Who Has the Best Football Academy in Britain?
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Who Has the Best Football Academy in Britain?

Who Has the Best Football Academy in Britain?

The youth development scene has gained much increased recognition in recent years. English teams rely on their respective youth academy’s to meet registration quota’s, make easy, raw profits, and most importantly, to produce the “next big thing”.

Over the years, certain clubs seemed to have perfected the art of churning out elite young talent - while some clubs rely on transfer from elsewhere, these specific clubs are able to sprinkle their starting eleven with homegrown talent, providing them with vital senior experience, as well as seeing their value soar.

Life is made so much easier for a football club when they are able to boast a consistent, quality stream of young players - some youth products can sell for tens of millions, adding useful money to the transfers fund, while some products are so good they slot straight into the team.

So which clubs have made a habit of producing world-beating players and eye-watering profit? And who are the star players to come out of each academy?

Chelsea

Starting off with a name that has only seriously entered the conversation of best youth academies in the last decade, Chelsea have made up for lost time with some of the names they have produced in recent years. Though they have produced elite level player’s in the last couple of decades, things really started to ramp up in the 2020’s.

Based in Cobham, Chelsea combine their first team training facilities with their youth academy, a system which has come to their rescue countless times over the years.

Back in 2019, Chelsea were placed under a transfer embargo, meaning they couldn’t sign any players from different clubs. Manager Frank Lampard was forced to turn to the youth team to fill the gaps, calling up the likes of Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori, Marc Guehi, Tammy Abraham and Reece James.

These players, all household names today, were crucial to their 2019/20 campaign, finishing a remarkable fourth. But we shouldn’t have been surprised - they came from the same academy that produced captain fantastic John Terry, Andreas Christensen, Nathan Ake.

Other big names have passed through Cobham without being given the honor of representing the club - Jamal Musiala and Declan Rice donned the Blue shirt in their youth, with the Blue’s missing out on future £100 million men.

With the eye-watering money involved in running the London club, young prospects flood to Cobham knowing that with the money at the sides disposal, they are guaranteed the best coaching, advice and guidance as they look to launch their young careers.

Man City

Similar to Chelsea in many ways, City’s youth products have drastically improved over the last 10 years, and there is an argument that they could be considered as having the best youth system in the world right now, on par with Barcelona’s La Masia.

Adjacent to the Etihad Stadium, the City academy sits right at the heart of the Manchester City project, with senior players and world renowned coaches and staff regularly stopping by to lend advice and provide insights to fast track the development of their youngsters.

Phil Foden and Cole Palmer stand out as the star youth graduates in recent years, but a host of other high profile names have passed through Manchester, including Jadon Sancho, Romeo Lavia, Michael Olise and Liam Delap.

Going further back, City also produced the likes of Kasper Schmeichel, Daniel Sturridge, Shaun Wright-Phillips and even Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs have also emerged from the blue side of Manchester.

Like many clubs, City’s youth production has taken a significant up turn in recent years. However, there is more than enough evidence to state that City’s youth conveyor belt has been working at the very highest level for decades.

Manchester United

Manchester United’s Carrington youth academy is perhaps the best known institution for young players in the country. Ever since the Premier League was conceived in the early 90’s, the Red Devils have boasted some of the best home grown talent to be found anywhere in the world.

Without doubt, the highest profile graduates were the storied “class of 92”, which saw Ryan Giggs (who swapped Man City for Carrington), David Beckham, Gary and Phil Neville, Nicky Butt, and Paul Scholes all successfully make the jump from Carrington to Old Trafford, where they would establish themselves as some of the best players in the country, and in Beckham’s case, the world.

But that was only the start of the story - the red side of Manchester still had plenty of names to give. Throughout the 2000’s, more and more high-quality talent emerged, including names such as Gerard Pique, Darren Fletcher, Wes Brown, and Danny Welbeck.

The 2010’s were equally successful, with Marcus Rashford, Scott McTominay, Mason Greenwood and Paul Pogba all spending time at Carrington, while Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho are the two best known produced in the 2020’s.

Achieving so much success throughout the 90’s and 2000’s, it is easy to see why the best youth players want to go to Carrington - it is every player’s dream to emerge from the United academy and break into the first team there, at one of the biggest clubs on the face of the earth.

Southampton

Moving away from established title winners, Southampton have quietly accumulated a selection of A-list footballers to pass through their academy.

Based on the Western shore of Southampton water, their relatively modest youth training facilities have seen some of the Premier League’s best ever talents come and go, with almost all of them representing the club that nurtured them.

The names on the list are extraordinary - Gareth Bale, formerly the most expensive player ever. Alan Shearer, the top scorer in Premier League history. Matt Le Tissier, the man with a goal catalogue to embarrass Messi and Ronaldo. The list goes on.

Even outside of these most notable of graduates, some other illustrious names have represented the Saints, including former Arsenal forward Theo Walcott, Premier League and Champions League winner Adam Lallana and former teammate Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to name just a few.

The South Coast is a football hotspot - Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Southampton all compete at a high level, and when two of them face off, things can get spicy quickly. For any kid on the South-Coast, it is the perfect place to nurture their skill, and more importantly their mindset. Being involved in such heated rivalry’s at such a young age will only stoke these youngsters into fully fledged monsters.

Benji Kosartiyer
Journalist
Harry Pascoe

Lead Writer

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