There's always been two levels to the junior development that led to the Academy side. Aside of operation the scholarship teams and Academy side, those groups were fed into by, at different times, 10-15 "community coaches" that worked with schools and clubs in a fairly coordinated plan. Those positions were largely funded by Sport England programs (with some additional money raised by the clubs and their volunteers), and with the core funding removed, those positions have mostly ceased. While there are loads of terrific volunteers still at junior level, those full-time positions made all the difference the last 10 years in terms of producing volume of participants. Those programs ran for 10 years, and had really started to produce some players not just for the club, but for the semi-pro clubs too.

The Academy guys did a great job helping raw players on the road to becoming pros and making them a team, but without large numbers of kids in schools and junior clubs being fed into that program, we've got a big future problem on that front.

And the rules as they stand are still that we have to have 10 "local" players in the first team squad (or more accurately, can have 15 that aren't). We've got plenty of problems, but that's a potentially huge one that's flown under the radar due to the general mess we're in.

Hey....I said within 2 weeks

Good to know something is happening. I wonder if the club have thought of using twitter.

They're half way there.

They have thought of using a twit on a regular basis.

Great comment but so alarmingly true we have a 1st class twit already and his favourite comment is erh