Academy to suffer if Rams were relegated?

By Andy Buckley-Taylor

One of the big concerns that I would have were Derby to suffer the humiliation to League One would be the continued financing of the clubs academy to retain its Category One status.

The academy has been one of the clubs major success stories of the past few years. After looking on with envy over the years at the production line of our close neighbours Nottingham Forest, we can now confidently say we have at least caught them up. Derby County is now recognised as one of the top academies in the country.

People may ask what exactly does it mean to a club to get the important category one status, Well what it means is that we aren’t restricted to recruiting players who live within ninety minutes travelling time of the club. We have a licence to recruit from wherever we see fit.

Those in categories two to four are restricted by the ninety minute rule.
A top tier academy can also send coaches and scouts to a rival clubs’s training ground to watch their youngsters (If they aren’t cat one) provided they give 48 hours notice. This is in effect a policy that is giving a licence to poach from other clubs.

Introduced a few years ago the Elite Player Performance Plan covers all of the above and other rules and criteria which places each clubs academy in the appropriate category. It was heavily criticised by many as it heavily favours the big clubs. Some clubs have indeed closed down academies in favour of running B Teams.

Derby have produced some real gems over the past few years, but one of the pitfalls of EPPP could be about to bite them.

Under-18 Kaide Gordon is rumoured to be joining Manchester United next season. This hasn’t been confirmed, but United sources seem very confident that this is happening. He is rated as one of the best prospects in the country. Should this turn out to be true we would only be entitled to receive a maximum £40,000 for him.

We lost Liam Delap to Manchester City last season and we received a reported £1.3m for him. We were lucky that they agreed to pay a more realistic amount. There’s no guarantee that their rivals would do likewise.

Players aged 9-11 (Yes it gets that young) attract a payment of £3,000 with 12-16 olds £12,500 to £40,000. If the said youngster has made it into the first team it pushes the fee up by £150,000 for every team appearances made.

Our own facility at Moor farm in Oakwood has had a lot of money pumped into it over the past few years. Its got an excellent reputation nationally and two seasons ago our Under-18 side were PL2 Champions and had a good run in the Under-19 version of the Champions League the following season.

Prior to the heavy investment of recent years our home production of players was hit and miss. Lee Camp, Lee Grant, Tom Huddlestone, Jeff Hendrick, Will Hughes, had made progress and became academy graduates that pushed their way into the first team.

This season has seen Max Lowe and Jayden Bogle move on to the Premier League for large fees. There’s more to come however.
Jason Knight, Louie Sibley, Lee Buchanan and Max Bird have become first team regulars and Morgan Whittaker, Jordan Brown, Jack Stretton, Jahmal Hector-Ingram, Joe Bateman, Kornell McDonald, Josh Shonibare, Tyree Wilson, Harrison Soloman, Olamide Ibrahim have all been in the first team squad. There’s a few more knocking at the door including Festy Ebosle and Archie Brown.

All of those players above should have good careers ahead of them, though I think some are being rushed into making regular starts rather than gradual introduction.

We can be proud of the academy though. From Darren Wassall the director and coaches such as Justin Walker, an impressive job is being done.
What I do fear is that should our first team be playing third tier football next season in League One, the commitment and investment could decrease!.

It costs between £2-5m to run a category one football academy. When you drop into the third division of English football your money from television decreases by approximately £5m. That is a very large hole to fill!

It would take a very committed owner to keep up that level of investment after relegation and of course playing for a League One side isn’t as attractive as a Championship side.

We have an excellent facility, producing some outstanding young talent, so lets hope our first team can somehow cling on to championship survival and that we don’t feel a knock on effect throughout the club.

Follow me on Twitter @BuckTaylor64