn't be an attractive local derby against a team from a higher league, and no-one ever played foreign teams then. It would be Charlton first team v Charlton reserves (in which the first team minced through the match trying to avoid injury and the reserves would go flying into tackles which would earn them all red cards in the first five minutes these days). Or even more pointless, "Reds" versus "Blues" in which two roughly equal teams composed of first teamers and reserves mixed would go through the motions. And these farces would draw crowds of 15,000. I don't remember a single one which didn't end in a draw, however blatantly they had to fix the result.
Here is an article from the Daily Mail. Crystal Palace are upgrading their youth academy in a bid to stop Premier League teams poaching the next Wilfried Zaha. England Under 21 winger Zaha joined Manchester United for £15million in January before being loaned back to Palace until the end of the season. He is the latest star to emerge from Palace's Category Two academy, whose facilities are not of sufficient standard to prevent players moving on to bigger clubs for a nominal fee. Work has now begun on making significant improvements ahead of a re-application to secure Category One status under the Elite Player Performance Plan guidelines. Palace's academy is one of the most productive in England and the club are keen to protect any up-and-coming talent. Premier League players Victor Moses, Ben Watson and Nathaniel Clyne have come though the Palace ranks in recent years.
