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Popped down to platt lane this morning to see the under 18's take on arsenal. They battered them 5-2 in the end, i left at 5-0. Was a great game and they looked a good side, popped over to see the under 16's aswell and i think they drew in the end but they too look decent.

First time i have been to platt lane to see the kids today in a long while, really enjoyed it, just a shame i won't be able to make it a regular thing.

The club should really stream the games live on the website, wouldn't cost much would it? I'd be a regular watcher then when i wouldn't be able to get down. I hope they do it some time soon.

it would be great if they streamed the games, especially as they film them anyway. I just wonder if they have decided against it on the basis it might start to give too much public profile to the kids and academy leading to undue pressure from fans. Dunno. From a fans point of view i think it would be great. Would be interesting what the club thought about it... Chris Nield ?

yeah i suggested the youth team games be streamed on the os on that questionaire, it may give the young lads experince knowing there being watched by thousands? or maybe it would hinder them.. but i would love to see that on the os.

i suppose you could take the view that eventually the youngsters will have to get used to thousands watching them.. so you may as well let them get used to it and all that goes with it. They may actually deal quite well with it.

Ruining football at every level.

I wonder; did they all have ten watches on?

Be terrible if we end up with a load of homegrown players better than Arsenal's in a few years won't it?

brite blu sky wrote:it would be great if they streamed the games, especially as they film them anyway. I just wonder if they have decided against it on the basis it might start to give too much public profile to the kids and academy leading to undue pressure from fans. Dunno. From a fans point of view i think it would be great. Would be interesting what the club thought about it... Chris Nield ?

I wouldn't of thought that would be a reason to be fair, the rags, chelsea, arsenal, liverpool, barca, madrid, milan, inter ect all show their youth and reserve games home AND away.

We need to catch up!

sshh Ted !

I saw the first half of the under 16 game and the second half of the under 18 math.Everyone was pleasantly suprised at the result.Some good performances from a few of the under 18 lads-the under 16 lads are quite a decent group too-a few England youth players in the ranks.

I thought the Academy had gone to pot since Jim left?

Beefymcfc wrote:I thought the Academy had gone to pot since Jim left?

If the plans for the academy come to fruition it will surpass the Jim Cass era by a long way.There are still a fair few good players that were recruited and trained from the previous regime.Todays games were both good performances although in the case of the under 18s if they played Arsenal in the fa youth cup the Arsenal under 18 side would be a lot stronger with players like Afobe and Aneke who are already in their reserve side but are still eligible to play at under 18 level.

For me today the most pleasing part of the performance was how well some of Citys first year apprentice lads did.

stockportblue wrote:

Beefymcfc wrote:I thought the Academy had gone to pot since Jim left?

If the plans for the academy come to fruition it will surpass the Jim Cass era by a long way.There are still a fair few good players that were recruited and trained from the previous regime.Todays games were both good performances although in the case of the under 18s if they played Arsenal in the fa youth cup the Arsenal under 18 side would be a lot stronger with players like Afobe and Aneke who are already in their reserve side but are still eligible to play at under 18 level.

For me today the most pleasing part of the performance was how well some of Citys first year apprentice lads did.

Cheers pal, I'm not a big Academy follower to be honest (just wait for them to surprise me by getting on the first team) and only go off what is usually written on here. Thanks for the clarification; the Academy lives on!!!

I left at 3 v 0 when Henshall tapped one in at the far post so I was surprised it finished 5.2.I didn't think the Arse would score at all. Great for Bunn to get a hat trick. He looks to have good movement and is a good finisher.And Roman looks good ion the ball even if the word is that he can be lazy.

Ted, it was £10,000 watches, not 10 watches ;)

Abu Dhabi wrote:Ted, it was £10,000 watches, not 10 watches ;)

Of course, Ted, ffs get it right will ya

Results don't matter in these comps, it's all about development. As long as they are developing....

Beefymcfc wrote:I thought the Academy had gone to pot since Jim left?

last season seemed to be pretty bad as far as results go. At least compared to Cassell era. However, I have no idea about this years crop. This Bunn lad for example seems to have come from nowhere. Scored for the reserves on the week as well.

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:

Beefymcfc wrote:I thought the Academy had gone to pot since Jim left?

last season seemed to be pretty bad as far as results go. At least compared to Cassell era. However, I have no idea about this years crop. This Bunn lad for example seems to have come from nowhere. Scored for the reserves on the week as well.

