Town owner Marcus Evans has hit out at the system of compensation for academy players who move on to bigger clubs, the Blues having recently lost highly-rated England U16 international Ben Knight to Manchester City for around an initial £1 million.

Knight, from Reach in Cambridgeshire who had been with the Blues since he was eight, agreed a scholarship with Town several years ago which was due to start in July and also a subsequent professional deal, but the Blues were ultimately powerless to hold on to the highly-rated number 10 when he and his family decided he should join City.

The 16-year-old, the nephew of former England and Essex cricketer Nick, is the third Town academy player to have been poached by a top Premier League side in that manner in recent years with Harry Clarke having departed for Arsenal in 2015 aged 14 and Charlie Brown, then 16, for Chelsea for an initial £600,000 a year later.

In addition, Kundai Benyu, then aged 19, moved on to Celtic having spent a year as a pro with the Blues at the end of his time in the academy in the summer of 2017, Town receiving a nominal fee via FIFA’s training compensation rules.

The Blues also face losing schoolboy Marcelo Flores to Arsenal with talks between the clubs regarding compensation having been ongoing for some months but with the Canadian youngster, whose father Ruben has been coaching at the academy, ultimately appearing certain to move to the Gunners.

Academy right-back Dylan Crowe, 17, who won his first England U18s cap yesterday, is also reported to be a target of Manchester United and other clubs.

“My problem is with the rules, not the clubs. I want to make that clear,” Evans told the club site.

"“Ipswich Town and others, including some Premier League clubs, are losing their best young talent before they even join the full-time academy ranks on leaving school and with it, in our case, one of the channels to assist us to progress to the Premier League.

"“I continue to remain fully committed to our academy and producing homegrown players. It’s a major part of the club’s strategy, however if in the long term the situation worsens and we lose all of our best talent before they even start in the academy, the strategy is thrown into doubt for us and other clubs.

“We have already seen some clubs [such as Brentford] close their academies and the FA as well as the EFL must do everything they can to protect the current number of academies.

“I’m told we had more players aged under 23 on the pitch last season than any other team in the Championship and we achieved an EPPP [Elite Player Performance Plan] score which was in line with some of the Category One level clubs.

"“We also have a number of academy players who are regulars in their respective age groups at international level, proving our ability to develop a quantity of talented players.

"“It is frustrating though to be put in a position where we invest in a young player from the age of nine for several years and then are forced to lose him for a fee well below what I would consider to be a true valuation of that potential.

"“We fully respect that at the age of 15 a person can’t be bound to a club based solely on their location and if the player wants to move on for valid personal reasons, so be it.

“However, more often than not, these decisions are influenced by money and if it’s about money then the club that has developed the player should be fairly rewarded, as the club taking the player is doing so for their own financial advantage.

“This is where the current rules break down and we have accepted figures that were, in effect, forced upon us based on the most likely outcome of a compensation fee tribunal.

"“That’s where - in my opinion — the problem and the potential solution to the problem lies. As long as the compensation figures are high enough then the ‘losing’ club is rewarded.

"“At the moment the tribunal valuations for the loss of a talented player to the top Premier League clubs bears no relation to the potential of the player.

"“I’ll give you an example. We had no choice but to agree a fee of £600,000 with a Premier League club for one of our young players [Brown] with a possible additional £900,000 but only if he played 100 games for that club in the Premier League.

“If he played 100 games in the Premier League, at current values he’d probably be worth £30 million plus.

"“The figures just don’t add up and this is against a background of the league stipulating we must have an academy budget of £2.5 million per annum and we are seeing on average only one in 20 scholars making it to even Championship level and an even smaller percentage to the Premier League. This will drop substantially if we lose the best talent before they become scholars.

"“While the initial fee can be kept reasonable, the contingent add-on payments are where the problem lies. If tribunals reflected the true future value, then in my opinion that would go a long way to solving the problem.

"“If clubs had confidence in the tribunal system this would ease some of the concerns and I will be encouraging further discussions as to how the compensation levels should be assessed.

"“I know from talking to other owners, particularly those in the larger cities, that they are questioning the value of paying for an academy.

“A few have already closed and I would suggest that a dangerous tipping point maybe reached when several clubs follow each other if they keep losing their best players for next to nothing.”

Evans believes an agreement which covers Europe is required as Knight was interesting clubs on the continent, believed to be Borussia Dortmund and Monaco, and had the youngster moved to one of those sides Town would merely have received around £100,000 in compensation.

"“It is all worthless if the foreign clubs don’t have to abide by the same rules as us,” he added.

"“Otherwise, even with the fairer compensation levels I have suggested between English clubs, this would only provide more opportunities for foreign clubs to 'steal' talent for next to nothing.

"“Medium size and smaller football clubs are the lifeblood of football, if everything moves towards those clubs never progressing; it would be short-sighted to think that football will not be affected in the long term.”

Photo: ITFC

LegendofthePhoenix added 17:42 - Sep 6 well said ME
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Orraman added 17:54 - Sep 6 Meant a down arrow on @bluearmy 81
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Dissboyitfc added 18:27 - Sep 6 I didn't hear it all, but I listened to Simon Jordan on talk sport this morning, saying Marcus Evans shouldn't moan as he was one of those who voted to change the compensation system. As I say didn't hear it all! We should be playing more of our home grown talent, its a shame so many are out on loan. At the moment some of the players I see starting for us are no better than those who have gone out on loan, disappointing to say the least!

