Matthew Le God

I've already answered that, they aren't "making a manager pick youth players". It is entirely his choice (although club policy may now influence him), should the club not give games to youth products the category one status will be downgraded. Have they? How, when and is it comparable to EPPP?

I think that still counts as a compliment.

Schniederlin is our much younger, less good version of Pirlo...

I know this has been mentioned before, but not sure if it came with a link last time... Jay Rodriguez and Jack Butland have the same agent - Gary Mellor, which might play a part in all of this. http://www.beswickssports.com/sport-news/view/article361.htm

Schneiderlin is our defensive midfielder, his role is often to sit just in front of Fonte and Hooiveld, break up opposition attacks and start us going with his range of passing.

Well those clubs are clearly happy with it, hence why they played a large part in the creation of EPPP. The whole thing is mainly so that Premier League clubs can save money by getting the best youth players early and cheap in light of financial fair play regulations coming in. It was originally the FA's idea to improve the England side but the Premier League are using it for their own benefit. These teams aren't spending money on the academies and facilities for nothing, they intend to use their own youth players. Man Utd already have a very good record for this so it is odd you picked them.

No he wasn't. Butland is rated by many in the game to be a competitor for Joe Hart in future years for the England keeper jersey. Forecast has never had such a billing.

They aren't dictated to, clubs can pick who they want. However if they refuse to use any youth players in the first team they lose cat 1 status. Sounds entirely reasonable to base an academy rating partly on the production line rather than solely the bricks/mortar and staffing. Ofsted don't award schools "outstanding" overall, if their students don't get good grades despite having superb teachers and facilities.

The audits are carried out by an independent company, the rules were written and largely influenced by the heads of the top academies. Even still, Newcastle look to be missing out on cat 1 status after the first audit. That decision will stand if that is what the audit company tell the FA to do.

See post #345

I actually said this... "I don't see that number rising hugely over the coming years as it is hard for a Championship club to afford to maintain the running costs and build up in the first place and when some smaller Premier League teams drop out of the top flight they may downgrade to tier 2 so it could end up evening itself out." You decided to cherry pick and take the opening words of my statement out of context.

The top clubs are the ones that forced through EPPP in the first place. They have pretty much written it as it stands. Does that not suggest to you they are happy with it?

Because it will be accessed over a period of seasons, if they don't meet the requirements and make excuses they will simply lose their cat 1 status. As I've already asked... I've read a draft of the EPPP document, have you?

If the manager doesn't play any youth products, the club run the risk of losing category 1 status. They aren't forcing clubs to use youth products, but they will lose category one privileges if they don't.

It will be enforced because every 2 to 3 years an independent organisation will perform another audit on each club. I've read a draft of the EPPP document, have you?

That isn't what I said at all. Read it again.

Well Cortese revealed plans for Staplewood whilst we were in League One, started building it whilst in the Championship. It doesn't appear that Saints having category one status is reliant on Premier League status. As for "if we keep signing teenagers, we will". Can you name some we have signed to go straight into the first team? Also in order to maintain category one status it is a requirement that youth products play for the first team or you can lose cat 1 status in the future.

I don't have a "new position", my view is the same as my old position. i.e. as things stood on the day I posted in summer 2011, only Chelsea, Man City and Saints would get cat one if the official audits took place the next day. I said at the time a number of other clubs would also get cat 1 status by the time the official audits took place this year. My "position" hasn't changed.

As I said a few posts back... Currently the number of youth systems in the same tier as Saints is 40, under EPPP this will be under 20. It is quite a significant cut in numbers. I don't see that number rising hugely over the coming years as it is hard for a Championship club to afford to maintain the running costs and build up in the first place and when some smaller Premier League teams drop out of the top flight they may downgrade to tier 2 so it could end up evening itself out.

Again, you haven't read my post. Of course the number was never going to stay at 3 clubs, I said that at the time! The intention was always for the tier 1 clubs to play in a league against each other, it wasn't going to be a league of 3 teams. EPPP has however significantly reduced the number of top tier academies from 40 to under 20. Saints have gone over and above the requirement for tier 1.

As I have already said on numerous occasions now... in the summer of 2011 I said on this forum that I had been told as things stood only Saints, Chelsea and Man City would get cat 1 status as things stood at that time (i.e. if the audit was done the next day). I did not say that would always remain the case by the time the official audits were done this year, in fact I listed the teams I thought would also get cat 1 status. I made that quite clear at the time. Currently the number of youth systems in the same tier as Saints is 40, under EPPP this will be under 20. It is quite a significant cut. I don't see that number rising hugely over the coming years as it is hard for a Championship club to afford to maintain the running costs and build up in the first place. Southampton on the other hand have gone above and beyond what the criteria asks for and Staplewood is better than a category one training ground needs to be. This is becoming a circular argument because the like of Turkish and Thedelldays appear want to read that I said something completely different to suit their battle against me.

Can you list them please. Remember, we are talking about youngsters from the South West where we have a satellite academy in Bath. So journeys to Manchester, Liverpool etc aren't that easily workable.

You only commented on the first part, not the second. You should be looking at them combined together.

Read it in combination with the second sentence rather than cherry picking.

They do, but given Saints will be by far the closest team to the South West with category 1 status, I think that gives us the advantage. Along with having a better setup, facilities and record bringing through youngsters than a number of other category one clubs.