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THE ACADEMY: Tractor Boys plough productive furrow
The Championship is a notoriously difficult league to escape from, last season’s riveting race for the promotion places testament to that.
Ipswich Town were part of that fascinating dog fight, edging out Wolves and Derby County for the last playoff place and a meeting with local rivals Norwich in the semi-finals.
Sadly for the Tractor Boys, they got the raw end of a penalty decision in the first half of the return leg at Carrow Road and came unstuck in the last half hour to see their Premier League dreams dashed.
Boss Mick McCarthy is no shrinking violet in the managerial game and he appears hell bent on righting that wrong this season with a mix of savvy veterans, astute loan signings and the latest crop of players from the much vaunted academy.
Winger Ainsley Maitland-Niles, on loan from Arsenal, may be grabbing the headlines at the minute however it’s the likes of academy products Tommy Smith, Josh Emmanuel, Myles Kenlock and Teddy Bishop (pictured) that are set to form the backbone of Town teams going forward.
This is not a new phenomenon either round Suffolk way, what with well known players such as Connor Wickham, Darren Bent, Kieron Dyer, Chris Kiwomya, Jason Dozzell and Terry Butcher coming through the youth system down the years.
Whether they like it or not, any teams operating outside of the big urban hubs in Britain need a productive academy to survive thanks to the inflated domestic transfer fees these days.
The fact that new head coach Steve Cooper has picked two of the current Town crop in the England Under-17 squad for August’s St. George’s Park Tournament shows the club is still on the right track.
Young keeper Nicholas Hayes and midfielder Andre Dozzell, son of Jason, are mostly surrounded in the squad by fellow youngsters looking to make their way into Premier League teams.
Hayes and Dozzell arguably have the better chance of progressing in their careers, despite their Championship status, as first-team appearances will be easier to come by than at the likes of Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester City.
One person who has kept a close eye on the Portman Road developmental side of the club is Joe Fairs, who runs the ITFC Academy account on Twitter.
In terms of what these two players bring to the table, Joe revealed: “Andre looks to have the potential to go all the way. He has captained England at U16 level and has now seemingly graduated through the U18s and into the U21 side at Ipswich.
“He is an excellent passer of the ball, as good as I’ve seen at his age - consistently executing passes that 90% of players wouldn’t even be able to spot let alone complete.
“Nick played a number of U18 games as a schoolboy last year and has a great frame to be a keeper - he is already 6ft 5in at just 16.
“He has a great attitude and takes on board everything from his coaches incredibly quickly. It will be fun to watch him develop over the next few years.”
Thankfully for McCarthy and Town fans in general, there is also further cause for excitement outside of the players mentioned already as Joe can attest to.
He added: “This doesn’t even account for players like Kundai Benyu (17) and Adam McDonnell (18), who have been on the bench for the first team and nailed down a place in the U21 side while still eligible for the U18s. The future is very bright at Ipswich Town.”
With Bishop, Emmanuel and Kenlock featuring in McCarthy’s plans for this season, which has already started with a few wins, the future is indeed bright up the A12 in Ipswich.
It’s debatable whether they can achieve the ambitious goal of filling half the first-team squad with academy products by the 2016/17 season, but you can’t fault them for trying.
This is a weekly academy column for Yahoo Sport UK.
