Town’s U16s and U18s sides will be taking part in tournaments at Liverpool’s academy later this month.

The U18s will be involved in a competition which also features the hosts, Tottenham, Manchester United, Swedish side AIK Stockholm, FC Tatran Presov from Slovakia and Finns TPS Turku between July 22nd and 24th.

Town’s U16s will be up against the hosts, Tottenham, Manchester United, Sheffield Wednesday, Danish side Aarhus and Norway’s Stromsgodset the following weekend, July 28th to 30th. The games at both tournaments will be played over two halves of 30 minutes.

Town’s assistant academy director, Lee O’Neill, told the club site: “Bryan [Klug, academy director] and I are delighted that our schoolboys and academy scholars are getting the opportunity to pitch themselves in tournament football against some of the best players and academies in England and Europe.

“Tournament football offers something very different to our normal day to day programme. Players get the chance to try and win a competition as a part of their development, playing a lot of games in a short period of time, as well as the coaches getting a chance to spend much more time with players in a different environment.

“This normally gives us a lot of information as to what a younger player is like socially and psychologically away from the academy. What he does around the tournament from a competitive nature, how he interacts with team-mates, how he prepares and recovers from lots of games.

“These tournaments will also provide different challenges both technically and tactically to our schoolboys and scholars and give us an idea of where they are in their development.”

Town’s U18s will also be playing in Holland in pre-season, while the U15s will once again be taking part in the Galway Cup from August 3rd to 6th.

Meanwhile, a young Blues XI will travel to take on AFC Sudbury in a pre-season friendly on Monday 1st August (KO 7.45pm). A full list of Town’s pre-season games can be found here.

Photo: Action Images

Seasider added 18:52 - Jul 5 under 18's would appear to be in torno and playing Coggeshall at the same time?
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PhilTWTD added 18:58 - Jul 5 Was told the Coggeshall game was U18s with a few older players but seems likely it'll mainly be older players if they're at Liverpool that weekend. A Town XI is probably more accurate, I reckon.
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corfu72 added 09:29 - Jul 6 I think this is a good move for the lad providing he can get match time and not just sit on the bench.!!
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