Town are set to outline their funding plans for the academy when it steps up to Category One status at a press briefing this lunchtime. The club made an application to move to Category One from Category Two back in April.

Category One clubs must spend at least £1.5 million on their academies to gain a Premier League grant of £775,000, while the Blues will also require additional full-time staff. Category Two clubs are required to invest £480,000 to get a Premier League grant of the same figure.

An audit process is expected to be carried out during the season ahead with the Blues taking on their new status in 2014/15.

Speaking April, academy director Bryan Klug announced that the Blues will be aiming to have up to 50 per cent of the first team made up of homegrown players by 2017/18.

Photo: Action Images

itsonlyme added 09:37 - Jul 30 Wonderful News! Possibly the best news to come out of PR for some time!
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Michael11 added 09:47 - Jul 30 'Speaking April, academy director Bryan Klug announced that the Blues will be aiming to have up to 50 per cent of the first team made up of homegrown players by 2017/18.' Wow, how good would that be. Our academy has never failed us so i'm excited to see what home grown players we can produce over the next 5 years.
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alfromcol added 10:26 - Jul 30 Has any team ever had 50% of its first team from the academy???? Seems like a tall order.
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NorthstaNder added 10:30 - Jul 30 @ alfromcol I think the 80/81 team had a fair proportion of players from the youth team! Maybe not 50% but I don't think it was far off... Cooper Burley (from youth team) Butcher (from youth team) Osman (from youth team) Mills Muhren Thijssen (spelling?) Wark (from youth team) Gates (from youth team) Brazil (from youth team) Mariner Hmm...over 50% unless I'm wrong on some of them?

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Newingtonblue added 10:34 - Jul 30 Crewe last season played a whole team from their academy.
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Paddy39 added 10:37 - Jul 30 And as we get ready to place them into our 1st team they will be sold off. Whats the point?
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itfcserbia added 10:37 - Jul 30 @ alfromcol - even Barcelona has more than 50% of their first team from their academy
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NorthstaNder added 10:43 - Jul 30 @Paddy39 "What's the point?" Where have you been the last year or so? FFP will mean that producing their own first team players (and picking up frees) will be the way forward for clubs like ITFC and if it means selling them on for the greater good then so be it. The sooner some of our more deluded supporters, who still seem to think we should be spending millions, get the hang of this the better.

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Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 10:45 - Jul 30 This is obviously the new strategy to combat the money-draining carousel otherwise known as the modern transfer market. It makes sound business sense, and for once I find myself on the same side as "corporate" ITFC. Apart from the financial aspect, fans have a much closer bond to their "own" players, so this should add to the sense of togetherness at the club. As itsonlyme says, "Wonderful News! Possibly the best news to come out of PR for some time!"

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algarvefan added 10:45 - Jul 30 This is the best news to come out of PR for a long time and it's very much what the future is going to be about. We have had a team of journeymen for too long without commitment, the academy will change that attitude if we can produce the players and I'm sure we can. Football cannot continue financially as it has, good stuff Ipswich !!
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BillBlue added 10:55 - Jul 30 All of this is wonderful news and what it means is somebody has been listening to what we have been saying over the years. Well done Town so let us all start a new era of support.
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NorthstaNder added 11:19 - Jul 30 This could help improve the atmosphere at PR too. One of the reasons it's been so, er...lacking recently is due to all the highly paid mercenaries who have played for us. They didn't give a rats backside and it rubbed off on the fans to a point. Get a team out there with plenty of players from the academy with a sprinkling of players like Tabb, McGoldrick, Berra etc who WANT to play for ITFC and the atmosphere will pick up too.

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linhdi added 12:36 - Jul 30 And for those who think that running a first team based on former academy players really only works in the lower leagues, "Barcelona" is not a bad riposte...
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isitinthemiddle added 13:28 - Jul 30 Very very pleased to read this..... I'm not going to blame Predecessors, however, everything about the structure of this club should be pushed to the very highest quality. The stadium, fan base, youth academy and scouting system is all in place. This club should aim high, not settle for second best. As I said not blaming the predecessors. Paddy 39 — If that's the case, is that a bad thing? We will get money to strengthen the squad? The academy will feed us in more ways than one. Wickham for example, imagine if we produced 5 players of his quality and we sold them all, think what sort of finance that would give the current manager to spend.

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ORomeoZondervan added 13:41 - Jul 30 This can't be anything but good news. Back to the good days of Dyer, Bramble, Scowcroft, Wright, Richards, Westlake etc.
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BillBlue added 17:25 - Jul 30 Romeo - or even better Brazil, Burley, Butcher, Gates, Osman and Johnny Wark!
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ManningtreeBlue99 added 19:42 - Jul 30 We should take a leaf out of Borrusia Dortmund's book. Every player apart from 2 in their 25 man squad is through the Dortmund academy.
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9jaman4life added 19:58 - Jul 30 Great news I think. IMO, in order to get the youth team to progress to the first team, the club has to offer them a tad more than the National Minimum Wage. ie their first pro contract.
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