Reid: We’re working hard for Academy success
the academy, though Executive Director Charlie Methven added that those levels are ‘unfair’.
“It’sadiscussionI’mhaving at EFL with regards to what I believetobeunfaircompensationlevels,wheretheyhaven’t caught up with the reality of the transfer market,” he said.
“They’re still levels that have been set a while ago and meanwhile the market keeps on exploding, which means that effectively it’s easy for the Premier League clubs to say, ‘we’rejustgoingtobuyawhole loadof[theseplayers]andeven if only two of them make it, we’ll make a load of money of them by selling them on because of the sums involved’.
“It’s a challenging environmentandtoughenvironment, but that’s the reality of deciding to run a category one academy in a League One club.”
Reid also defended the academy’s results this season, with the U18 and U23 sides struggling to produce positive results.
Methven believes that investmentintotheacademyvia the recent deal with the FPP
Sunderland group will help improve those sides, with funds earmarked for recruitment at that level.
“Obviously everyone sees the U18 results and the U23 results because they’re published but I think what probably doesn’t get publicised enough is results amongst the other age groups,” Reid said.
“Over the last 18 months, the U13 national champions, the U14 national champions, the U10s winning a tournament with 126 teams in it includingJuventusandSouthampton.
“We get a great deal of success at under-16 level and below but we face obvious challenges, in regards to the 18s and 23s but I’m greedy, I want to win and produce playersbutthatproductivityingettingplayersintothefirstteam, that’s what we’re about.
“We’re not trying to create a great team, we’re trying to create players good enough to play in the first team so I’d ratherhave-saywithinthe23s - one player that’s a nine out of ten, with really high potential and the rest less so, like 3 out often,ratherthanallsixesand beconsistentandwingamesat U23 level because ultimately I am not going to get that player into the first team."
The club is seeking to retain its Category One status, with the standard audit set to take place.
“Oneofourkeyobjectivesis toretainourCategoryOnestatus, it’s not easy, the requirements keep on going up and up, the reason being that Premier League clubs can afford to keep spending more and more money on it.
“We want to maintain our status, we’re going to be audited again shortly and Paul has put in an absolutely huge amount of work into the massive levels of documentation and detail [required].”