Matthew Le God

hmm... 2011/12 57 games 2010/11 44 games 2009/10 33 games 2008/09 41 games 2007/08 40 games 2006/07 32 games 2005/06 25 games That is a huge amount of first team games for someone that was 16 years old in 2005/06. Most of those games were for a top Premier League side in the league and Cups, in the Champions League and representing the senior England side.

Portsmouth manager Michael Appleton takes drastic measures to fill out his depleted first team squad...

That does not confirm category 1 status. Please show me something that confirms QPR actually have cat 1 status, not that they aim to get it one day. It took Brighton 14 years to move to a new stadium. Numerous other teams have had long delays in moving stadiums. Don't take it as a gurantee it will happen soon. It may, it may not. Not at all, Southampton have already shown in recent years they can sustain 30k+ crowds in the top flight. QPR have not. In fact you don't need to go back many years to see them average circa 10k in the 2nd tier. Has that been confirmed? You were wrong on the academy status, maybe you are here as well.

- QPR didn't apply for category 1 status, I don't know why you think they are getting cat 1 status? They aren't and won't for at least 3 years. - QPR haven't even decided on a site for a new stadium, let alone got planning permission. - A 45k for QPR will be a white elephant. - QPR's training ground is still in early stages. Fernandes has a long way to go and certainly isn't "all sorted out within one year".

http://www.thefirstrow.eu/watch/132572/1/watch-southampton-fc-vs-ajax.html

Davis is in training and we have 3 friendlies after today for him to play in. We also will have Jack Cork back from the Olympics. Team GB probably won't make the final so he could be back in time to be ready for Man City.

He is filling the place of Steven Davis and Jack Cork at the moment in their absense. I think Davis will start the Man City game. Ward-Prowse does appear to be above Hammond and Chaplow in the pecking order though.

Joe Hart, Shrewsbury Town

Saints don't have a membership scheme. Do you mean you are on the ticket database? Your best chance of getting a Man Utd ticket would be to buy tickets for the Wigan game as they are linked and you get priority. There is a good chance the Man Utd game won't reach general sale.

QPR, Swansea and Wigan didn't apply for category one. Newcastle may have failed to get category one.

Already happened, Wycombe and Yeovil (and some others) have given up in the younger age groups because of all of this. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18278621 http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/Yeovil-Town-set-scrap-youth-teams/story-15989966-detail/story.html Category 4 teams aren't allowed age groups below under 18's.

Very true.

I'd guess they'd have to wait until the end to join the games program as it runs from under 8's to under 21's and is based on your category for those 3 years. If during those 3 years you waned to make the step up to cat 1 from cat 2 you could apply to have an audit.

Plans are all they are for QPR at the moment. Saints are further down the line and actually building it.

I don't know. It may be in the document I have but not sure. Will have a quick look through it later but it has a lot of pages of waffle to sift through.

Yep, Brighton went for cat 2. But they are planning a major investment in training ground and facilities of their own and want cat 1 relatively soon. Reading went for cat 1. Pompey are going to be squeezed for youth player recruitment from the West, North and East by Saints, Reading and Brighton. They will have to recruit players from the sea in the South...!

True, but they aren't all given equal weighting.

Portsmouth applied for category 3. They haven't been audited yet, but I'm surprised they can justify the expense of running a category 3 academy when clubs like Wycombe and Hereford have packed in youth systems as they can't afford it. Saints are going to now find it even easier than they did before to "steal" the best youngsters from traditional Pompey areas. Not that they found it hard before!

I think that is fair to say. Rupert Lowe played significant role in setting us up on this path, Cortese/Liebherr have taken it to anther level though, right at the top of youth systems in this country.

True, but still good and impressive to be rated the best among the cat 1's and used as an example at St George's Park.

I believe they are re-audited every 2 to 3 years. I doubt Saints would have come out as 1st in England unless they were taking into account the facilities currently being built. In any case, in an interview a few months ago with Cortese he said that when they did a preliminary audit they were even impressed with the temporary buildings they had on site.

Stoke and Sunderland have both announced they have got it.

I don't know, I'll try and find out, but Les Reed seems to think we were top. People shouldn't look at all category one academies being equal in the same way that even though Ofsted might give two schools "outstanding", one of them achieved a higher mark. This will all aid Saints in recruitment of youngsters in the future, when they are competing to impress parents/kids.

You needed to get 75% or more of the specification to get category 1.

There won't be many non season ticket seats in the Itchen premium areas for them to sell.