Reports say that Crewe Alexandra are to look at Town's Academy as they seek to emulate Town's highly regarded youth set-up. The Blues have recently spent £2 million on the Academy and are hoping that the future will see a large percentage of the squd being drawn from home-produced players.

Crewe manager Dario Gradi will visit Town's Academy and sees the development of a set-up like Town's as important for the development of clubs like Crewe: "We depend on being an Academy. If there was no Academy we would virtually run down and close, the job would be impossible. Although we have a good stadium, we don't have the attendances to compete so we still have to sell players. Not as much now but still along the line. With the Academy, for the foreseeable future we have got the players to step in when others progress."

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