Title speaks for itself really. See the following article: http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896...tle-united-braced-for-academy-funding-setback Not unexpected, but good to hear.
Looks like Saints are set to be offered Category One status. Other teams to be offered it are Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Stoke City, West Ham, Fulham, Sunderland and Middlesborough. Teams that look to have missed out are Reading, Newcastle, Crystal Palace and Wolves. This is fundamental for the development of the academy and the future of the Saints. Hopefully it's officially announced soon. COYR!!
No worries. Thread's now merged. I'm guessing that Liverpool and Arsenal, and possibly others, will join this list once the remaining 11 clubs have been assessed.
Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Villa, Everton, Blackburn, Bolton, Norwich, WBA, Watford, and Reading are those 11 other clubs still awaiting their assessments.
Swansea, Wigan and QPR must therefore be the three PL sides from last season who didn't apply for Cat One status.
Vital to get cat 1 status. Just imagine losing Walcott, Bale and Oxlade-Chamberlain for peanuts... Now we'll be able to do that to Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Reading, Bristol etc.
Not meaning to be offensive but who have stoke produced that better anything Crystal Palace have produced? Not having a pop genuine question.
I did too. Not sure where the incentive now is for clubs like Stoke and Fulham to improve theirs further. Still think Saints are top in England.
It isn't really based on who you have produced in the past. It is funding, facilities and staffing as it stands today.
This tiered academy system is a load of ****e, if you ask me. All it is is is a way for Premier League clubs to get decent young players for barely anything, pretty much.
Wouldn't want to be in the same room as Cortese if we don't get grade one status after all that investment.
I too thought only man u, man city, arsenal , ourselves and west ham (who were told they may lose this status) had grade 1 status. It shows how short sighted all premier teams without grade 1 staus are. look at the prices young english players are going for, henderson,downing and carrol collective value 60 million(and all are no better that average)
Seeing the money Andy Carroll and Stewart Henderson cost makes me think we got really shafted on the Gareth Bale deal...
What happens to the academy kids before they graduate into the u18 team? There must be quite a lot of them.
