For those saying the academy hasn't given us much

When did John Dennis close the academy?

 

I agree to be honest.

If you can pick the young players up for cheap enough, then shove them straight in the 18s or 23s then I would guess the cost is much less than having the academy.

I suppose given how we often push youngsters to our starting squads, that would be our selling point to attract them.

 

He didn't. I meant that he gave up on the idea of having a category 1 academy.

 

When did he do that? I don't recall ever seeing it get scaled back. I do remember us having a world class indoor facility added to the academy by Dennis though and seeing top clubs coming for tours of the academy because it was so well regarded under Dennis.

 

I do not think that it was a case of our academy being scaled back. I think that it was that club had to do even more if they wanted to be category 1, and I don't think was had the money to meet the requirements. I can't remember the exact details because it was a long time ago, shortly after we built the indoor facility I think.

 

I didn't realise that academies had categories 20 years ago. What was the benefit of being category one back then?

 

As it is now, priority access to the best young footballers.

 

In what way did it give priority access? As far as I'm aware the system was dramatically altered in recent years

 

My memory is not great on this because it is such a long time ago, but as far as I can remember, academies are allocated recruitment territories. For example, Barnsley has been allocated the Barnsley MBC area. However, if you are a category 1 academy, you get your own territory, plus you can approach promising youngsters in non-category 1 academy areas. There is a compensation scheme, I believe, but the fact that category 1 academies offer excellence in youth training gives them that priority. Didn't we get a youngster poached by Manchester City?