Search: ' youth'

A controversial exit from Celtic has angered the Scottish club, but Graham Davidson asks if they have the right to feel aggrieved

It has never been unusual for Scottish players to move south at an early age. Denis Law and Billy Bremner never kicked a ball in club football at home, while more recently Darren Fletcher arrived in Manchester before he was a teenager. None of these moves, however, generated the publicity recently given to Islam Feruz’s decision to move from Celtic to Chelsea.

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Adam Bushby and Rob MacDonald discuss Manchester City’s proposed new youth facility

Manchester City’s application for a new youth academy and training facility, covering 80 acres and set to cost £100 million, will be considered by the city council on December 22. It is perhaps the most audacious of the various methods by which clubs have sought to emulate Barcelona’s La Masia academy. While the latter has evolved – it moved to a new location on June 30 as Masia-Centre de Formació Oriol Tort – and facilities all over the world have been refurbished and updated piecemeal, City are the only club attempting to drop an entire state-of-the-art complex on top of an already successful academy.

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Matt Ramsay discusses the problems posed by the restructuring of youth football in England

On October 20 a vote taken by Football League clubs agreed to proposals that will change the structure of youth football in England. While the deal ensures an increase in the level of funding towards academies for the next four years, criticisms of the plans have been quick to surface.

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When clubs get it wrong off the pitch, it can be the manager who unfairly pays the price

This season Leyton Orient fans have been made fully aware of how quickly a team’s fortunes can change. The club finished seventh in League One in 2010-11, just one point short of a play-off place. In the summer they rejected an approach from Barnsley for their manager Russell Slade. Yet by the end of September they were the only side without a victory in the Football League. On the last Saturday of the month, the two other winless teams, Doncaster and Plymouth, broke their ducks by beating Crystal Palace and Macclesfield respectively. These wins came directly after both clubs had laid off a manager.

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Dear WSC
In answer to Jamie Sellers’ enquiry (Letters, WSC 296), no, David Needham and I are not related, although I pretended he was for a while at junior school. Also, when I went to Forest games and the Trent End chanted “Needham! Needham! Needham!” during corners (he was renowned for nodding them in), I would step forward, raise a hand, shout “Thank you, fans!” and then do that breathing-on-the-fingernails-and-buffing-them-on-the-lumber-jacket thing that boastful kids were wont to do in the late 1970s.
Al Needham, Nottingham

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