Leicester City Academy

[Nath]

undoubtedly we have great facilities to nurture young kids into the next big thing... but if my memory serves me right... we havent.

The last Leicester nurtured player to play for England was Heskey, wasn't it?

What i am saying is i hear alot of recognition for Mr Rudkin, but i do not see what the recognition is for. Producing Conrad Logan or Louis Dodds? maybe even Alan Sheehan or Wesolowski?

There was massive hope for Joe Mattock a few years back... last season he helped relagate Sheffied United, the second club he has done so with, Now West Brom do not want him.

I really do hope Schlupp produces great things, but as form has it, it wont happen.

So is Mr Rudkin doing a sterling job after all?

[Ric Flair]

Well we've won the academy league twice in the last 4 years so essentially we're doing well. Sadly it doesn't guarantee those players will transform in to quality professional players, but we often don't give them a chance.

King, Gradel and Stearman have all produced the minerals though at this level and above.

[jamesmilner]

andrew king is an international at present . he is imo our best player (goals too ! ) ! you have a short memory !

[jonthefox]

weve got the next messi in there.

http://www.foxestalk.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=75511

[Nath]

Stearman hasn't exactly been formidable for Wolves.

As for King, I personally don't think King could cut it in the Premiership. He drifts out of games a heck of alot and is very lightweight. He is gradually working his way into the Welsh side... but it's wales we are talking about.... what FiFA ranking are they?

On the fence with Gradel. He blows hot and cold too much and sometimes abit predictable. Maybe the championship is just his level?

Maybe what i mean by all this is with southampton making a fortune from Arsenal for Walcott and now Chamberlain... we haven't made a fortune from a player, especially home grown for a long while.

King would maybe fetch 4 million and we sold Gradel to Leeds.

[Salieri]

So is Mr Rudkin doing a sterling job after all?

Well seeing as the Academy have done so well under his stewardship then undoubtedly, yes.

What happens with these players once they move on is out of his control. The fact that the majority don't exactly set the world alight after they've left tells me that he is clearly very good at getting the best out of what is available to him.

[Fox92]

Personally, I think West Ham's is the best, but I always brag that our academy is one of the best. Look at previous years (not under Rudkin then obviously but still) we have developed Lineker, Revie, Shilton, Heskey, and in more recent times; Mattock, Stearman, Gradel, King and now Schlupp.

I know Nottingham Forest's academy is good, but I personally think our's is the most productive within the East Midlands. And, as stated, we have won the academy league several times so it cannot be that bad.

In recent times, I like Mattock, I wish he wouldn't have left but he did. Stearman isn't good enough for the Premier League, and I don't think King is. Unsure on Gradel but I have high hopes for Schlupp.

[Len Finsbury]

Well we've won the academy league twice in the last 4 years so essentially we're doing well. Sadly it doesn't guarantee those players will transform in to quality professional players, but we often don't give them a chance.

Surely the point of throwing money into an academy side is to supply the first team with players. This has to have priority over kids football competitions.

I can't imagine an academy is cheap to run. If we didn't have one then the money that would have been spent on it could have bought players of equal value to those that it has produced. Perhaps even more.

I'm not saying I'd like to see the academy disbanded, but greater return for the investment would be nice.

Perhaps it's not so much the academy but the youth recruitment system. Are we getting the best local kids?

[Thracian]

Given the so-called risks of bringing youngsters through to the first team our achievements, particularly in recent years have rated about 8.5 out of 10. Winning the Academy play-off final at Sunderland in a terrific game that went to extra-time was the highlight. Gradel took such a kicking that afternoon, scored a goal, ran himself into the ground and never flinched.

We've scored goals for fun in topping our league twice (I believe) and finishing second last season. We led the title race right to the finish last season but missed out on the title because of Schlupp going out on loan.

Schlupp has now joined the likes of Stearman, Wesolowski, King, Logan, Mattock, Sheehan, Gradel and even, briefly, Odihambo and Chambers who've made appearances for our first team and there are one or two others who come through the reserve team ranks if not the Academy to be professionals elsewhere..people like Billy McKay, Chris O'Grady and Louis Dodds.

That's a fair amount of success and while Stearman's probably reached the pinnacle of his career he's still young enough to improve and has certainly made a respectable number of Premiership appearances.

Goalscoring wingers are increasingly rare as managers work through a period of being cautious rather than expansive - a fashion that Ferguson will perhaps lead some of us out of this season - and with that change Gradel will surely get his chance on someone's Premiership stage whatever Leeds do and I'm pretty sure they won't get promotion with their defence. Whether he takes that chance will depend on how willing he is to improve but I don't see any reason why he shouldn't.

This will be a big season career wise for Andy King whose remarkable ability to score good goals calmly and consistently is never going to be enough for those fans who prefer the muscle and aggresion of the Wellens types however rarely they score.

