User:Djcorney25/Sandbox

top Ten: Club Youth Academies upto 2006

10. Crewe Alexandra

When you think of clubs with great youth academies, you probably don’t immediately think of Crewe Alexandra. However, during the near thirty years that Dario Gradi was in charge of the club, Crewe kept themselves afloat by developing their own players and selling them on.

Crewe’s academy churned out Danny Murphy, Seth Johnson, Dean Ashton (who Crewe sold to Norwich for a record fee of £3 million), Nicky Maynard and Wales international David Vaughan.

Crewe also have an impressive history of bringing in young players from other places and developing them, most notably Rob Jones, Neil Lennon and David Platt and Robbie Savage, both signed from Man United.

9. Boca Juniors and River Plate

No top ten list of youth academies would be complete without mentioning South America. Boca Juniors have produced a host of Argentina internationals who have gone on to play for top European clubs, such as Juan Roman Riquelme, Nicolas Burdisso, Fernando Gago and the controversial Carlos Tevez.

Fellow Argentine club River Plate have also produced top players who went on to find success internationally, like Hernan Crespo, Marcelo Gallardo, Abel Balbo, Marcelo Salas and Esteban Cambiasso.

8. Manchester City

It would be easy to look at Man City’s transfer policy over the last couple of years and label them as a team with the ability to sign anyone due to their deep financial pockets, but that would be doing a disservice to their youth setup.

Man City’s academy has produced international players like Shaun Wright-Phillips, Dickson Etuhu and Stephen Ireland, as well as the likes of Vladimir Weiss, Kasper Schmeichel, Daniel Sturridge and Nedum Onouha.

It is essential for City to continue developing young players as their limitless spending cannot and should not go on forever and it will be interesting to see which academy players stay at Eastlands and which move on during the Summer.

7. Arsenal

The Gunners are synonymous with bringing through top young players and whether you agree that signing a kid from abroad really counts as “home-grown” or not, Arsene Wenger has developed a talented squad that is only going to get better with age and experience. The most notable players include Ashley Cole, Cesc Fabregas, Gael Clichy and Nicklas Bendtner. Before the Wenger era, Arsenal produced international players such as Niall Quinn, David O’Leary, Paul Merson, Ray Parlour and Tony Adams.

6. Everton

Everton have a very successful and some might say underrated youth academy set up, which is confirmed when you take a look at some of the players that they have developed. Michael Ball, Richard Dunne, Phil Jagielka, Tony Hibbert, Gavin McCann, Leon Osman, Victor Anichebe and Michael Johnson and Joey Barton (as schoolboys), all established Premier League players, came through Everton’s youth setup.

They also, most famously, produced Man United and England striker Wayne Rooney. Though his name has since become a dirty word at Goodison Park, Everton received over £25 million for a home-grown talent.

5. AFC Ajax

While Ajax are undoubtedly one of the biggest clubs in Europe, they have suffered from the same plight as West Ham when it comes to keeping hold of the young Dutch players that they develop. Big names like Johan Cruyff, Edwin Van Der Sar, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Kluivert, Marco Van Basten, Ryan Babel, Wesley Sneijder and Nigel De Jong all cut their teeth in Amsterdam before moving on to bigger clubs.

4. West Ham United

West Ham are an unsung hero when it comes to talking about player development. This is probably because bigger clubs tend to swoop in and take away the players that The Hammers bring through their ranks. West Ham’s academy has produced top quality young English players for years, dating back to when manager Ted Fenton established the academy in the fifties. Fenton’s youth policy brought through players like Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst. More recently, West Ham have produced a multitude of multi-million pound players, such as Paul Ince, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Glen Johnson, Jermain Defoe and Anton Ferdinand.

3. Sporting Clube de Portugal

Sporting Clube de Portugal is actually a sports club based in Lisbon, which has a football “wing,” but this facet of the club has produced some legendary players over the course of its existence. A quick look at Portugal’s best players, past and present, reveals that a majority of them were products of Sporting.

Paulo Futre, Simao, Ricardo Quaresma, Nani, Joao Moutinho, and Hugo Viana all came through the ranks at Sporting. However, the most famous (and valuable) players credited to Sporting are Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo. Figo left Sporting to go to Barcelona for £2.2 million, where he was sold to Real Madrid for £37 million. Ronaldo was sold to Man United for £12.24 million, who sold him to Real Madrid for £80 million.

2. Manchester United

Man United’s academy has consistently produced great players for years, as much to the benefit of the teams who sign these players when they are surplus to requirements at Old Trafford than to The Red Devils themselves. United’s academy produced world class players like Bobby Charlton, Mark Hughes, David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Wes Brown, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville, all of whom have been instrumental in making United the most successful English club ever. It also nurtured players who then moved on to find success, such as Fraizer Campbell, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, Kieran Richardson, Ryan Shawcross and Robbie Savage. Not to mention the current crop of promising young players like Jonny Evans and Darron Gibson.

1. FC Barcelona

Barcelona’s academy, or La Masia was established in 1979, and since that time world class international after world class international has been developed to help cement Barcelona as one of the top team’s in world football. La Masia can also be looked at in the same vein as Manchester United’s, in that they have produced as many great players who went on to find success elsewhere than at the Camp Nou. Barca’s academy alumni boasts names such as Ramon Caldere, Albert Ferrer, Josep Guardiola, Victor Valdes, Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique, not to mention superstars and perennial Andy Gray-favourites, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi.

Players developed by Barca who moved on include Ivan De La Pena, Luis Garcia, Mikel Arteta and Cesc Fabregas.