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Orraman added 18:31 - Sep 6 Jason Dozzel knows what's best for Andre by keeping him at ITFC for further development. Unfortunately for these other kids, their parents heads are turned by agents of elite clubs bogging up their prospects and untold wealth. The big 5 hardly ever produce regular stars from their academies - apart from Rashford, Foden, Arnold-Armstrong and Kane - how many other home grown players trip off the tongue. These kids would be much better off staying local with clubs like Southampton, Bournemouth, Leeds, West Ham etc where they will get game time and experience rather than being shunted off to some backwater along with several other star struck youngsters. Regarding the three ITFC kids named in this article, does anyone really believe that anyone will hear about them in 5 - 6 years time?.

2

Terry_Nutkins added 19:08 - Sep 6 Bluearmy honestly you can keep posting but you are making a fool out of yourself. Your are talking absolute nonsense and its worse because you actually seem to believe what you are saying. Please stop. It is literally moronic. No offence but please stop (i know you won't but it was worth a try).
3

BlueandTruesince82 added 19:32 - Sep 6 Simon Jordan. W*****.
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cat added 19:40 - Sep 6 Love or hate our Marcus, it's difficult to disagree with what he's saying here. Its tragic to lower level teams when they nurture the kids from a young age and along comes the big boys who turn their heads and snatch them away for peanuts. I've been okay with ME cause I tend focus on the stability of the club and the fact there's nothing worse than a fame hungry meddler, but looking at the facts of what he's achieved over them years, coupled with the lack of investment of late, I get where (dare I say) the ‘majority' of posters on here are coming from.

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BlueandTruesince82 added 19:51 - Sep 6 For clarity Simon Jordan is wrong we voted against against it.
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TimmyH added 20:16 - Sep 6 No point marking me down on my 2nd post - that is more or less fact rabbit/injuredanimal, our Marcus has been money grabbing to rub out some of the annual operating losses since McCarthy came here.
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Gilesy added 22:05 - Sep 6 Indulge me Timmy...what would be wrong with that?
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stiffy501 added 22:35 - Sep 6 Cat 1 and Cat 2 is just another way for premier league clubs to asset strip smaller clubs of their best talent on the cheap. the players just go into the pool of players in their squads sent out on loan for fees and never likely to make it to the first team. Perhaps if part of the compensation was a cut of future loan/sell on fees it might help. Clubs such as Crewe used to survive on developing talent and selling them for reasonable fees but now lose them for minimal compensation and are suffering for it. Greedy rich clubs again changing the rules for their own benefit. If the loan system was scrapped it would stop the big clubs doing this and benefit football for the good over overall. rant over lol

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blueboy1981 added 00:07 - Sep 7 Evans is of course correct, however the system is what it is - the answer has to be ‘if you can't beat them, let's invest enough to have a serious chance of joining them' - instead of being content to sit in the Championship for another fifteen or so years. Problem then would be having to attract and maintain a minmum of 35k gates to be able to consistantly compete on equal terms on all fronts with the rest. We all know that would be an impossibility unfortunately.

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DoseOfReality added 07:19 - Sep 7 Well said ME, glad we now know who you are and what makes you tick !! Excessive money is the ruin of football. The top Premier teams are playing on a different field to everyone else and the system is geared solely to them to enhance the Premier league status. Football is about clubs producing and improving their own local talent, without that ultimately peoples will lose interest over time. But so far as Premier league concerned they won't care because Man U &. the others will have the biggest fan base in Asia.

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Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 08:09 - Sep 7 Money rules, and the big clubs rule the money. I can hardly be bothered with the antics of the PL any more, and even the Championship has begun to be an "us and them" league. Marcus is right in that this imbalance is not in the long-term interest of grass roots football development in this England. Thankfully, money does not dominate in the same way in Sweden, and the clubs at the top have really got there through their own efforts, not because they are owned by some rich playboy. So you support your local team, not some bunch of over-paid drama queens out of touch with everyday reality.

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rabbit added 08:26 - Sep 7 Hilarious Timmy H this is what I used to tell my accountant "its more or less fact" well to be fair I tried it but HMRC just asked .... is more of a fact or less of a fact!!! I concluded from that that in fact I actually had no idea.
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TimmyH added 10:11 - Sep 7 your hilarious rabbit - so your querying facts that Evans hasn't sold £28M and bought in £10M worth of players and hasn't tightened the purse strings over the last 5 seasons?...and no doubt to cover somewhat of his operating losses...it really is that simple. Hop along now fella....anyway it's not about your tax matters.
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Bluearmy_81 added 11:26 - Sep 7 Gilesy nothing wrong with that.. if you are a Norwich fan. I'm sure they're pretty happy with Evans. Who'd you support again? Oh yeah Mr Evans bank account.
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Bluearmy_81 added 11:32 - Sep 7 Blueboy. Gates are irrelevant once you're in the prem, TV money finances clubs entirely. How many do Bournemouth get? Unfortunately we'll never get there while we have Scrooge running things. Most of you seem fine with that though.
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blueboy1981 added 16:41 - Sep 7 Bluearmy 81 .......... you could have left the word 'you' out of your last post - I've never been convinced that Evans has the ambition, other than in words, for our Club to be in the Premiership. If he had, with his wealth we could, and should, have been there by now. That fact tells it's own story ... !!
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