But King is also an excellent passer of the ball - and faster in this respect than Wellens - and the combination of goals and passing accuracy could make him an excellent player in a footballing team.

Kingy seemed to win a lot of possession in his short time on the field against Coventry but whether that will blunt his sharpness as a striker remains to be seen - but it usually does just as tracking back uses vital pace and energy for a winger. He might also suffer goals wise for not playing so many minutes on the pitch this season.

That leaves Schlupp as our third possible for making an impact in the Premiership eventually and I honestly believe, if anything, he's got the most all-round ability of the lot and he determination to improve.

Perhaps he's not quite got passing accuracy of King but he's so fast, strong, mobile, versatile and capable of making intelligent, selfless or challenging runs that are likely to spring holes in organised defences.

To have those things and an ability to take a variety of different chances coolly is almost priceless.

By comparison, for instance, Fryatt was always a limited striker - limited pace, limited power and limited in the types of goals he could score.

And Waghorn is what I call a goal area grabber. He's so frustrating. He huffs and puffs suggesting a real desire to be a footballer but he's just not calm and clinical with his finishing. He usually wriggles himself a chance or two but so often finishes dramatically badly, rather than ruthlessly efficiently.

[Freeman's Wharfer]

Surely the point of throwing money into an academy side is to supply the first team with players. This has to have priority over kids football competitions.

I can't imagine an academy is cheap to run. If we didn't have one then the money that would have been spent on it could have bought players of equal value to those that it has produced. Perhaps even more.

I'm not saying I'd like to see the academy disbanded, but greater return for the investment would be nice.

Perhaps it's not so much the academy but the youth recruitment system. Are we getting the best local kids?

I would have throught that if you added up the total of all the money we have received from academy products (even if it's just a hundred or so thousand from the likes of O'Grady and Sheehan) over the last ten years then it would be a larger sum than the academy costs to run. For me, as long as we're doing this then we're buying time until the next really big product comes along ala. Heskey who earned us £11million and contributed massively to first team success.

King has been invaluable for us over the past couple of seasons and there will no doubt be someone else who breaks through and makes their contribution in the near future. Not many clubs are promoting real top quality players from their academies these days, the onus seems to be more on nabbing someone else's player whilst they are young (as Reading have done with Long, Doyle etc). I therefore think that, in terms of the money that the academy has made the club, and in terms of the number of players that have made contributions to the first team (however great or small) in recent memory, the academy is serving it's purpose.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Stearman hasn't exactly been formidable for Wolves.

You'd be surprised how highly rated he is there.

[Bugg]

You'd be surprised how highly rated he is there.

Really?

Every Wolves fan I've spoken to thinks that he's garbage.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

I spoke to one not long back, saying he was gash, and got told otherwise.

He's not that bad.

[ramadaone]

Few points:

The Scouting system City have is very highly regarded so we are in general getting all of the good local lads into the Academy plus we get them from much further a field ( see the guy from Peru thread plus numerous lads from Ireland etc plus Jeff from M.Keynes ) - yes some go to Cov,Derby or Forest but I'msure we pince some of theirs as well

Think you'll find King only joined the City Academy after being released from another Academy at about 15 or 16 ?

Once the new training ground is completed I think the owners will be looking to get the Academy upto the next level regardless of how well JR and his team have been doing - maybe we'll have some one from Barcelona over to help us ?

Remember only a very small % of ANY Academy make professional footballers ( its definately less than 5% ) - so if we have 200 kids less than 10 of them will make a living out of the game - yes perhaps we are down at the 2-3% mark in recent years but in general I think the Academy is doing well

If Sven is here for the really long term then perhaps he will have a greater say in how the Academy should be run - perhaps he is happy with it as it stands ? Good question to ask him on the phone in

[Richard]

Andy King is a full international, so too is Gradel. Stearman seems highly rated and I seem to think he was pushing for an England call up last season (he must have come on leaps since his time with us). And with Mattock, well he was his own downfall and this hapens to players every so often, his fall is more down to him than our academy.

[Richard]

Few points:

The Scouting system City have is very highly regarded so we are in general getting all of the good local lads into the Academy plus we get them from much further a field ( see the guy from Peru thread plus numerous lads from Ireland etc plus Jeff from M.Keynes ) - yes some go to Cov,Derby or Forest but I'msure we pince some of theirs as well

Think you'll find King only joined the City Academy after being released from another Academy at about 15 or 16 ?

Once the new training ground is completed I think the owners will be looking to get the Academy upto the next level regardless of how well JR and his team have been doing - maybe we'll have some one from Barcelona over to help us ?

