Academy/Development/Youth Squads/U18/U21 2026/2027

[Twitcher]

Why are we competing in this NL competiton? The idea seems to be to give the U21 teams from the bigger teams a chance to play against first teams from the NL. By bigger teams, I mean those in the Prem. and the Championship. We're the only L1 team in it, that I can see. We're in no man's land. Are we still trying to pretend we're big, with a strong U21 team? It seems an unnecessary distraction for the club as a whole. There's an argument for saying it's a good test for our U21's, but I'd rather us be compliant befitting our current status, and fall in line with other L1 teams.

[coolhandfox]

10 hours ago, Twitcher said:

Why are we competing in this NL competiton? The idea seems to be to give the U21 teams from the bigger teams a chance to play against first teams from the NL. By bigger teams, I mean those in the Prem. and the Championship. We're the only L1 team in it, that I can see. We're in no man's land. Are we still trying to pretend we're big, with a strong U21 team? It seems an unnecessary distraction for the club as a whole. There's an argument for saying it's a good test for our U21's, but I'd rather us be compliant befitting our current status, and fall in line with other L1 teams.

We have a cat 1 academy which plays in PL2.

 

Nothing else to it.

 

Having a cat 1 academy is a very good thing and has advantages.

Edited 19 August by coolhandfox

[Foxes1]

See none of the 3 academy players who left for Man C over the last few weeks played for their under 21's against Mansfield in the NL Cup this evening, Man C also only named 6 subs

 

[Tiny earl]

Straight in the first team then!

[st albans fox]

45 minutes ago, Foxes1 said:

See none of the 3 academy players who left for Man C over the last few weeks played for their under 21's against Mansfield in the NL Cup this evening, Man C also only named 6 subs

 

Wouldn’t expect to see Motsi close to their u21 until the back end of the season if at all 

 

[lcfc sheff]

Against Blackburn tonight, no Opuku so will be interested to see if Hutchinson is upfront 

[coolhandfox]

Just now, lcfc sheff said:

Against Blackburn tonight, no Opuku so will be interested to see if Hutchinson is upfront 

Hope so, was pretty quiet against Sutton.

[Claudio Fannieri]

Just now, lcfc sheff said:

Against Blackburn tonight, no Opuku so will be interested to see if Hutchinson is upfront 

Game is showing as postponed on footmob. 
 

is it down to our lack of strikers, apparently playing our centre forward from the U8’s is not allowed 😂

[lcfc sheff]

Just now, coolhandfox said:

Hope so, was pretty quiet against Sutton.

Certainly can’t see him leaving on loan that’s for sure, perhaps first half of the season stays the main man for u21s and perhaps a loan in Jan? 

[coolhandfox]

Just now, lcfc sheff said:

Certainly can’t see him leaving on loan that’s for sure, perhaps first half of the season stays the main man for u21s and perhaps a loan in Jan? 

Needs to score lot for the u21 to have a sniff of a loan in Jan.

[lcfc sheff]

1 minute ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

Game is showing as postponed on footmob. 
 

is it down to our lack of strikers, apparently playing our centre forward from the U8’s is not allowed 😂

Oh that’s boring 

[Claudio Fannieri]

[BKLFox]

Postponed due to travel disruption apparently 

[davieG]

OS

 

Our Under-21s’ Premier League 2 fixture against Blackburn Rovers at LCFC Training Ground this evening has been postponed.

The decision has been taken due to travel disruption affecting the visiting team.

All tickets purchased for the fixture will remain valid for the rearranged date.

Details of a new date and kick-off time will be communicated in due course.

[honeybradger]

On 19/08/2026 at 21:54, Foxes1 said:

See none of the 3 academy players who left for Man C over the last few weeks played for their under 21's against Mansfield in the NL Cup this evening, Man C also only named 6 subs

 

With Savinho and Marmoush leaving and Doku injured Monga will likely be on Man City's first team bench on Sunday.

Edited 21 August by honeybradger

[Ian S]

2 hours ago, honeybradger said:

With Savinho and Marmoush leaving and Doku injured Monga will likely be on Man City's first team bench on Sunday.

Who cares ?

[CornwallFox]

Under 21s playing away in Truro on 8th September. Might go and watch. Any other Cornish or faux Cornish foxes going? 

[Salieri]

57 minutes ago, CornwallFox said:

Under 21s playing away in Truro on 8th September. Might go and watch. Any other Cornish or faux Cornish foxes going? 

Yep I’ll be going and looking to persuade a few others to come too. Might get double figures in the away end 😆

[CornwallFox]

9 minutes ago, Salieri said:

Yep I’ll be going and looking to persuade a few others to come too. Might get double figures in the away end 😆

Think we have to sprinkle ourselves through the home crowd as you can only get tickets from Truro FC. Maybe we'll make up 25% of the attendance 🤣

[honeybradger]

12 hours ago, Ian S said:

Who cares ?

The topic at the time was our ex academy players not making the Man City u21 squad. I was just pointing out that Monga will probably be with the first team this week.

 

People are very touchy about Monga for some reason.

