You're right BT. A fully functioning academy is expensive to run, which is why teams with them should be doing more to justify having them. The fees we have received for players plus the values of Lallana and Chamberlain probably cover the cost of our academy, but I doubt the Chelsea or Man City academies pay for themselves.
I thought all of the players in the Saints academy were English or Welsh? I could be wrong though.
Not sure probably is, we have in the past brought along people like Spider didn't he come through the academy albeit as an older player 17 was it? Most of the foreign players, if you can call them that, usually come in at a later stage IE 16/17. I am on a sticky wicket here as am not too familiar with the players at the academy currently although I seem to remember our friend and yours, former chairman Lowe bringing in a couple of South American players that if memory serves me correct did not make the grade as well as a few others that also in the main did not make it either. Not sure if the policy of the current Chairman is to keep it to British youngsters or maybe European, being he is multi lingual himself.