Reply With QuoteWhat does it mean by Cat 3/4? We recently were granted cat 3. Are they lumped together?
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Just found this table of L1 clubs and don't know how accurate it is but it reflects the status awarded by the FA with us of course being 2 alongside five other clubs in L1. I would just guess that none in L2 have Cat 2 and so that stat suggests 42 clubs in L1 and L2 don't have a Cat 2 academy at all the expense of having that. How is it that 42 clubs can exist without one when our club tells us its essential for us?
Maybe someone is not telling the whole story here? What IS clear, is that clubs can exist with the lower status and be able to thrash us!
Preston is a surprise not to be Cat2.
I wonder really if its Dario's ego that won't accept anything lower? IF we carry on as we are, then we will have no alternative to go to Cat3/4 but we may have to wait until Dario retires. In the meantime, whistle Dixie!
Barnsley - 2
Bradford - 3/4
Bristol City - 2
Chesterfield - 3/4
Colchester - 2
Coventry - 2
Crawley - n/a
Crewe - 2
Doncaster - 3/4
Fleetwood - 3/4
Gillingham - 3/4
Le
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What does it mean by Cat 3/4? We recently were granted cat 3. Are they lumped together?
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Something doesn't gel here.
It was Dario that said that having Cat2 status was cost neutral to the club and found this paragraph on the new rules.
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The higher a club's Category the more funding will be available to it and the EPPP will see the Premier League and FA invest more central income than ever before in Youth Development programmes across the country.
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So my darlings, how much are we getting then from the FA and PL? And how much is the club putting in?
Its possible that its not costing as much as the board is telling us and so is it just that the club is losing a million pounds a year anyway with or without the academy? Then how come clubs of similar size and smaller, can afford to sign players that we can't? I just don't believe that all these clubs are losing one million pounds each and every year as they would all be in Administration.
We probably signed fewer players this time around tha
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There is not much difference between cat3/4 just the number of staff involved with coaching full or part time and the number of hours the kids get coached in a year. The problem though is that any real great prospect that does come through the ranks can sign for any other club for peanuts if they are under 16. Its why we give contracts at 17 etc. Then its the still the Max Clayton Scenario.
Lets all stuff it and get some decent players in like Fleetwood, Rochdale and Oldham and Vale!
You know I don't think it would do that much harm but a lot of non footballers here will have to find meaningful employment elsewhere and forgo transfer bonuses etc. Three coaches/managers will certainly be a no no!
I'm sick of hearing about the academy and sick of writing about it too!
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You could equally argue:
Lets all stuff it and get some decent players in like Wrexham, Chester, Bristol Rovers and Grimsby!
All 'bigger' clubs than us in many ways and all 2 leagues below.
Not being able to see the team very often I really enjoy reading about our youngsters and the progress they make; much more than just seeing them sign a 30 year old from some other lower league club who has no ambition and probably no skill.
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Chester? Bigger? Really? We've been streets ahead of that football club for the last 20 years.
There has to be a balance though, I'm not liking a few of our Academy crop's attitudes, threes, all of whom shall be obvious. Also I really do think some are thrown in the deep end far too soon, Nolan is nowhere near ready for the first team and I think that's why we have Ness as well as Atkinson in now.
We need to keep the Academy but we need a couple of experienced players. Our last three successful captains who won promotion: Smith, Brammer and Artell. An old head or two in the side, especially at the back would work wonders for the team.
Mind you one thing I'd do if I could is pretty much overhaul defensive coaching in the Academy, it's an absolute shambles and has been for years.
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I really have no problem with playing youngsters and some on this board have no problems paying 23 pounds or a ST to do that. However If I wanted to do that I would go and see the academy matches for next to nothing. One 29 year old from Oldham ran rings around us including Toots and he was the best player on the field by a mile. So don't under estimate ability when you see it. But the argument is to have two thirds men and one third boys. Is that a difficult proposition?Originally Posted by weymouthalex
Some Conference league teams
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I've resisted and resisted ... and I'm probably gonna regret this but ...
42 other clubs?
So presumably you also mean Portsmouth, Wimbledon, Mansfield, Plymouth, Tranmere, Bury, Cambridge, Luton, Northampton, York, Carlisle, Exeter, Newport, Oxford ... to but a few!
Yes, all of these survive ... but only after severe financial problems (and Administration!), or periods of time in the Conference, or even extinction and re-birth - many of those are bigger than us now and always will be - and yet ALL continue to be in a lower league!
It's all very well saying why can all the other clubs do it - the fact is they can't, and history says as much - and in many cases continues to do so!
You mention "sign good players like Rochdale and O
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I'm pretty much in somerset's camp on this, Mike.
You keep saying that the club claim they'd go out of business without an Academy, but I don't think they've ever said that.
Clearly, given the lack of support for youth development for clubs outside the league, if Crewe were to slip into the Conference, they'd struggle to maintain their current 'business model'. John Bowler, and Dario, have both said that.
It would be complacent of them to believe that the club couldn't slip into the Conference whilst running an Academy, but I believe - and suspect that they do too - that it's less likely to happen whilst we run the Category of Academy we do.
You seem fearful of the economics of it all, and fail to enjoy the ride!
I look at it this way. If you take into account a range of factors in assessing the strength and potential strength of each fully professional club (there are around 110 these days, spreading down into the Conference), such as crowd average, crowd potential, quality of y
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