New home for City's Academy.

[Pedro de la Rosa]

Matondo left when he was 16(?) and Ramsey when he was 17. What are the rules when working out if a player can be attributed to a certain academy if James signing for the Jacks at 17 doesn't count but Matondo leaving us at 16(?) does? In order to say we've brought through players, aside from Ralls, you have to talk about Ramsey, Gunter and Ledley which was ages ago.

New project looks smart. Slightly surprised that we're not asking for more indoor pitches though.

The wider issue, who is coming out of South Wales? The Jacks have 3(?) in Cabango, Rodon and Roberts (obvs Rodon has now moved on). The Jacks have done well but I don't think they're the poster club for the academy that they're made out to be. I think Cardiff and Swansea suffer in rankings like this due to the fact we are Welsh (certainly in some as being Welsh home grown did/still affects things slightly differently).

[the other bob wilson]

Matondo left when he was 16(?) and Ramsey when he was 17. What are the rules when working out if a player can be attributed to a certain academy if James signing for the Jacks at 17 doesn't count but Matondo leaving us at 16(?) does? In order to say we've brought through players, aside from Ralls, you have to talk about Ramsey, Gunter and Ledley which was ages ago.

New project looks smart. Slightly surprised that we're not asking for more indoor pitches though.

Mention of Joe Ledley takes me back to that match against Sheffield United in 2005 which was played the day after what became known as Black Friday when Kav left in a helicopter to sign for Wigan. There were real fears that it could be City's Final ever game and the fact that the game was won by a single goal from a local teenager was a real sense of pride for me.

That takes me on to that question posed by Richard Holt in one of his quizzes on here when he asked what only happened six times in the whole of the twentieth century at Cardiff City and yet in the 2014/15 season, there were only two games where it did not happen. The answer was we played a game without a Welsh man in the team and nothing has happened in the past six years to make that enormous contrast less relevant.

There's been a discussion in this thread about whether Joe Ralls counts as an Academy product. My view is that he does because he played a season for the Under 18 team, but I don't see him as a "Cardiff City product". Joe's been a great servant for City and posted a very nice Tweet about his time with us yesterday after making his 250th appearance for the club, but I don't have that connection with him that I did with a Ledley, Ramsey or Gunter.

So, I think there's been a missing emotional connection between City fans and players in the past decade which was always there before, but there's also the practical financial and playing factors to be considered - we're missing out on so much by not producing our own players. There's clearly a desire at the club for this to change with this talk of new training centres and the hiring of the highly regarded David Hughes, but will we finally get a manager who is prepared to take a chance on youth?

[surge]

The wider issue, who is coming out of South Wales? The Jacks have 3(?) in Cabango, Rodon and Roberts (obvs Rodon has now moved on). The Jacks have done well but I don't think they're the poster club for the academy that they're made out to be. I think Cardiff and Swansea suffer in rankings like this due to the fact we are Welsh (certainly in some as being Welsh home grown did/still affects things slightly differently).

Who is saying the jack's are a poster club? They've simply done better than us over past 3 years because they had I) previously invested into their academy, ii) had a manager who wanted to develop youth, iii) saw it as way to manage massive drop in revenue and IV) played to a style throughout the club that allowed them to make the step-up to higher level. We could be on the cusp of being in a very similar position with Harris and similar drop in revenue but haven't been in this position for the past decade or more; the jack's might be on the cusp of moving away from that because they can no longer afford the investment. Arguably, the jack's could have stayed up and continued to afford it if they hadn't spunked money in last 3/4 years in the premier league on bad signings/hires and instead focused more on their academy.

South Wales needs a top tier academy, in my opinion. Cardiff needs a manager interested in developing youth, again in my opinion.

[Ianto13]

We signed Ralls at 15. McBurnie was signed at 18 and James at 17. Ralls is undeniably a youth team player

Under18’s are still Academy players and under 23’s as well?They don’t come 1st team coaches but Academy set up? Matondo went to Manchester City as a 16 year old?

[Harry Paget Flashman]

Is there money to be made in an academy?

How much does do they cost to run, given the amount of players that go through and set up fees compared to the chances of a big money sale?