Jason Wilcox and the U18's

by blueboy Mon Apr 20, 2015 10:48 am

MANCHESTER CITY under 18s coach Jason Wilcox is vowing to replicate Old Trafford's "Class of 92".

And Wilcox hopes FA chairman Greg Dyke is watching the FA Youth Cup final tomorrow (Monday) evening.
Dyke has been critical of the number of overseas youngsters in the youth academies at the top Premier League clubs.
But City and their opponents Chelsea – who have invested millions in their youth development programmes - will each have at least half a dozen local youngsters in their respective squads for the first leg of the prestigious national under 18s final to be played at the Etihad Campus.
Wilcox is convinced that some of them will prove good enough to make the breakthrough to first team level in the years to come.
His ultimatum aim is to match the success of neighbours Manchester United who produced first team stars like Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers from their youth academy back in the early 90s.
“It could happen again but they were freak years,” he said, “you look at United as a one-off, Barcelona the same.
“Our job is to recruit local lads. If we can get a group of Manchester-born lads into the first team then that's the ideal scenario. To do that is going to be really difficult but that's the challenge.
“They are out there. We don't want local lads playing for Tottenham, Arsenal or Chelsea. It's up to us to make sure that, via the scouting, we have at least the opportunity of showing them our programme. I'm convinced once they see us it's very difficult to walk away from.
“What we want to do is get a steady stream of players who are developing and playing our way. When I look at the younger age groups then we are on the right track.
“Have we got the finished product? No, of course we haven't. We are in the early stages of a journey that Barca were on well before we started it. So we have to catch up quickly and we are doing everything we can."
Former England international Wilcox, who was the only home-grown youngster in Blackburn’s expensively-assembled Premier League title-winning squad 20 years ago, says the negativity about producing top English talent overshadows the hard work going on in the academies.
Both City and Chelsea have both been criticised for the lack of academy graduates in their first teams. For instance, Micah Richards was the last player to become a first team regular at City and he is now on loan at Fiorentina.
But Wilcox believes the fact that both clubs are in the youth cup final with so many Manchester and London-born players in their squads underlines the outlook is brighter than painted.
“If you look at our under 15s," he added. "They've just been to a tournament and beat Barcelona in the final. In terms of our academy we are right up there now. There's no doubt. We've had teams going away over Easter, getting to semi-finals, finals, winning tournaments. That's what we've got to do, challenge on the European and worldwide stages.
“Sometimes we’ve got to be positive about the English game," he added.
"There’s a lot of negativity around academies and a lot of media attention around it. But I think we’ve got to be positive and get behind it.
“There’s a lot of good, young kids coming through. Look at the England senior side now – we’re doing a lot of good things now. We all sometimes focus on the negatives.
“There's a lot of media attention on Greg Dyke’s proposals to increase the home grown quotas. If he wants to increase it, that’s up to him. We can't get embroiled in it. For us it's day-to-day how do we improve players? How do we push our elite player into bigger things?
“We have some good English players. The challenge is to get them through and breaking into first-teams.
"The biggest problem we have is that the Premier League is really competitive and for the lads to break through, they have to be exceptional.
“Whether you increase or lower the quota numbers, it doesn’t change the fact that you have to be good enough to get through.
“I had not really thought about whether Greg will be here for the final. If he is here then great, if he is not then for us it is about a great occasion for our football club and our academy. I think people forget sometimes that some of these kids have been with us since they were nine or 10 years old.”
City are expecting a sell-out 7,200 crowd for tomorrow’s first leg at the Etihad Campus stadium. The second leg is at Stamford bridge next Monday (April 27th).

Oh, and by the way...it's on ITV4 tonight if anyone wants to watch it. Should be a cracker as Chelsea have a very good side as well.

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