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Wonder if there’s any youth team players that will now be offered contracts.

I understand it’s confirmed that the club is going to be rejoining the EFL academy system. That means quite a lot of additional funding coming in the door for the development of young players. And I’m also told that it includes some extra EFL funding for any home grown players in the first team squad based on appearances.

I have it on good authority that there’s been a lot of preparation going on at the academy in advance of them getting back their EFL funded status. And that they’ve been trialling young players from other clubs with a view to offering them contracts in the new youth set up. Hearing that parents of existing academy players have become bothered that players from other clubs are being looked at ahead of their kids. Those parents have been paying for the privilege of being in the academy during the time we’ve been non-league, so their disappointment is perhaps understandable. But at the end of the day is understandable. But let’s face it, if there are young players available from places like Forest or Sheffield, who have grown up in their academies, they are likely to better than what we have had in our academy over the last 6 seasons.

Great to see we are going to have some progress on youth though

Blue5, on 22 March 2024 - 07:56 PM, said:

Apologies but I don't know what that means?

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I'd be interested to know what it was that was discussed at the AGM about it

Hearing that there are even more benefits to the club going back to being a proper EFL academy since we last left. Someone was saying that their kid plays in the academy, and the parents are hoping that we sign up again to be a full EFL academy because of the funding that it then gets. To pay for better coaches and facilities. Also, apparently if you bring a homegrown player through to the first team, after a certain number of appearances it triggers a regular payment to your club for as long as he is your player playing in the first team squad etc.

The academy already plays games against EFL academies in-between their grassroots games. By going back to the EFL they get the opportunity to be in the EFL academy fixture games schedule which can only be a good thing. Hearing that once you are in that, you also get access to players who get released by the top clubs at U16 to bring into your youth teams. We've all seen players that have slipped through the net only to then make good careers after being picked up by lower league football clubs. It can only be a positive for us.