Youth set up

We have scoured the 4 corners of the globe to assemble the best young talent we can find so that we can bring youngsters through the city way and save ourselves a few bob or two finding superstars rather than paying top dollar to buy them.

Worryingly, no-one seems to be breaking through. This is probably down to having plenty of top class 1st team players and the youngsters just not being good enough.

Look at our results this season:

U18s league, we finished 2nd bottom (6th out of 7 teams)

U21s league, we finished 2nd bottom (6th out of 7 teams) in phase 1 and 5th out of 7 in phase two (3rd division out of 3)

3rd out of 4 in our group in the next gen series

FA Youth Cup, knocked out before the quarter finals

That doesn't look very healthy to me.

I saw the highlights of a recent Elite Development Squad game where Micah Richards and Jack Rodwelll featured. Rodwell scored a hat-trick and looked head and shoulders above the other players (from the highlights). The gulf in ability looks huge.

Maybe we need to be sending some of our better players on loan next season to premier league clubs like Utd did with Cleverly at Wigan.

I hope Rodwell works on that hamstring over the summer. No games so he shouldn't have any excuses. Get that badboy strengthened up. He looked brilliant before that went again. I felt sorry for him, looked devastated.

Him, Milner, Silva and Yaya (and a new signing) should boss the midfield next season.

The problem with the youth setup nowadays is it mirrors the influx of foreign players for the first team. They bus the lads in at such a young age from all 4 corners of the globe.

This is why our national team is heading for a crisis as there are just not enough quality youngsters coming through now.

It's another area UEFA need to address. Your academy and youth system should be geared towards your own country. Only when a player is developed should they be able to move to another country.

Trouble is this probably goes against all European Union working conditions it will never happen.

I think they do this in Germany and they have completely reversed their long term outlook. At the end of the Matheus era they looked doomed to mediocrity like the English National team, and they have completely reversed this. Champions League finalists prove this 100%.

blisteringblue wrote:Trouble is this probably goes against all European Union working conditions it will never happen.

It's funny how we're the only country in Europe who actually give this any air time at all. As you said yourself, the Germans have decided to concentrate on their own football development and nobody's going up to them and going, "You DO know we're a unified Europe, don't you? You are aware that you have to give everyone else in Europe a chance at this?"

The EU desperately needs our money to keep it going. I say, if they want to keep that money rolling in, we're going to put a few conditions on it, one of which is, it's our country and we're going to develop our young in the same way as the Germans and French and Italians and Spanish and everyone else does. And if you don't like it, we'll just cut the funds and watch your unified currency go tits up!

Our population is almost as large as Germany's and our kids love their football, so it would make sense to spend some of this multi-billion Premier League money to develop them, bring them through the grass roots and let them find their own level. I'm sure that, out of the hundreds of thousands of boys in this country, we can find 25 who can go on to become the future of the English national team.

But it won't happen. Our quick fix society doesn't work like that. Why would they want to spend a fortune to train people up for the future when it's quicker, easier and cheaper to draft in someone from another country who is already qualified?

I really ought to get my new political party up and running. With the numpties in power and the wet blankets and racists in waiting, I'd win by a landslide!

Looks like pretty much all of the youth set up bosses have been given their cards already. Can't really blame them as the plan was for academy players to be coming through into the 1st team within the next couple of years and they just don't look good enough. Nowhere near good enough.

It looks like the new boss really will be building from the ground up if that is the case. Wow, didn't know that.

I still maintain it's up to Uefa to dictate that under 18-21 years of age at least 75% of your players need to be home grown. Will also benefit the national game of each country within a decade.

club officials have begun their restructuring by releasing former
City hero Paul Power from his role within the academy, while
long-standing youth team coach Jim Cassell is also set to leave the
club.

---

City's under-18s coach Adam Sadler and head of education and
coaching, Pete Lowe are also believed to be leaving, with the influence
of sporting director Txiki Begiristain being felt as end-of-season
changes sweep through the club.

Crikey, talk about a new broom! Still, if Begiristain can emulate what was done at Barca, we should see some exciting new prospects coming through the ranks. Let's just hope we don't sell all the best ones again...