Under 18's updates - 25/26 season (from p77)

Under 17's but good news. I know Reid has been playing up at least one age group this season


Our U17s are through to the Premier League Cup final! Ellis McMillan and Reuben Reid were both on the scoresheet in a 2-1 victory over Manchester United at Sparrows Lane this afternoon!
https://x.com/CharltonAcademy/status/1899479500196331663

By coincidence I heard only this morning on five live that United again have incrediably strong youth teams.

And yet we beat them!

Is the final two legs, neutral ground or toss of a coin to decide?

a hard-working and thoroughly deserved victory. Two quick fire goals in the first half and we led 2-0 at the break.  Fairly early into the second half and a bit of sloppy defending gave the ball away and they scored from the resulting break and after that they huffed and puffed but could not break us down 

little scuffle after the final whistle but I didn’t see what happened because I was already walking away but I don’t think anybody got carded and would miss the final 

another thoroughly entertaining game and really good to see how our boys going toe to toe with Manchester United 

In his post match NJ said we were a wildcard entry in the U17s cup, making it to the final in those circumstances even more impressive 

fenaddick said:

In his post match NJ said we were a wildcard entry in the U17s cup, making it to the final in those circumstances even more impressive 

I was told no Cat 2 academy has ever got to this stage of this tournament

we got a wildcard  because that same group got to the u16 final last season 

we’ve just made a bit of a mockery of the rules of the premier league cup…..lovely old job!

MarcusH26 said:

Is Reid the main one to watch out for from this U17 side? Seems to have quite the scoring record. 

One of them, along with Emmanuel Sol-Loza who signed pro last year and has also made u21 cameos.

Not seen them yet but Ellis McMillan has scored double figures and Bradley Tagoe is said to be promising too.

Goals scored by player are here:

http://youthhawk.co.uk/w/index.php/Charlton_Athletic_Under-18s#section_2

seth plum said:

I have no idea how the rules work, or who is in charge, but it seems quite ridiculous to me that we were not made a category 1 academy years ago.
We succeed in matches and produce a strong stream of good footballers.
Is it because we’re unfashionable in some way?
The Crystal Palace academy doesn’t match up to the success of ours over the years.

The Academy premises/facilities failed the audit for Category 1 status.

seth plum said:

I have no idea how the rules work, or who is in charge, but it seems quite ridiculous to me that we were not made a category 1 academy years ago.
We succeed in matches and produce a strong stream of good footballers.
Is it because we’re unfashionable in some way?
The Crystal Palace academy doesn’t match up to the success of ours over the years.

Sorry to be a conspiracy theorist, but...

Is it in the interest of Cat 1 clubs to allow us to join their club, when under the hated EPPP they can pick off our best players for a pittance, rather than a proper transfer fee?

Why do you think Brentford ditched their academy?

Scoham said:

MarcusH26 said:

Is Reid the main one to watch out for from this U17 side? Seems to have quite the scoring record. 

One of them, along with Emmanuel Sol-Loza who signed pro last year and has also made u21 cameos.

Not seen them yet but Ellis McMillan has scored double figures and Bradley Tagoe is said to be promising too.

Goals scored by player are here:

http://youthhawk.co.uk/w/index.php/Charlton_Athletic_Under-18s#section_2

Ellis McMillan really caught the eye,  I was watching with a couple of his mates who had travelled down from Loughborough Uni to support him
Manu Wales was excellent and created a lot of opportunities but was guilty of passing when taking a shot would have been the better option
Bradley Tagoe on the wing looks a real prospect.  Inverted winger with skill and pace.  You could see why he plays for England at this level
The defence was SUPERB and got in so many blocks.  The two centre halves were outstanding.  #5 - a big barrel chested white lad with real pace is one I would keep an eye out for but I have no idea what his name was.

The final if it's at home will be at The Valley and I would highly recommend popping along and cheering the boys on.
If it's at the Spurs stadium then that would be a hell of a game to remember for these young whippersnappers
Oh, and I found out last night that Manu Wales is the only second year scholar that played yesterday.....the rest were first year.  The future certainly is bright

Swisdom said:

seth plum said:

I have no idea how the rules work, or who is in charge, but it seems quite ridiculous to me that we were not made a category 1 academy years ago.
We succeed in matches and produce a strong stream of good footballers.
Is it because we’re unfashionable in some way?
The Crystal Palace academy doesn’t match up to the success of ours over the years.

We spent a lot of money aiming for Cat 1 and my company did LOADS of work on it - including all the ground works, installation and sourcing the units at the training ground as well as their transport from Reading to Sparrow's Lane.  It was a lot of work and will hopefully be worth it in years to come.

