Phil Hay of The Athletic has been discussing the news that Leeds United’s academy has been granted category one status by the Premier League.
The journalist recently penned an exclusive in which he revealed the news and he made reference to Marcelo Bielsa’s influence at the club and how it ‘prompted the club’ to bring forward their plans to look for category one status.
According to Hay, the Whites’ academy boasts a ‘long track record’ of producing first-team players so why did they not seek the category one status sooner?
Speaking on a recent episode of The Phil Hay Show, he said:
“They invest around £4m in the academy a year, which is comfortably more than the benchmark that is needed to be a top-tier academy.”
“But essentially over the years, they had seen very little point in going for category one, because they didn’t think the changes were hugely significant. There are benefits of it without any question, but I think they felt that by being category two, it limited the amount of expenditure that they were actually committed to.”
Does the fact the academy has been upgraded evidence the club is on the up?
Yes
No
TIF Thoughts…
Hay’s comments highlight that because Leeds United had been experiencing the benefits of having a successful academy, they didn’t previously feel there was any point in pushing forward for category one status.
Having now seen their status upgraded, Leeds will benefit in a number of ways.
They will now be able to apply to enter the Leasing.com trophy which could allow their youngsters to play in European competition. They will also receive an increase in central revenue for youth development and their Under-23s are now looking at competing in the Premier League 2 next season.