Manchester City F.C. Reserves and Academy
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[edit] Reserves
Manchester City Reserves are the reserve team of Manchester City F.C. They play in the Barclays Premiership Reserve League North and also compete in the Manchester Senior Cup. The club have fielded a reserve team since 1892, when the reserves played in the Lancashire Combination. The reserves were champions of the Lancashire Combination in 1901–02.[1] They left the Lancashire Combination in 1911 to join the Central League upon its formation. The reserves played in the Central League until 2000, winning it on three occasions; the 1977–78, 1986–87 and 1999–2000 seasons.[2]
[edit] Academy
Manchester City's Academy is responsible for youth development at the club, with the goal of developing young players for the future. The club's first youth team was set up by Albert Alexander in the 1920s,[3] known as the 'A' Team. From 1951 the 'A' team competed in the Lancashire League against reserve and youth teams of other clubs from North West England. From 1955 a second youth team, the 'B' team, typically comprising younger players than the 'A' team, competed in Division Two of the Lancashire League.
Youth football in England was restructured by the Football Association in 1997, with the introduction of the Academy system. Current Youth Academy Director Jim Cassell joined from Oldham Athletic in July 1997 and is responsible for building Manchester City's youth structure, which gained Academy accreditation in 1998. The 'A' and 'B' teams were replaced with Under-19 and Under-17 teams, which competed in the FA Premier Youth League. Since gaining FA approval the Academy has produced 26 first team players, seven of whom have gained full international honours, including England internationals Shaun Wright-Phillips, Micah Richards and Joey Barton. The academy not only produces players for Manchester City but those who are unfortunate to not make a career at City have the talent to make the grade somewhere else with players such as Tyrone Mears and Chris Killen both making careers at Derby County and Celtic. The Academy is based at Platt Lane in Moss Side, which is the former first team training base before they moved to Carrington in 2002. Platt Lane has two full 11 a-side grass pitches where the U18's play their Academy league games, one 11 a-side synthetic astroturf grass pitch, two covered synthetic astroturf grass domes and one uncovered synthetic astroturf grass. The clubs academy teams from U8 to U18 train at Platt Lane on weekdays after school. The U8's to the U15's play their academy games at the first teams training base at Carrington on Sunday mornings. Manchester City won the FA Youth Cup on 16th April 2008, after beating Chelsea 3-1 in the second leg of the final at the City of Manchester Stadium, in front of 19,780 fans. The first leg was drawn 1-1 at Stamford Bridge.
[edit] Academy Graduates (since 1998)
[edit] References
- ^ Baskcomb, Julian (ed.) (1997). Manchester City F.C. Official Handbook 1997-98. Leicester: Polar.
- ^ Roll of Honour. Manchester City FC. Retrieved on 20 November 2007.
- ^ James, Gary (2006). Manchester City - The Complete Record. Derby: Breedon. ISBN 1-85983-512-0. p241
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