The biggest stumbling block was our level - no 3rd tier team has been awarded Cat 1 status (some may have had it before dropping in but no team in the 3rd tier had ever achieved it and the feeling at the club was the EFL didn't want to set a precedent.
Other issues like the numbers of coaches could have been rectified but were cited as part of the reason

It seems it was a largely political decision from the EFL because the quality of players we consistently produce is outstanding

Good to see that the powers in Football are more worried about how things "look" than benefiting the actual youngsters.

Sorry but that verges on the scandalous

We will get it when we get back into the Championship. We are outperforming many of the Cat 1 academies, but there is pressure to reduce the number of them and all the time we stay in League 1, there will be no change. Results like the U17 and U18 yesterday make a mockery of the system in its present form.

Swisdom said:

ForeverAddickted said:

Swisdom said:

seth plum said:

I have no idea how the rules work, or who is in charge, but it seems quite ridiculous to me that we were not made a category 1 academy years ago.
We succeed in matches and produce a strong stream of good footballers.
Is it because we’re unfashionable in some way?
The Crystal Palace academy doesn’t match up to the success of ours over the years.

We spent a lot of money aiming for Cat 1 and my company did LOADS of work on it - including all the ground works, installation and sourcing the units at the training ground as well as their transport from Reading to Sparrow's Lane.  It was a lot of work and will hopefully be worth it in years to come.

The biggest stumbling block was our level - no 3rd tier team has been awarded Cat 1 status (some may have had it before dropping in but no team in the 3rd tier had ever achieved it and the feeling at the club was the EFL didn't want to set a precedent.
Other issues like the numbers of coaches could have been rectified but were cited as part of the reason

It seems it was a largely political decision from the EFL because the quality of players we consistently produce is outstanding

Good to see that the powers in Football are more worried about how things "look" than benefiting the actual youngsters.

Sorry but that verges on the scandalous

It wasn't officially stated as such but that was the feeling in-house - that came from Ged and Thomas as well as a few others so was the general perception

I expect we will try again if we get promoted

The bloke who created the whole EPPP system and locked us out of it?  Then we paid him handsomely to fail to get us back to where we belong.

killerjerrylee said:

We will get it when we get back into the Championship. We are outperforming many of the Cat 1 academies, but there is pressure to reduce the number of them and all the time we stay in League 1, there will be no change. Results like the U17 and U18 yesterday make a mockery of the system in its present form.

Swisdom said:

Gillis said:

Swisdom said:

seth plum said:

I have no idea how the rules work, or who is in charge, but it seems quite ridiculous to me that we were not made a category 1 academy years ago.
We succeed in matches and produce a strong stream of good footballers.
Is it because we’re unfashionable in some way?
The Crystal Palace academy doesn’t match up to the success of ours over the years.

We spent a lot of money aiming for Cat 1 and my company did LOADS of work on it - including all the ground works, installation and sourcing the units at the training ground as well as their transport from Reading to Sparrow's Lane.  It was a lot of work and will hopefully be worth it in years to come.

The biggest stumbling block was our level - no 3rd tier team has been awarded Cat 1 status (some may have had it before dropping in but no team in the 3rd tier had ever achieved it and the feeling at the club was the EFL didn't want to set a precedent.
Other issues like the numbers of coaches could have been rectified but were cited as part of the reason

It seems it was a largely political decision from the EFL because the quality of players we consistently produce is outstanding

I don't have your insight into the club, and I'm not going to pretend to understand the process for assessing academy categories, but on the face of it, from your explanation, it sounds a bit like we just didn't hire the requisite number of coaches for Category 1. Was the fact that it could easily be rectified later relevant at the time of the assessment? Surely you either have the right number or you don't? And surely the necessary number was known before the assessment?

Clearly Sandgaard spent money on the academy, as he did on the club generally, but he seemed to have a problem with being penny wise and pound foolish at times, as well as a desire to keep headcount low - this sounds a bit like the same problems affected the Category 1 bid. Much like his desire to see the club in the Premier League in five years, it sounds like Category 1 was something he wanted but couldn't actually afford.

Very few clubs at League One level can even afford to run a Category 2 academy; I doubt there would've been a spate of Category 1 applications from League One clubs if we'd been awarded that status.

Thomas put a lot of money in to this attempt for Cat 1 and was rather pissed off we didn't get there.  We were committed to it but I dare say we tried to scrimp an d save in some areas

I don't think the numbers of coaches was seen as a showstopper nd were know the facilities were adequate because they were lifted and shifted from Reading's Cat 1 academy.

I dare say we will go back again if promoted - if nothing else than to make it a stronger argument to Cat 1 academies as I know Arsenal and Everton currently are trying to bully us for a couple of our boys

It was very disappointing. I heard at the time that the coaching staff shortfall was only down to a couple moving to better jobs.
Other Clubs had failed in some aspects and been given provisional Cat1 status and time to fix.