Rioch: Cat 2 status confirmed (1 Viewer)

I take this as the club will be kept competitive by signing free transfer/nominal fees and then we will produce our own players to compliment these and sell them if we need to cover losses.

skyblueman said:

guess it also adds weight to the argument for supporting the club properly so SISU can press for ownership of the stadium - ...

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God forbid that they ever get their hands on the Ricoh.

Sky Blues said:

I'm not knocking the Academy, because the staff are doing a great job, but I can't help notice some great spinning by Rioch: "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."

It had nothing to do with us being broke and unable to afford senior professionals then?...

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absolute spot on, the fact we have no money is the reason these youngsters are in and around the first team, if we had money then im sure many would have now been released by now. im fed up of hearing about the academy, in an ideal world it would be nice to have a good one but at the moment i think all money should be going towards the first team, and by that i mean senior profesionals

I noted this investment in category 2 displayed a sign of ambition by SISU when Fisher mentioned it two days ago. I think it is great we are bringing youngsters on, but I doubt they would have got so many appearances if it wasn't for the fact that we were down to the bare bones in the senior squad. They needed more experienced players alongside them last year.

Whilst I applaud SISU’s action with regards this investment; it’s also a no-brainer and actually shows huge financial prudence, and goes straight to their DNA.

They pitch in with £480K and then get this matched, so in effect they only have to fund half of the operation.

Then look at our first team squad. I think something like 12 players last season had worked their way through from the academy. That’s players they haven’t got to scout, pay signing-on or agents fees for, and who will – by virtue of their age and inexperience – settle for much, much lower wages than more seasoned pros from elsewhere. It’s a really cost effective way to build a squad.

Finally, sell a player every season, and the cost of running the entire operation for a number of seasons is covered in one deal. Look at Connor Thomas, Jordan Willis, Cyrus Christie et al. If they can keep that conveyor belt running, then the return against investment stacks up every time. And ROI is one thing an investment business such as SISU should certainly have a handle on