Category 1 academy status

[Buzz Killington 0]

Just wondering if anyone can shed any light on how our relegation will affect our Category 1 academy status.

I assume it will eat a fair chunk of our limited football league income, but should provide a decent opportunity to produce some more good quality players of our own.

[Mr Jenkins 0]

Some championship clubs have cat 1 status

[MancCanary 0]

To be honest, I don''t think we''ll be able to sustain it at it''s current level of expenditure for many seasons in the championship. I asked one of the pinkun journos about it a year or so ago, and that was their opinion. Could be wrong obviously.. but I would expect that certain cuts will have to be made. Quite what constitutes the Category 1 label I don''t know, but I guess we''ll be doing the bare minimum to keep it.

[morty 0]

Decent explanation here :-

http://thetwounfortunates.com/academies-and-the-eppp-can-the-footballing-authorities-do-more/

[Well b back 3,570]

I suspect this will be one of the boards major decisions over the next few days / weeks.

Do you keep category 1 status costing a lot of money or do you put that money into a new player. The negative against dropping category 1 status of course is that our youth players ie the Murphys ect will be able move to other category 1 clubs for just a few thousand pound.

[Indy_Bones 444]

Unless we got a rich investor we''ll never be able to compete with the big boys on transfer fees, so spending more money on Cat 1 status makes a huge amount of sense IMHO.The future HAS to come from our youth system, because we simply can''t afford repeated failures like RVW going forwards (even if I think he''s good enough but has been horribly mis-used).

[morty 0]

[quote user="We b back"]I suspect this will be one of the boards major decisions over the next few days / weeks.

Do you keep category 1 status costing a lot of money or do you put that money into a new player. The negative against dropping category 1 status of course is that our youth players ie the Murphys ect will be able move to other category 1 clubs for just a few thousand pound.[/quote]

A no brainer for me, the status must be maintained, we will reap the rewards in years to cone.

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 2,399]

[quote user="Well b back"]I suspect this will be one of the boards major decisions over the next few days / weeks. Do you keep category 1 status costing a lot of money or do you put that money into a new player. The negative against dropping category 1 status of course is that our youth players ie the Murphys ect will be able move to other category 1 clubs for just a few thousand pound.[/quote]

 

The Murphys, and most of the other successful cup run players, are all now on professional contracts so can''t go anywhere for a few thousand pounds - it would be young players that most fans have never heard of or knew existed that would be poached by the bigger clubs.

 

Cat 1 costs about £2m a year to maintain - it is a massive commintment from the club, but with so much recently spend on infrastructure I can''t see the board cutting thier losses yet. Having a Category 1 academy is almost always going to cost clubs more than they make in savings buying players or the income they make from selling them - but if Norwich can produce one Connor Wickham, who made Ipswich £12m then there is a chance it will break even over the long term.

[Badger 2,743]

Thanks for the link Morty - very informative.Agree with others that we would want to keep it going for as long as possible. I don''t know what our wages bill was before promotion but this would be a good point of comparison re cost.

[Old Shuck 275]

Concur with everyone else. We should look to maintain it for as long as we can and make it a footballing priority.

 

Identify the right players and educated them well and we can be like Southampton-how many times has their youth policy and status rewarded them over the last few years with income? Talk of £25 Million for Shaw now, they''re laughing all the way to Coutts.

 

Homegrown and that old "young and hungry" that has served us so well in the past is surely the way ahead, player recruitment wise, especially for next season.

 

Should be a no brainer. If they do downgrade to Cat 2 for the sake of finance I hope there isn''t additional spin on how "...cat 2 status is now, actually, not too bad after all you know and perfect for us"

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 2,399]

[quote user="Old Shuck"]

Concur with everyone else. We should look to maintain it for as long as we can and make it a footballing priority.

 

Identify the right players and educated them well and we can be like Southampton-how many times has their youth policy and status rewarded them over the last few years with income? Talk of £25 Million for Shaw now, they''re laughing all the way to Coutts.

