United and academy category one

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FATTYFOULKE

FATTYFOULKE

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Sounds like it is several years away from being ready.
Find site, get planning, buy site, find money, start work and (three years later) finish work.
Minimum of five years in my opinion.
 
We have a site earmarked don’t we? I think the biggest obstacle is the financing aspect.
 
It is now being reported that Reading are the latest club to fail their Academy Category One audit. Final confirmation of 2022/23 Academy changes will only really be available when the fixtures are released. But, I think that now means Burnley, Birmingham & Reading may all have to revert to Category 2. West Brom and Forest may be granted one year provisional Cat 1 licences to get their house in order. Finally, Brentford may have to restart their Academy under new PL regulations.

Not all clubs chasing the Cat 1 dream can sustain and continue to meet the requirements.
 
www.examinerlive.co.uk

Prince Abdullah opens up on Sheffield United future, takeover and next season

The Blades owner has been speaking from United World HQ in Geneva
www.examinerlive.co.uk www.examinerlive.co.uk

"Planning to upgrade the academy is going in the right direction now and we are working as hard as we can to make sure next season will be a great season and the future of the club will be much better than the last 10 to 15 years."
 
Sounds to me like he has zero hope of selling the club.

Laughable how difficult it has been for McCabe (although he wanted the earth for it) and Princey to sell the club. Probably been for sale for a good 20 years and we've not had a single purchaser in that period.
 
Tarqs said:
Sounds to me like he has zero hope of selling the club.

Laughable how difficult it has been for McCabe (although he wanted the earth for it) and Princey to sell the club. Probably been for sale for a good 20 years and we've not had a single purchaser in that period.
Click to expand...
Was just about to type this on the other thread. Way he talks sounds like he knows there won't be any takeover. I hope he sticks to his comments about singing younger players to build for the future though.
 
Not wanting to burst the bubble but “close to planning to upgrade” is a great big nothing burger and arguably a step back from looking to buy a site to build on which is where we apparently were a few years ago.
 
Yogi said:
Not wanting to burst the bubble but “close to planning to upgrade” is a great big nothing burger and arguably a step back from looking to buy a site to build on which is where we apparently were a few years ago.
Click to expand...
Haha yup, being “close to planning to” do something is about as non-communal as it gets isn’t it.
 
Yogi said:
Not wanting to burst the bubble but “close to planning to upgrade” is a great big nothing burger and arguably a step back from looking to buy a site to build on which is where we apparently were a few years ago.
Click to expand...
I tend to hear people use in the midst of which sounds like they are right in the thick of it but in fact usually means they haven't even started yet.
 
Finding space and getting the council on side to develop something of the size we'd need for a cat 1 academy isn't an easy thing. Warehouses and offices pay a lot better to landowners and landlords than selling/leasing land with football pitches on it.
 
Yogi said:
Not wanting to burst the bubble but “close to planning to upgrade” is a great big nothing burger and arguably a step back from looking to buy a site to build on which is where we apparently were a few years ago.
Click to expand...
You've misquoted him, he said "Planning to upgrade the academy is going in the right direction". There will ultimately be hurdles to overcome, finding a site, understanding how much money we have available and what the cost will be, choosing our options and deciding on a way forward. Whether that be choosing a site or just upgrading our existing facilities I don't know.

I don't see it as nothing, just an update that they are making progress, which is better than where we were last season.
 
Westran said:
You've misquoted him, he said "Planning to upgrade the academy is going in the right direction". There will ultimately be hurdles to overcome, finding a site, understanding how much money we have available and what the cost will be, choosing our options and deciding on a way forward. Whether that be choosing a site or just upgrading our existing facilities I don't know.

I don't see it as nothing, just an update that they are making progress, which is better than where we were last season.
Click to expand...
He said we “are now close to planning to upgrade the academy. I think that also is going in the right direction now”. I don’t see how a direct quote from the article is misquoting him.

It’s about as noncommittal as you can get other than saying you haven’t thought about it. I’d be more enthused if he was saying we have a plan that we’ve not been able to put into action yet but that’s not what he’s saying. Being close to planning to do something is akin to saying that you plan to have a plan.
 
Yogi said:
He said we “are now close to planning to upgrade the academy. I think that also is going in the right direction now”. I don’t see how a direct quote from the article is misquoting him.

It’s about as noncommittal as you can get other than saying you haven’t thought about it. I’d be more enthused if he was saying we have a plan that we’ve not been able to put into action yet but that’s not what he’s saying. Being close to planning to do something is akin to saying that you plan to have a plan.
Click to expand...
Interesting how two different interpretations of what he said can each be accurate. Having listened again I could go either way.
 

Snowflake said:
Interesting how two different interpretations of what he said can each be accurate. Having listened again I could go either way.
Click to expand...
I’d love to be wrong I was all in on the idea of having a new facility last time round and it would be a great legacy for any owner to leave the club but promises have been made on this front before so I’ll wait for actions before singing anyones praises.
 
Given our financial position there is no point upgrading our academy to Cat One. You won’t see the results for years and it takes a lot of investment. We’re nicely placed with our current setup, we play kids when they’re good enough and can hoover up talent when the big boys release them. I just don’t see the case for Cat one at the moment.
What the articles say is we’re upgrading what we have, not that we’re pushing to have a Cat One unless I’ve missed that bit.
 
Why all this nit picking from some on here ?
Take a look where we are and where we've been since HRH took over,
He may not be perfect to some but I'd prefer him to the Tuna king any day.
His biggest fault , apparently, for some is his lack of money, he's more or less admitted that and tried to sell us on to someone who has and at a reasonable price what else can he do ?
 
Upgrading the academy is great, but I actually think we may be smart to not seek category 1 status. As it stands we are one of the big fish in the PDL. Players come here knowing they will be on the winning side, and creative players will see the ball/score goals. Rubbing shoulders with the Man City/Chelsea academies will make our youth teams uncompetitive, which you may say 'who cares' (and you'd be right with respect to the results), but that may make us a less attractive place to develop.

Right now we are probably the no.1 academy outside the category 1 club, and I think that has weirdly given us a unique advantage for picking up talents.
 
Can those ITK please explain / confirm the following for me please.

Can Shirecliffe be upgraded to Cat 1 Academy status?

If so what needs upgrading? - pitches, changing facilities, fax m/c?
Thanks
 
Can those ITK please explain / confirm the following for me please.

Can Shirecliffe be upgraded to Cat 1 Academy status?

If so what needs upgrading? - pitches, changing facilities, fax m/c?
Thanks
 
Just pulled this from the EFL site

The club clubs are assessed on different key areas including:
  • Productivity rates
  • Training facilities
  • Coaching
  • Education
  • Welfare Provisions
I’d guess (but don’t know) looking at those we probably fail on facilities. Think I’ve read somewhere we don’t have enough training pitches to be Cat 1 which is why the bigger site was being considered at Norton.
 

Chezzy Blades said:
Just pulled this from the EFL site

The club clubs are assessed on different key areas including:
  • Productivity rates
  • Training facilities
  • Coaching
  • Education
  • Welfare Provisions
I’d guess (but don’t know) looking at those we probably fail on facilities. Think I’ve read somewhere we don’t have enough training pitches to be Cat 1 which is why the bigger site was being considered at Norton.
Click to expand...
I think the issue is it’s not big enough to be both cat 1 and first team training centre. If the first team moves to another location isn’t Shirecliffe big enough for cat 1 then?
 
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