For now all we can do is speculate but I expect there to be some unfamiliar faces pitching up at Colney between the day of much fabled fitness-tests and September 1, when the window closes.
Among them will be three lads who, while not wholly unfamiliar, will be as keen as the new recruits to make a good first impression.
One is Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe.
Despite playing his part in the Wembley celebrations I suspect the Belgian probably didn’t especially enjoy his first season in English football.
As Neil Adams’ ‘marquee’ signing we expected great things but in the end his 2014/15 campaign comprised of just six bit part appearances, his only league start coming in the goal-less draw at Sheffield Wednesday where he picked up the knee injury that curtailed his season.
So little have we seen of the Belgian international it still remains an unknown as to exactly what type of player he is. He looks a big unit, it looks as if he likes to operate in the ‘number 10’ role, he looks to have a little something about him, but that’s as far as it goes.
Equally, no-one wins three full caps without having done something along the way to impress but 167 minutes of football over an injury-plagued season offers few clues. Alex Neil therefore will be hoping to see a fully fit Vadis report back at Colney who will then proceed, over pre-season, to show him exactly what he is made of.
While the Belgian’s arrival in a summer of upheaval didn’t come with the bells and whistles that heralded the entrances of Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Leroy Fer a year earlier, his was probably the one that sparked most interest, with YouTube offering us a tantalising glimpse of what he’d produced in the shirt of Club Brugge.
So, among the new faces and the different qualities they will all bring to the party, a fully-fit and energised Vadis should also offer Team Neil something new and fresh.
With Graham Dorrans already added to the midfield mix, City look potentially well equipped in that area and one suspects that, as a result, it’s the back-four and up front where the focus currently lies in terms of recruitment.
Particularly when the other semi-new face is added to the equation.
Louis Thompson was another Adams signing but, as part of the deal that brought him to City from Swindon in the first place, was immediately loaned back to the Robins on a season-long loan. As a result, he almost slipped under the radar but now, one assumes, will form part of Alex Neil’s class of 2016.
Whether a League One season that (like Vadis’) was curtailed by injury, will have been enough to propel him to the forefront of Neil’s thinking looks a little unlikely as things stand but a good pre-season under his belt and who knows.
In truth he figured far more prominently in the Robins’ play-off push than the Belgian did in City’s and in fact chalked up 38 appearances, three goals and seven yellow cards before a dislocated shoulder at the end of February virtually ended his season.
As it transpired, his battle for fitness – which was facilitated by regular visits to the Colney treatment room – and for a chance to say a final farewell to the Swindon fans was won, albeit it arrived at Wembley with his team 4-0 down in the League One play-off final.
Like the Belgian, Thompson is another who will be itching to get a full pre-season under his belt and make a big impression in the first few friendlies, although to force his way into a City midfield that is already bursting-full of experience will be a big ask.
Also returning to Norfolk from Wiltshire will be Harry Toffolo, one of an ever-dwindling number of the 2013 FA Youth Cup winning team.
Toffolo, like Thompson, played a significant role in the Robin’s route to the play-offs – being used predominantly as a left sided wing-back in their preferred 3-5-2 formation – and will arrive back at Colney keen to play his way into the first-team squad.
But, unlike his Swindon team-mate, Toffolo will be vying for a position in the City team where options are not currently plentiful and where Martin Olsson currently has no competition.
The departure of Javier Garrido has created a vacancy in the left-back department and it will intriguing to gauge the regard with which the England Under-20 international is held by those that matter.
Clearly he is another who will benefit from hitting the ground running in those first few training sessions but it would be great to see one of the Youth Cup heroes prosper in a yellow shirt because, as mentioned earlier, one by one they drift away to pastures new.
The predictable departure of Cameron McGeehan to Luton – a good move for both parties – left a slightly sour taste, if only for the good natured broadside taken by the captain of said youth team.
His description of Under-21 football on BBC Sport as a “graveyard for players” was particularly telling given it was the same description afforded reserve team football by our own Jerry Goss.
And it’s a shame. All part of footballing life, but still a shame.
Hopefully Master Toffolo will buck the trend and join the Murphys in the first-team reckoning – and perhaps Carlton Morris too will one day join the party – but if chances for City’s academy lads were sparse in the Championship, they’ll be even harder to come by in the Premier League.
Good luck to one and all.
I also think that these almost hidden players will prove to be a great advantage when the PL season starts. I’d also add Tony Andreu and Conor McGrandles to the list and although none of these has PL experience, they may well surprise a few people. Of the current squad of around 30 players (only 24 of whom would count in the 25 squad limit), 17 do have PL experience and others like Brady and Mulumbu could swell that number.
I have always questioned whether it is worth the cost and trouble of actually having an academy. The point that academy players do not become regular 1st team players is a fact (apart from the occasional goalkeeper).
Look at the team that just got promoted – there is not an ex academy player anywhere near being a regular starter. The higher up the football ladder we play it is even less likely an academy player will be good enough. Spending a considerable sum on the academy seems just a waste of money.
The players leave usually on a free or for nominal sums it would seem financial sense to scrap the academy and give the money to the manager to strengthen the squad by purchasing players.
Yes, jose mourinho has said similar thing. They spend multi millions every year on their academy and in recent years only had john terry to show for it. He has said that if the current lot coming thro can’t get a regular spit in first team then they should scrap academy.
Good article which opens up debate as Frank’s comments suggest. Premiership games to pressured to blood youngsters no room for errors etc. U21 games meaningless really. Be interesting to see each team having to play minimum of 2 academy U21 home grown players allowed say no more than 25 games a season. We all want to see Jacob & Josh Murphy, Harry Tofollo etc do well in their careers but promotion probably ends their hopes as far as Norwich are concerned which just doesn’t seem right. May be AN will give them a chance,if he does let’s encourage them 100%
The only hope for these academy guys is a promise from mnagement that they will play in League and FA Cup games even if it means we don’t progress to a final (I wish)!
Chelsea send all their youngsters out on loan (something like 24 last season I believe) and some do ok and some disappear without a trace but all ultimately know they’ll never get a sniff at Premier League football at ‘their’ club. Southampton chuck their youngsters in at the deep end of top flight football and seem to have more success doing that than blooding them at a lower level on loan. For me development football merely extends age-group youth football rather than integrating sides into adult football!
If every team abandoned academies as Jose Morinho has hinted, then there would be even fewer English/British players coming through, and more and more foreign players recruited, to the greater detriment of the national side.
Young British players do make it through to the Premier league, either through their own academies, or by being bought from those sides who run good academy sides, where players are developed properly. Wilshire, Ramsay, and Walcott at Arsenel being examples of both routes. Barkley, Kane, And Sterling are other young players who have made it through, so it is vital to have our own development programme, and search for more of these gems.
Scrapping the academies and somehow forcing young players up through the leagues sounds a great idea. Especially if it meant that more of the £Bs rolled down the FL. Not sure how it could work, without feeder clubs being set up in the lower leagues. But academies do seem a waste of money and a more effective way of developing raw talent in the heat of games that matter seems better.
To me, this was one of the reasons why Neil Adams was doomed to failure. His objectives appeared to be win promotion first time & being through his youth team. Doing both at the same time was never going to work.