My lad has recently joined the Academy at Swansea, just wanted to say it is brilliant! Good facilities and great coaches who seem really interested in developing the kids there. Hopefully he'll get through the next assessment and I won't be on here raging about how bad the academy is!
Congratulations! Really hope the academy brings through some young local talent. Need to get more youngsters involved at an early age to ensure we get life-long supporters (if not talented players!) Suits us and Welsh football as a whole.
My #1 reason for wanting promotion is the financial enhancement of everything below first team football
Exactly what I was thinking. Not sure what exactly qualifies an academy as an academy, but swansea definitely do not have one. For an example of a REAL academy (properly recognised, etc), have a look at the nice setup here at Cardiff
That's correct we don't have an Academy status, we do have what is called a center of excellence, though not the same, we have had the planning permission, and green light to build but nothing has come out of the Liberty on this, think Ebenezer (Jenkins) won't spend the money!............... Mind Cardiff on the other hand do have Academy status, but they haven't got the money to run it!............
Yeah it's the Center of Development with a view to going into the Center of Excellence if he plays well enough. Don't know the difference between this set up and an Academy though! Good facilities at Llandarcy. Getting lost every weekend has been fun as I don't know my way around Swansea to get to matches!
Am I right in saying that the Cardiff facilities are poor though, heard that they train outdoors in all weathers at U12'S through to 16'S. Thought they would have good facilities for an Academy. I could be wrong though don't know much about it.
No need to get all sweaty about it was just chattin' askin questions and all that! Don't support Cardiff or Swansea so wasn't trying to have a pissing contest.