Adian Manning has signed his pro deal too. That makes it Andrews, Manning & Forde signing the pro contracts offered. No news of Lo-Everton or Myles Roberts signing their new contracts (already on professional deals) or if Marriott has accepted a 3rd year on scholarship terms. As far as I can remember, they are the players offered new deals at the end of last season. Everyone else was released. News of those who will become 1st year scholars is to come soon hopefully.
Great post, thank you. Very much appreciate your consistently excellent posts on the Academy. Any ideas what Forde’s contract length might be? Two years plus a third year option seems common, but with his potential I wonder if we’ve gone for a longer one.
Thank you Captain Mandibles, much appreciated. I just try to post things that are out there but not necessarily in the places most people look. I'm sure others would fill in the spaces if I didn't post though. As for Forde's (and Manning's) contract lengths; I don't know is the honest answer! As you mention, possibly 2 years plus a 1 year option as that was the deal Ryan Andrews signed in May but that's a guess with no real insight whatsoever!
We really like to reward our youngsters and show faith in them by offering one and two year deals. Meanwhile Bayo gets five years, Kabasele has been here for six years and Cleverley got a three year extension at the age of 31.
@Captain Mandibles - apologies for the last sentence in my previous reply. It comes across as saying you were guessing with no insight whatsoever when I actually meant I was re. the 2 years + 1 contract. I'm so sorry for a really poorly worded reply.
Dom Hutchinson has signed a 2-year deal at Wealdstone. This an update for anyone who takes an interest in such things, and is not intended to upset Knight GT again.
Young midfielder Ober Almanza (19) has joined Independiente Santa Fe on loan for the season. He spent last year with the Albacete u19s but has returned to his homeland and will now play in the top tier of Colombian football. Almanza also represented Colombia at u20 level this summer in the Maurice Revello Tournament in France, the same squad & competition Yaser Asprilla pulled out of.
The club have confirmed Cukur's transfer and at the end of the article gave information on three other transfers. Ober Almanza has gone on loan to Santa Fe until December 31, not for the season as I had read elsewhere. Jorge Segura and Juergen Elitim have both left on season long loans, to Independiente Medellín and Racing de Santander respectively.
The academy age group and rules concerning over-aged players has changed. It was reported several weeks ago the U23 Premier League was reducing their age limit to 21 but nobody seemed to have an answer for the Professional Development League set up. Watford have now confirmed the change will affect the club and those in the PDL. https://www.watfordfc.com/news/academy-under-23-side-to-become-under-21-for-202223-campaign In other academy news, both Burnley and Reading have dropped from Category 1 status to join the dregs and lowlifes at Category 2 level. edit: Birmingham have also dropped to Cat.2
Not stew if this has been said . Brentford signing one of our former youngsters. Kyreece Lisbie (Son of Kevin ?) https://www.brentfordfc.com/news/2022/july/kyreece-lisbie-joins-brentford-b/
Hopefully they will leave us the average and poorer players though. What a waste of time developing youth players is.
What are the rules around pinching other clubs youth players ? Could we just bin our academy and offer decent packages to 5 or 6 quality 16 year olds from other clubs each year ?
Any of our youngsters getting England call-ups is a poisoned chalice, as it's practically set in stone they'll subsequently get nicked.
5 or 6 eack year would give us this, plus integrate them with the reserves ? Just wondering if there is a better way to spend the money to get quality first team players rather than this model which seems completely ridiculous.
We've supposedly already just started shifting our youth players up an age group, i.e. the u18s will play in the main u23 dev league, and I think u16s already in the u18s, which I suppose is as near as is feasible to what you're suggesting in the second part of the first sentence. We've also as of one or two months ago (not sure if too late for this player) supposedly given our academy coaches more room to offer higher wages to some of the academy players. Might still be below what Brighton can offer, who knows?
Academy news - anyone wanting or thinking the club should scrap ours altogether will be disappointed to hear the EPL now requires all participating clubs to run at least a Cat.3 academy from the 2024-2025 season. So it's either scrap the academy & refuse/be denied promotion or stump up the £2m* a year to run something arguably other, more cash rich clubs benefit from. There is also an existing UEFA law (rule) which states any team qualifying for European competition must also have an academy. Not exactly a worry for Watford but it has seen Brentford planning to run both a 'B' team and a Cat.4 academy from next season. Presumably they'll upgrade the following year to come into line with the new EPL rules, but that hasn't been confirmed. While it seems ambitious and other worldly to run both an academy and a 'B' team, concerns have already been raised by supporters and a number of those involved in youth football as to just how viable it is to operate both systems. Costs will be high but the main concern seems to be parents will view Brentford's academy somewhat sceptically, possibly seeing it as nothing more than a token gesture, which may make it an unattractive place to send their young talents. The 'B' team operates mostly for those between 17-21. Time will tell I guess. *£2m per yer was the running cost in 2016 for Brentford, the year they closed their Cat.2 academy and went over to the 'B' team model.
Well surely they will need to revise the rulings before anything changes and anyways doesn't the clubs get any kind of say in said rules?
Brentford's statement is interesting: https://www.brentfordfc.com/news/2022/july/brentford-to-open-academy/
It was rumoured a while ago Brentford were looking to open their academy again but it was thought the 'B' team would be shelved. Premier League money was mooted as a reason so I presumed they would go straight for Cat.1, if that were possible. Yet from their statement they're essentially running an u17 side and calling that their academy!? Seems like a loophole to me - where's Ian Holloway when you need him?!? edit: I can't say I blame them though to be honest. They closed their previous academy partly due to poaching by bigger clubs and by going down the route they are, they still aren't dealing with anyone 16 or under so are bypassing that nicely while adhering to the new rules.
The new scholar intake has been announced by Watford (see link below) with at least one notable absentee, Harry Amass. He was representing England earlier this year so it looks like another top prospect has left the club, unless I've completely missed the news of him leaving already which is more than possible. https://www.watfordfc.com/news/academy-new-scholars-for-202223-announced
I'm pretty sure I've jumped the gun on Amass. I'm now 99.99% sure he's the year below those signing scholarships. Either that or the club have released every single one of the side who reached the u15 Floodlit Cup Southern Final earlier in the season. Hot isn't it
