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Reply | The Academy stays for now
at 17:39 7 Feb 2020
I get the challenges you are facing reducing costs etc, but now you have it from the horses mouth how much it's costing you and £3 million is a no brainer for an academy producing the returns you are.
I think it's inevitable that Rodon will go this summer but looking at the size of the clubs showing interest in him, you are pretty much guaranteed to get a good return on him. So once again the investment is justified.
The stumbling block for you at present is the fact the first team and the academy are on different sites.
If you can get a good return on selling the site it would be wise to invest on one big site nearer the m4 corridor. |
| Forum
Reply | Academy Cat 1 - to Cat 3..
at 10:10 24 Jan 2020
Is this on record that Birch said this?
It's simply not true.
As a matter of fact when it comes to the younger age groups u9-u14 there is very little difference in fixtures between Category 1 and 2 but a massive difference between category 2 and category 3.
Swansea will currently play a standard fixture list of Cardiff, Southampton, Reading, Bristol City, West Brom, Birmingham, Wolves, Villa, Coventry but if they dropped to Category 3 then their standard fixture list would consist of teams like Bristol Rovers, Exeter, Plymouth etc.
The same would apply at u16s, u18s and u23s. There would be a noticeable drop in opposition at this level and you'd no longer play the likes of Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal etc if you dropped to Cat 2 but you wouldn't even play the likes of Cardiff, Bristol City, Leeds, Forest, Palace etc if you dropped to Category 3.
If you watch an interview with Stuart Webber and Stuart Weaver on YouTube when they were at Huddersfield they say that the only viable options for a club their size was category 1 or 2 or it would be pointless. (They soon scrapped their academy altogether)
I'm not sure I agree with Webber here but I do believe it would be a lot harder to produce players for championship football in today's environment through the category 3 programme.
Especially if Cardiff (not that I think you need to worry about that at this moment) or Bristol ever become category 1.
It costs a lot to run category 1 but it can also cost a lot not too, as was highlighted in the Rabbi Matondo situation at Cardiff. |
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