Remember only a very small % of ANY Academy make professional footballers ( its definately less than 5% ) - so if we have 200 kids less than 10 of them will make a living out of the game - yes perhaps we are down at the 2-3% mark in recent years but in general I think the Academy is doing well

If Sven is here for the really long term then perhaps he will have a greater say in how the Academy should be run - perhaps he is happy with it as it stands ? Good question to ask him on the phone in

Liam Moore came from Derby, and there's also Sesay and Jones who i remember coming from Arsenal

[blueblood88]

Given the so-called risks of bringing youngsters through to the first team our achievements, particularly in recent years have rated about 8.5 out of 10. Winning the Academy play-off final at Sunderland in a terrific game that went to extra-time was the highlight. Gradel took such a kicking that afternoon, scored a goal, ran himself into the ground and never flinched.

We've scored goals for fun in topping our league twice (I believe) and finishing second last season. We led the title race right to the finish last season but missed out on the title because of Schlupp going out on loan.

Schlupp has now joined the likes of Stearman, Wesolowski, King, Logan, Mattock, Sheehan, Gradel and even, briefly, Odihambo and Chambers who've made appearances for our first team and there are one or two others who come through the reserve team ranks if not the Academy to be professionals elsewhere..people like Billy McKay, Chris O'Grady and Louis Dodds.

That's a fair amount of success and while Stearman's probably reached the pinnacle of his career he's still young enough to improve and has certainly made a respectable number of Premiership appearances.

Goalscoring wingers are increasingly rare as managers work through a period of being cautious rather than expansive - a fashion that Ferguson will perhaps lead some of us out of this season - and with that change Gradel will surely get his chance on someone's Premiership stage whatever Leeds do and I'm pretty sure they won't get promotion with their defence. Whether he takes that chance will depend on how willing he is to improve but I don't see any reason why he shouldn't.

This will be a big season career wise for Andy King whose remarkable ability to score good goals calmly and consistently is never going to be enough for those fans who prefer the muscle and aggresion of the Wellens types however rarely they score.

But King is also an excellent passer of the ball - and faster in this respect than Wellens - and the combination of goals and passing accuracy could make him an excellent player in a footballing team.

Kingy seemed to win a lot of possession in his short time on the field against Coventry but whether that will blunt his sharpness as a striker remains to be seen - but it usually does just as tracking back uses vital pace and energy for a winger. He might also suffer goals wise for not playing so many minutes on the pitch this season.

That leaves Schlupp as our third possible for making an impact in the Premiership eventually and I honestly believe, if anything, he's got the most all-round ability of the lot and he determination to improve.

Perhaps he's not quite got passing accuracy of King but he's so fast, strong, mobile, versatile and capable of making intelligent, selfless or challenging runs that are likely to spring holes in organised defences.

To have those things and an ability to take a variety of different chances coolly is almost priceless.

By comparison, for instance, Fryatt was always a limited striker - limited pace, limited power and limited in the types of goals he could score.

And Waghorn is what I call a goal area grabber. He's so frustrating. He huffs and puffs suggesting a real desire to be a footballer but he's just not calm and clinical with his finishing. He usually wriggles himself a chance or two but so often finishes dramatically badly, rather than ruthlessly efficiently.

Fvck sake, was waiting for a fvcking essay from this bloke as soon as the academy was brought up. <_<

[Guest Bilo]

We produce good prospects pretty regularly, the problem seems to come when a lot of them make the step up. I'd question the transition from youth team to full team if I was being honest. King, Gradel and Stearman are all players produced in recent years playing regularly at Championship level or above, but there are others who haven't fulfilled their potential for a variety of reasons. I just hope Schlupp fulfills his potential with us, because it's abundantly clear the lad has potential in spades.

[ramadaone]

Great start to the season for the Academy including beating Forest 4-1

Also quite a few young lads out on loan so they must be doing something right down there

The Academy page on the offical site is very sparse compared to many ( see wolves ) to say the least - any reason why ?

[MPH]

I think we are finding great prospects but for some reason they are just not making the breakthrough...

I'd like to see us make a cheeky offer to Dario Gradi and get him in as reserve/youth manager

THAT would show me how serious we are... first reserve manager in the championship on 250k a year.

But in the great scheme of things 250k a year isn't that much considering what we have offered for Maynard and that Rangers lad...

[ramadaone]

Think the owners may well look to lift the Academy profile - perhaps someone from the Barcelona set up ?

[LCFC FOX]

They won 3-2 at Norwich today. 3 wins out of 3 for them.

[ramadaone]

And they were down to 10 men for a fair old while

Is anyone allowed down to watch them play when they are at home and where are they playing at the moment ?

[Ric Flair]

Doodoo nearly has as good a name as Schlupp, let's hope he'll progress like Jeff in the next 2 years. Sounds like he's a great prospect.

[ramadaone]

Doodoo nearly has as good a name as Schlupp, let's hope he'll progress like Jeff in the next 2 years. Sounds like he's a great prospect.

Think hes a Nottingham lad so assume we nicked him from under Florists noses so even better !!