Quote Originally Posted by Der Kaiser View Post
I'd rather we went one further and just got rid of ours completely.
Based on what we've seen in the last decade or so at Cardiff, upgrading to a Class One Academy would be a case of chucking good money after bad. There would have to be a change of attitude among the hierarchy at the club who, for me, have just paid lip service to the Academy concept during the Tan era if the investment was to stand a chance of being a worthwhile one. Also. those in charge of the Academy since Neil Ardley left have a pretty hopeless record if you judge the success or failure of a youth policy by either how many first team players it produces for the club or how much money it raises for it in transfer sales - would anyone expect their achievement level to be transformed because we switched to a Class One Academy?

I would say the evidence is that things go wrong at Cardiff for youngsters at an older age than suggested in this thread because representation in Wales age group sides from Cardiff City is usually pretty impressive up to the age of about seventeen and then it starts to drop with Swansea tending to do a lot better than us when we reach Under 21 and senior levels - self evidently, City have been hopeless at turning good seventeen and eighteen year olds into first team players at the club for ages.