by Huntley & Palmer »
28 Aug 2008 13:42
How long has the academy been in place for? I didn't think we got any money for Ashdown, he left at the end of his contract. We got nominal fees for Tyson and Henderson in the last few months of their contracts and £200k for Cox. I wouldn't say that would pay for half a years worth of academy players, let alone all the staff, coaches and facilities. The fact that up until now we have not had a single player come through, not entirely the fault of the academy to be fair, means they are long overdue to produce at least one player who can stick it in the first team squad. The good thing is that it looks like we may have three coming through at once, though they aren't exactly fresh out of the academy doors. It's still been a very expensive and unsuccessful journey so far, we have had to buy promising youth players to supplement our numbers