Kilworthfox

Nope.

Correct, they will not be a part of the a Academy system, but I guess we would pay a fee plus bonus payments for player progress and a sell on %.

I don't know the answer, I think you would need a huge data pool, which I don't have, also I don't know how you would measure such events. In my experience, when a player is extremely talented, the parents realise this, when ALL of the clubs are offering training. This leads to, Agents, private elite coaching, many trial offers with academies, that they never not intend to sign at. Essentially using the academy system (and clubs) to train their son for free, its within the rules so there isn't anything to lose unless injury. This is the case as long as the talent remains throughout. The club obviously is hoping to convince the player & parents that they are the right place for their son to play and develop at. I am not suggesting this is the case in this example, but it has happened in rare cases before. I'd suggest to you that the football part of football clubs generally are not well organised when compared to modern business standards. Just an opinion. I mean look at the information you already have about football.

Maybe the player chose not to sign for any of those clubs, maybe he choose to remain a free agent as a prospect. It is rare, but I have seen it happen. Just because a club or many clubs offer a trial, or contract, not every player has to accept it.

The community aspect benefits the club. Without wanting to contradict myself, I'd rather have a few internationals, than 20+ champ players. Non top division players are the by product, not the aim. I don't want to diminish the achievement by writing that. It would be an amazing achievement to be a professional let alone a championship player. The club however should be operating on that elite European level. Don't know about ITK. Not my claim. The work done by all the staff and players deserves credit at this point, its early days still, lots more to come. 17 -20 competition isn't the focus. The point is to win the senior competitions. I appreciate the point, yet I believe the way England has the younger competitions isn't benefitting the players but its all subjective.

If we could combine, the academy successes, with a planned and well executed senior player recruitment strategy and stick to it, Leicester City would be a footballing force.

OK so there is a lot of vagueness written on FT and some facts get clouded, I will always try to explain what I believe to be factual, and leave the conjecture to the other contributors. @filbertway You could have an expectation of a player a year. I think it is ill advised to have such expectations, as not all groups are the same. These groups are individuals who are all different, however with similar skillsets. Is the Academy player who is currently not playing, (because Monga, Evans, Alves & the rest, are at the academy) going to be of value to the club? Progression is not linear. Development happens for the individual at their rate, at some point they become of value, or they don't. I think you can have expectations to analyse, but over a larger period of time. So we can take the decade (not a season) between 2000 - 2010 then 2010 to 2020 and review. I don't know the answers, but I would suggest that the local talent pool has not changed dramatically in that period, so the results should be similar, but I bet they are not. In the last decade, the academy has become better funded, and staffed, hence results should be better. The academy exists for the 2 main reasons above yes. The club is looking to extract value, from their local talent pool. Value is as stated, improving the first team, and making money through player sales. However the academy also provides a service to the local community & local regions. The academy holds events where local non academy teams come to play at Seagrave. The academy hosts the local schools finals. The academy invites in the local footballing community to share knowledge, and for example upskill coaches. The Academy can be open and welcoming to the community, in a manner that the first team can not. The academy is used to develop positive links with the local & regional community. This is self serving, but it is a positive by product of its activity. The academy also has satellite centres in local neighbouring towns & cities, which operate the same functions as the academy, but at a local level. The eye catching work the academy does, is where the local player plays, and contributes, for the first team success. I understand why the rest gets lost because for the majority of the fans its not interesting, and not what they see. I assure you that this more interesting part is a minor % of the activity done at the academy. There are anything from 10 to 25 players in each age group. So 1 player is naturally a minor percentage of the age group let alone the overall academy. I listed players previously who are all at a minimum playing at The Championship level or higher, but sadly that didn't impress a few. The Academy isn't actively looking to develop players who will be championship players. We are looking for the England internationals, Champions League players, the very best. Naturally the championship players will be a by product of the nature of competition, not every player here can play for England. The intent however is to produce the best players at the highest level. Be patient, you will see them come through, and not all of them will leave for a top 6 team.

Are you suggesting the club should make statements they know to be false in order to retain an academy player?

Honestly at least 10 years. You'd have to be exceptional. Your currently seeing this. Probably the more accurate expectation / projection is probably 12 to 14 years.

Chilwell Thomas Choudhury Bassey McAteer Knight Moore Iversen Stolarczyk Nelson Alves Nyoni There are and will continue to be more coming through. If a section of the fans aren't happy with the above, and future players, I am unsure what they would be happy with.

I can agree to disagree

1 player left. All the others signed. You cant suggest a trend based on 1 event. The trend is that they sign and play u16, u18, u23, First team games. I'll give you a simple example: If I had a star pupil at my school and wanted him / her to go to our sixth form, but s/he choose to leave for a college, then as a Teacher I'd have no way of enforcing the pupil to stay. It is their decision. End of story! "IF" you can't tie down an asset, then you fall back to the agreed financial framework for Cat 1 academies. "WE" may not like it, but "WE" agreed to it. It could work in our favour or against us. I'd suggest the rules as always favour the haves, far more than the have nots. As I have mentioned before, it is not a case that we are at the bottom of the pyramid, in fact LCFC has Cat 1 status. They have 1 if not the best facilities in the land / world. There are many variables on which someone may choose to stay or go. I can't possibly begin to tell you even half of them. I'd suggest in the worst case scenario it is not completely pointless as the Club would be renumerated, this would go in as pure profit against any current PSR rules. The amount will be the amount, the club can not control this. Yes it should have been sorted by now. Seagrave is a very good facility for its purpose, having said that so was Belvoir Drive. I am unsure you have been, but from the above comment I find it doubtful. Would you trust the money spent on the Seagrave facility in the hands of those who have spent the last £100 Million? What would we have now? I appreciate you may be frustrated with the club for many reasons, but I would counter that the academy is functioning now, and for the last decade, as well as anyone could have reasonably expected. It has turned a huge profit in this time. It is and has, actively contributed to the first team in terms of players on the pitch, and player sales which go back into the club for reinvestment. Unless our senior recruitment massively improves to a stage it was operating at, a decade ago, I find it highly unlikely that we will be able to recruit the quality of players we are currently projected to be producing, now and the very near future. I don't see many quality International players (difference makers) being purchased, but produced in house, I do.

Apparently

If you know of a player, don't you think everyone your worried about has also known of them for years now, and scouted them live on multiple occasions.

You may want to critique the club for that situation, but the club isn't at fault for every player that departs.