 

Homegrown and that old "young and hungry" that has served us so well in the past is surely the way ahead, player recruitment wise, especially for next season.

 

Should be a no brainer. If they do downgrade to Cat 2 for the sake of finance I hope there isn''t additional spin on how "...cat 2 status is now, actually, not too bad after all you know and perfect for us"

[/quote]

 

That was under the previous system though, impossible to know how the new rules will play out for medium sized clubs like Norwich and Southampton. It could be that Norwich pay out millions every year to maintain the academy and it''s staff while the big clubs like Chelsea, Arsenal etc just take our good players for small fees. In a couple of seasons it might become clear that Cat 2 status is the best place for Norwich.

 

The ''young and hungry'' method that served Norwich well had nothing to do with our own academy, but everything to do on players who had been completely overlooked by the larger clubs, or kicked out at a young age. Also, most of them weren''t actually that ''young'', Ruddy, Holt, Martin, Fox, Crofts etc were all mid to late 20s when they joined Norwich - the thing they had in common was never being allowed a shot at the top leagues.

[Badger 2,743]

Greg Dyke is talking about this now.

[Badger 2,743]

Talking about B teams in league football and strategic loan partnerships.

[Badger 2,743]

Club trained players and limits on foreign players in squads  stronger limits on non EU players

[Badger 2,743]

B teams - idea is that premier league B teams could join a new league three + get promo from there but no higher than league one.

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 2,399]

The FA''s proposals do seem to rather undermine the EPPP Academies - will be interesting to see how clubs react to this. Not many will be able to afford a B Team and a Cat 1 academy.

[Badger 2,743]

Looking at it from a narrow NCFC perspective - my first thought was whether we would be able to have a B team now that we are relegated. I quite like the idea of these games - better than reserve team football ever was!

[pete 349]

I guess it depends on City attracting the better youngsters as a Championship club. I am sure some previously saw it better to be attached to a Premier League club.

[Mr Jenkins 0]

One of the obvious benefits of cat 1 is that you can cast your net much further. To get top quality youngsters that''s essential, in no way is that a critisism of Norfolk Youth but it''s a question of sheer numbers and catchment.

I sincerely hope the board continue to see this as priority for us, it could be our saving grace in years to come.

[SwindonCanary 457]

Always felt that the category 1 status would drain the club of funds, it costs 2 million a season to run and we need to produce players of that value or more constantly to just break even.

[Mr Jenkins 0]

You only need one star occasionally Swindon, and we have probably got him there somewhere.

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 2,399]

[quote user="Jenkins"]You only need one star occasionally Swindon, and we have probably got him there somewhere.[/quote]

 

Hard to say, Norwich haven''t had a player of any significant value since Craig Bellamy and there is no guarantee the player will stay with Norwich until they get to the age when they can sign professional terms, 17.

 

Arsenal could take a talented 16 year old player off Norwich and have him play more than 100 games for them in the Prem and only pay Norwich £1.5m. Of course Norwich can do the same, but it is a case of whether you trust Norwich to be able to scout, identify and secure the players capable of making the step up.

 

Category 1 status is a gamble and no one knows if it will pay off or not in the long run. The news about B Teams has the potential to completely disrail the whole thing anyway with a few Prem teams now able to have room for an extra 25+ young players and give them regular games, will almost certainly result in the Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal etc from hoovering up even more young talent at younger ages.

 

In Norwich''s case, the catchment are thing is vital, it is no coincidence that the academy stopped producing after the rules were introduced but it will take a lot more money than the £2m minimum spend to take full advantage of the new rules.

[A Gay Schoolboy 0]

B teams won''t happen its a moronic idea that would ruin the footballing pyramid

[Barnaby Bear 0]

Waste of money, we haven''t produced any decent kids since Chris Sutton. Might as well Tarmac over the kids pitches at Colney and set up a park and ride. Might bring in a few quid for the team.

[Felixfan 53]

I seem to remember that if you are accepted for cat.1 it is,a contractual obligation for so many years. Surely if Ips.can afford to apply then we should be able to continue.