Nick Hegarty

Quoted from pizzzza

It's none.

Indeed

Crewe are exceptional at developing youth talent over the longterm.  An unfair comparison.  

Ryan Bennett was also a success (I know that he did not develop through the youth team).

The current youth team has some very promising prospects.  They had a very good cup run, beating previous finalists Notts Forest.

Losing to Millwall in the FA Youth was no disgrace.  There were a quality team.  They reached the semi-finals.  Very unlucky to lose 4-3 to Leeds at Elland Road.  After giving away 2 own goals.

Crewe have an u21 squad so not sure its a fair comparison with us our youth players who haven't got that stepping stone to the first team so at 18 it's a case of first team football or trying to get a loan.. real shame there's no proper reseve team football anymore the academy structures did away with that..

Very difficult to bring players through for a number of reasons with the primary one being that any youngsters with quality are very quickly gobbled up by the Academy system operated by Premiership and Championship clubs. Also Managers are under tremendous pressure to get results and thus don’t “risk” putting youngsters in the side in the same way it was done 20 to 30 years ago.

That said I’m a little disappointed that some of our youngsters in the last couple of years were not given more opportunities, especially Bramwell and Braithwaite, rather than untried youngsters from other clubs & I do believe they need increased chances to try and make the breakthrough.

Quoted from Meza

Only just seen this, nice the club expanding on coaching staff.

https://x.com/nick_heg/status/1802027788494328073/photo/1

They are not expanding.

Could someone explain to me what this means please?   'YDP Phase Lead'.

Youth Development phase lead which is 12-16 years old

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

Crewe are exceptional at developing youth talent over the longterm.  An unfair comparison.  

Ryan Bennett was also a success (I know that he did not develop through the youth team).

The current youth team has some very promising prospects.  They had a very good cup run, beating previous finalists Notts Forest.

Losing to Millwall in the FA Youth was no disgrace.  There were a quality team.  They reached the semi-finals.  Very unlucky to lose 4-3 to Leeds at Elland Road.  After giving away 2 own goals.

How many of last season's squad have been retained?

There’s also a few within that 20 years who went elsewhere before many even knew they existed, Lewis Collins to Reading and Reece York to Fulham. Matty Bird trialled with Man Utd.

There’s a number of reasons why youngsters can have their pathway blocked to first team, ability being one. Sometimes a player may have ability but find themselves in an unfortunate position they play may be well stocked with quality players and the budget may not stretch to carry a young pro who will never play.

I think especially in modern times the pressure to achieve is huge. All you have to do is read a thread on here when a players signs/leaves to see the high level critiques and concerns we apply. It’s a tough industry where the pressure to succeed is high and patience is not always afforded youngsters from either fans or staff.

I think in time, once the club gets into a mode of operation where we have a more healthy status on the pitch there will be more youngsters starting to come through. Crewe have a long history in producing young players going back to the 90s or even further back and that won’t happen to us overnight. With a turnover of managers who all have their ideas and need to prove themselves that culture of bringing young players simply because it’s what we do hasn’t been allowed to grow.

Don't Crewe have a category b academy? Completely unfair comparison as that would surely be unique at league 2 level.