GREGOR Rioch has welcomed Coventry City’s on-going commitment to youth development by investing half a million pounds in the club’s Academy.
The Sky Blues have achieved Category Two status to ensure that they continue to compete with the top two tiers of English football in terms of recruitment and development, as well as guaranteeing set levels of compensation should any young talent be poached by bigger clubs.
City’s owners Sisu have stumped up £480,000 – a figure that will be matched by a Premier League grant – to provide just short of £1million in annual investment in all age groups from seven to 21-year-olds.
The club could have opted for the lesser Category Three which would have seen a fraction of the investment with a total figure, including a grant, of just £315,000 a year.
But the commitment to Cat Two status ends months of uncertainty surrounding the future of the Academy and secures several full and part-time coaching jobs.
“This is a huge signal of intent from owners, without a doubt,” said delighted Academy manager Rioch.
“It enables us to provide a better game programme, have more contact with our players and protect what we have got. And that attracts players locally, rather than them going to a rival club.
“If we were chasing a kid and were Category Three we’d be playing Walsall, Northampton and Cheltenham throughout the age groups rather than established Championship clubs, so from a recruitment point of view it was crucial.
“We’re still competing with Championship and Premiership clubs for bringing players in because of the players we have progressed through the club. Last season we had 141 appearances in the first team from Academy graduates that were under 21.
“There’s only one other club in the country that can better that and that’s Crewe Alexandra who were doing it in League Two, and we were doing it in the Championship.
“On top of that we’ve had youth internationals in Jordan Willis and other lads in other age groups, as well as Apprentice of the Year in Gael Bigirimana, and hopefully that success