| Academy Cat 1 - to Cat 3.. on 15:54 - Jan 23 by Badlands |
While saying there were no plan to alter category status for this season (April 2020) Birch explained that, in terms of coaching and quality of games, there was little difference between Cat 2 & 3 but. huge difference in costs.
If you are only looking at local players and players over the ge of 16 (maybe 18) Cat 1 is a bit of a luxury. If you want bring in the better players from a wider area (and internationally) or get the better under 12s Cat 1 is needed otherwise there would be little difference in the quality of coaching. |
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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