CTID Hants wrote:nottsblue wrote:
Joe Hart mate. Or do you mean recently?
I did mean relatively recently but Joe Hart is the perfect example. Went out for a year, did well enough at Birmingham and came back as our choice and he has gone on from strength to strength since then. That was six years ago. Not been many others I reckon.
I get what you mean but to look at it in another way, we could argue that selling maybe (& I have no figures to back it up) product of the academy that aren't going to make the level we require, say maybe 4 players sold at £5m per season is enough to cover the cost of runnning the academy i.e. self funding yet supplying X players that will make it?[/quote]
I fully agree. I have long said the main point of the academy is to raise money through sales each year which makes the academy self funding in the hope that every five years or so a superstar is unearthed whilst a good number are deemed good enough to become first teamers and squad players, thus saving us further money on transfer fees, enabling us to pay top dollar for the truly world class talents as and when they are available.