Interesting thread on twtd perhaps relevant to our new business model

It seems the sc*m have lost a kid from their academy, described by Klug as the best kid he's ever worked with, to Man City and are getting circa £1m in return.

They are obviously gutted as he's never even played for them and now never will do so.

Reading this made me think about our new "model" which is obviously geared towards bringing players through from the academy, creating a pathway for them and then selling for decent fees. It occurred to me that this new trend for big clubs to make "academy signings" is a potential threat/risk to that model as it appears the bigger clubs are increasingly trying to snap up promising kids at a younger age (often by bribing their parents) and thereby presumably avoiding having to pay multi millions for them when they are under contract at 17+.

I know bigger teams poaching youngsters has always happened before to a degree (like that kid we lost to Man U (or was it City) a couple of years ago) but with the likes of Madders, the Murphys, Sessesgnon etc now all attracting 8 figure fees I can see this sort of thing happening more and more and wonder if the FA will need to step in and try and do something to stop/discourage it?

Posted By: Jim, Jun 29, 12:08:55