Tbf it's about producing players though not results. It's not always the best team that produces the best players, like when SWP came through. Can't remember the team Ireland was in being especially good either, or him being that good in it tbh.

Bunn has been there a while, his dad Frankie Bunn is one of the coaches. I think we have hopes for a few in that group & some of the lads we've recruited from Leeds, Swindon etc have started to get noticed. I've only seen snippets of them but new signing Henshall looks good amongst that age group & I think he's a fair bit younger.

Ted Hughes wrote:

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:

Beefymcfc wrote:I thought the Academy had gone to pot since Jim left?

last season seemed to be pretty bad as far as results go. At least compared to Cassell era. However, I have no idea about this years crop. This Bunn lad for example seems to have come from nowhere. Scored for the reserves on the week as well.

Tbf it's about producing players though not results. It's not always the best team that produces the best players, like when SWP came through. Can't remember the team Ireland was in being especially good either, or him being that good in it tbh.

Bunn has been there a while, his dad Frankie Bunn is one of the coaches. I think we have hopes for a few in that group & some of the lads we've recruited from Leeds, Swindon etc have started to get noticed. I've only seen snippets of them but new signing Henshall looks good amongst that age group & I think he's a fair bit younger.

To be fair though....were "last year's crop" very much a Jim Cassell legacy production??? It will surely be a good 3 years or so before we have an academy side that is definitively post-Jim won't it

Ted Hughes wrote:

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:

Beefymcfc wrote:I thought the Academy had gone to pot since Jim left?

last season seemed to be pretty bad as far as results go. At least compared to Cassell era. However, I have no idea about this years crop. This Bunn lad for example seems to have come from nowhere. Scored for the reserves on the week as well.

Tbf it's about producing players though not results. It's not always the best team that produces the best players, like when SWP came through. Can't remember the team Ireland was in being especially good either, or him being that good in it tbh.

Bunn has been there a while, his dad Frankie Bunn is one of the coaches. I think we have hopes for a few in that group & some of the lads we've recruited from Leeds, Swindon etc have started to get noticed. I've only seen snippets of them but new signing Henshall looks good amongst that age group & I think he's a fair bit younger.

I agree and that's why I said as far as the results go. The way the modern game is we can't expect more than one or two players from an age group to make it to first team. If you look at the squads of FA youth cup winners from this past decade, it's really shocking how few of them has made it. Compared to years gone by. Colin Shindler's (dirty fucking rag licking) book (from supposed Blue) Georgie Best and twenty one others really highlights this. And the way things are going, we sign promising sixteen year olds to Academy rather than give them their whole football education anyway. Most of our promising youngsters like Helan, Guidetti and that kid we brought from Swindon have been brought elsewhere.

Didn't know he was Frank Bunn's lad by the way. He has been with the coaching set up for ages so must be dead proud to see his lad there.

ant london wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:

Beefymcfc wrote:I thought the Academy had gone to pot since Jim left?

last season seemed to be pretty bad as far as results go. At least compared to Cassell era. However, I have no idea about this years crop. This Bunn lad for example seems to have come from nowhere. Scored for the reserves on the week as well.

Tbf it's about producing players though not results. It's not always the best team that produces the best players, like when SWP came through. Can't remember the team Ireland was in being especially good either, or him being that good in it tbh.

Bunn has been there a while, his dad Frankie Bunn is one of the coaches. I think we have hopes for a few in that group & some of the lads we've recruited from Leeds, Swindon etc have started to get noticed. I've only seen snippets of them but new signing Henshall looks good amongst that age group & I think he's a fair bit younger.

To be fair though....were "last year's crop" very much a Jim Cassell legacy production??? It will surely be a good 3 years or so before we have an academy side that is definitively post-Jim won't it

I would think so with many but we also signed quite a few. Jim's the ex head of the academy anyway not some kind of svengali figure like people paint him. It's ridiculous the God like status he's been given. He did a very very good job but so did the people who came before him, with a lot less resources. Many of the blokes who brought through the kids are still there though including Paul Power. It's just Jim & Gibson that have gone as far as I know.

Power was saying on the radio that they now have the clout to go & actually sign players from abroad, so the whole thing is moving up in standard & JC may be heavily involved in organising that (if he wants to be). I think the owner is deadly serious about wanting to produce our own players & everything Khaldoon has said since he came in has pointed towards it but the media (& some fans) don't listen.