08 Oct 2025 21:47:27
A few weeks back I posted about Shea Lacey having watched him playing for U21s and scoring a couple of goals, while being the best player on the pitch.
I see that he was invited to join the senior England squad in their latest training session. Clearly others think him a fine prospect as well.
As we know the club recently spent some £50m on updating facilities at Carrington and more recently some £10m on the Women's facilities.
This spending is set to continue with further investment of some £10m in the Academy infrastructure, this being a continuation of the stated intent to raise standards to an elite level. Along with the youth signings made over the last year or so hopefully we will start to see some results in the not to distant future.
09 Oct 2025 15:16:43
I'm a bit concerned about the direction of the academy upgrade. It feels like the intention might be to turn it into more of a conveyor belt for talent to be sold, similar to the models we've seen at Manchester City and Chelsea. While we might see the occasional player break into the first team, the underlying strategy could be more commercially driven.
In his interview he said "You need the academy to be producing talent all the time. It helps you financially"
This could be interpreted in two ways:
It helps financially by reducing the need to buy players, because we're developing quality talent internally. Or, it helps financially by producing players to sell for profit.
Given that both our U18s and U21s are currently outperforming the first team, there's clearly talent in the pipeline. But based on SJR’s track record so far, I’d lean toward the second interpretation.
09 Oct 2025 17:33:19
Kurtis what is SJR's track record? Under him there have been cuts to wages but they have invested in the team - as he said was needed. I think you are reading far too much into this. It's not one of those two interpretations. It obviously is both, just like it is for City for instance.
09 Oct 2025 18:21:47
Kurtis I think its a combination of both.
They are running a business so the academy has to deliver good returns on investment. That will allow them to invest in other areas of the business. An academy and scouting network that both help save money and generate potentially very high returns is fundamental to the business plan of all the biggest clubs.
Profitable trading of assets is a very credible way of providing internal investment for other areas of the business. We need to become self sufficient again.
United had 22 academy graduates in epl squads 5 seasons ago. I think only 6 were in our squad and we didn't profit greatly on many of them. Fulham had 7 and had made over 60m in sales.
Breaking into the 1st team is not easy.
We do have a few on loan now and a couple of standouts in the academy if 2 or 3 make it into the 1st team over the next 2 years that's a huge success and unless we get a good return on the 15 that don't make it every year the academy becomes a drain on finances instead of a contributer.
Keep the cream of the crop and move the others on at good profit. That's the best model. Some will come back to bite you on the ass but that's OK.
If you make a decision for the right reasons at the time, that then turns into a bad decision in hidsight 2 years down the line it doesn't mean you didn't do the right thing at the time.
Everybody loves seeing one of the academylads come through especially local lads I've seen AJH say that. But the truth is if there is 25 in your year less than 5% of those will play over 50 games for the 1st team.
We have 3 keepers and strikers minimum every year or 2 go through the academy. How many academy keepers or strikers have played over 50 1st team games since 1990? 4 cbs ever couple of years how many have played 50 1st team games since 1990?
Tiny minority. Lots have had great careers in the league but not with us. We never made the money we should have from those guys imo.
09 Oct 2025 21:16:44
Kurtis, that is a somewhat skewed way of looking at things and I think much misrepresents the actuality.
In a perfect world all first team players would be graduates of the academy, but here in the real world that is certainly not going to happen. If a steady supply of 2 or 3 youngsters are regularly making the first team it would be a considerable success.
This of course would leave a large number of academy players not making it (with us) and the issue is then how do they progress their careers. If the quality of the academy is good enough then they hopefully can be sold to decent clubs for reasonable fees, obviously suiting all parties. This additional revenue would help fund incoming transfers.
This is not improving the academy just to sell the best players but an improvement to give more players better opportunities long term.
Surely this has to be seen as the right approach.
09 Oct 2025 22:53:18
I completely take your points — and I do agree that having a strong academy inevitably means not every player will end up in the first team. Selling good young players who can’t quite make the step up is a natural part of a healthy football ecosystem.
Maybe I didn't articulate myself well, my concern is less about the fact that players will be sold, and more about the underlying intent guiding the academy’s direction. If the core philosophy becomes primarily about generating revenue rather than developing talent for the club’s own long-term competitiveness, that’s where I think we risk losing the balance.
There’s a difference between an academy that produces players who sometimes get sold and an academy designed to produce players to sell. The former supports the first team; the latter supports the balance sheet. The line can be subtle, but the outcomes over time are very different.
10 Oct 2025 11:19:47
95% of the academy are sold or moved on, that is nothing new. The class of 92 were a once in a clubs life’s exception.
10 Oct 2025 15:44:38
Kurtis, I do not for one second accept your premise that the core philosophy of the academy will be income generation over and above talent development for the first team.
There is absolutely nothing to give any reason to formulate that hypothesis. I realise you always seem to look for negativity, even when it does not exist, but if you for one second think that the Academy management, coaches and trainers would operate on that basis then I am afraid you are wrong.
From knowing someone associated with the academy I certainly feel there is a desire by all concerned to develop some of the top talents we have, into first team regulars.
Remember, from a purely financial standpoint the value of a player making it to the first team is most likely to exceed what would be received, by way of way of transfer fee, for a player sold. Incentive enough surely to continue with things as they are.