[davieG]

OS

 

Our Under-18s drew 1-1 with AFC Bournemouth in Tuesday's U18 Premier League Cup opener at AFC Bournemouth Performance Centre.
City came agonisingly close to starting the U18 PL Cup campaign with a win, but for a last-gasp equaliser from the hosts on the South Coast.
Following last week's draw with Middlesbrough in the league, the side coached by Adam Barradell headed down to face Bournemouth, starting well and taking the lead 25 minutes in through Jake Fletcher.
The young Foxes looked to have secured all three group stage points until the fourth minute of injury-time, when Ejiro Akpoguma netted their late leveller.
Collecting a point apiece in the end, it leaves us third in Group A, with top of the table Everton, and Reading, still to play.
We're back to U18 Premier League duties on Saturday 5 September, meanwhile, hosting Newcastle United at LCFC Training Ground (1pm BST kick-off).
The details
City: Hibbins, Simons, Dignum, Jacklin, Turrell, Manyumba, Holmes (Colangelo-Allen 75'), Aideed, Quinn (Szembell 62'), Owusu (Machaka 84'), Fletcher.
Subs not used: Shaw, Govan, Irene, Swan.
Goal: Fletcher 25'.

[coolhandfox]

Please for him if this happens.

 

 

 

Edited 28 August by coolhandfox

[BKLFox]

Listening to John McGinn on the football vault with Roy Keane etc totally backs up most of my comments about academy players of today.

 

He says himself for most the pinnacle of their careers will be to play in a premier league U21 team, ideally for a top 6 team because at that point they believe they have made.

He talks of to much to soon, bad attitudes, lack of drive and zero professionalism to really kick on.

 

Most of my comments mirrored what McGinn is saying when the likes of Motsi or the other few that went to man C or Liverpool & posters were saying good on them, they will achieve bigger things, earn more and if it don’t work out there they will get a good move elsewhere….at 15, 16, 17 possibly a little older as well, all they want is to be linked by name to 1 of those big clubs for their ego.

 I even tried to counter the argument of if it doesn’t work out they get a good move with examples of kids leaving home town academies such as Watford at 15 to spend 6yrs floating around in the loan system to lower league teams before ending up at somewhere like Hull, .6yrs to go from Watford to Hull…score !

But they don’t care because for those 6yrs they have strutted around saying they played for Man C.

I can see it certainly with some of our current crop who haven’t even played a senior competitive game for us let alone a Man C, there is just something about them you can pick out regardless of ability.

 

 

Edited 28 August by BKLFox

[Stadt]

2 hours ago, BKLFox said:

Listening to John McGinn on the football vault with Roy Keane etc totally backs up most of my comments about academy players of today.

 

He says himself for most the pinnacle of their careers will be to play in a premier league U21 team, ideally for a top 6 team because at that point they believe they have made.

He talks of to much to soon, bad attitudes, lack of drive and zero professionalism to really kick on.

 

Most of my comments mirrored what McGinn is saying when the likes of Motsi or the other few that went to man C or Liverpool & posters were saying good on them, they will achieve bigger things, earn more and if it don’t work out there they will get a good move elsewhere….at 15, 16, 17 possibly a little older as well, all they want is to be linked by name to 1 of those big clubs for their ego.

 I even tried to counter the argument of if it doesn’t work out they get a good move with examples of kids leaving home town academies such as Watford at 15 to spend 6yrs floating around in the loan system to lower league teams before ending up at somewhere like Hull, .6yrs to go from Watford to Hull…score !

But they don’t care because for those 6yrs they have strutted around saying they played for Man C.

I can see it certainly with some of our current crop who haven’t even played a senior competitive game for us let alone a Man C, there is just something about them you can pick out regardless of ability.

 

 

The counterpoint is a player might be dropped by Watford and end up at Bishop’s Stortford. Failing at Man City or Chelsea gets you another few decent moves still.

 

I agree generally though.

[It'sblueupnorth]

3 hours ago, BKLFox said:

Listening to John McGinn on the football vault with Roy Keane etc totally backs up most of my comments about academy players of today.

 

He says himself for most the pinnacle of their careers will be to play in a premier league U21 team, ideally for a top 6 team because at that point they believe they have made.

He talks of to much to soon, bad attitudes, lack of drive and zero professionalism to really kick on.

 

Most of my comments mirrored what McGinn is saying when the likes of Motsi or the other few that went to man C or Liverpool & posters were saying good on them, they will achieve bigger things, earn more and if it don’t work out there they will get a good move elsewhere….at 15, 16, 17 possibly a little older as well, all they want is to be linked by name to 1 of those big clubs for their ego.

 I even tried to counter the argument of if it doesn’t work out they get a good move with examples of kids leaving home town academies such as Watford at 15 to spend 6yrs floating around in the loan system to lower league teams before ending up at somewhere like Hull, .6yrs to go from Watford to Hull…score !

But they don’t care because for those 6yrs they have strutted around saying they played for Man C.

I can see it certainly with some of our current crop who haven’t even played a senior competitive game for us let alone a Man C, there is just something about them you can pick out regardless of ability.

 

 

I take that with a pinch of salt. How many from John McGinns youth teams have made it to the level he's played at? Considering he's harping on about attitude and drive that they all clearly had I bet not many climbed the ranks out of St Mirren with him from their youth set up