U's granted Cat Two status
Statement from U's Chairman Robbie Cowling.
We kick off this season with the excellent news that following the re-audit of our Youth Academy, we have been awarded with Category Two status. This is great news for our club and just rewards for everyone who has worked so hard for us to achieve this very high standard.
There is no way that we can hope to achieve our aims of building a club that is based on home grown talent if we are anything less than category Two. This status provides:
1. A platform from which we can attract the very best local talent. With:
a. Excellent facilities.
b. A great team of staff members who are dedicated to producing talent.
c. The excellent programme at Thurstable School.
d. A top quality games' programme.
2. Much higher compensation rights which protects the investment we make in our young players.
3. An U21s league where our young professionals can work to bridge the gap from being a youth team scholar to becoming regular in our first team.
We have already reaped some of the benefits from our investment in the youth academy and as Alex, Drey, Sammie, Macauley and Frankie establish their first team credentials, there is a very good chance that we’ll be seeing more new faces from the Academy making their first team debuts this season.
Please give them plenty of support.
Robbie