Matthew Le God

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.

hmmm...

I'd guess.. Ajax and Barcelona

For 2012/13 it is only for teams that applied for category 1. Only half of them have been audited so far, it is likely not all those that applied will get category 1 status and those that don't will be removed for 2013/14 once all the auditing has been done. In future years I believe the plan is to make a youth version of the Champions League using the top teams from these leagues.

The following should be confirmed next week for the 2012/13 season. For 2013/14 the number of teams may be reduced as only half of those clubs that applied for category 1 have had their audit so far, but whilst we wait for that all teams that applied for cat 1 will be put in the cat 1 league for 2012/13... • At both under-21 and under-18 level there will be three groups: two groups of eight teams (National Groups 1 and 2) and one group of seven teams (National Group 3). These will not be regionalised. Clubs play each other home and away. At under-21 level teams will be allowed to play up to three over-age outfield players plus an over-age goalkeeper • At the end of the first group stage, the top three teams in National Groups 1 and 2 and the top two from National Group 3 will proceed to the Elite Group stage. The remaining teams will be in Qualification Groups 1 and 2, depending on where they finished. The idea is that the best players and teams will be playing against each other in the Elite Group, competing for three of the five places in the knockout stage. The clubs in the second and third tiers will also still have the opportunity to reach the knockout stage • In the knockout stage, the teams finishing top of the two Qualification Groups will play each other to decide who makes the semi-final against the winner of the Elite Group Stage. The teams finishing second and third in the Elite Group Stage play in the other semi-final. The winners contest the final for the right to be crowned Barclays Under-21 and Under-18 Premier League champions.

It'll probably be the normal interview they do every Thursday before a Saturday game.

Exactly, Fox is slow and his positioning and marking is terrible, his main attributes are his crossing and set pieces. Its not a surprise Adkins wants another left back, we need competition for Fox as Harding isn't going to provide it.

Looks like Olsson will be slightly different, as he has now put in a transfer request and his agent says he doesn't want to play in the Championship.

It was indeed...

He has handed in a transfer request and is being linked with Saints... http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/sport/football/premiership/9835177.Olsson_ready_to_leave_Ewood/?ref=rss

Because you are making crude generalisations about the opposite gender. If you can't see why your thread is sexist there really is no helping you.

I thought it might warrant a thread of its own.