Women/girl's Academy teams

Ubik said:
Has Bancroft actually left yet? Either way you get the sense things are pretty directionless right now, and it seems clear that the women's side is at the bottom of the priority list for Ineos.
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Officially Bancroft leaves at the end of the season. I'd guess she's only doing handover stuff at the moment. But with no one permanent to handover to I'm not at all sure what that would look like.

I'm still hoping that "someone" is handling contract renewal negotiations for players like Earps and Garcia and that "someone" is looking at new signings.

In terms of Ineos, MUTV and United social media accounts etc I suspect the women's team is a long way down the list and the U21 and Academy teams are running on vapour. I do understand it in terms of the immediate future - the money involved is just a blip on the spreadsheet. The numbers involved in terms of social media reflect our history - the women's team twitter has about 400k followers, the men's team have about 40 millions.

Deeply frustrating though as it feels like at the moment the women's game is moving on and we're going to kick the can down the road.
 
top1whoisman said:
The interest would grow if they pushed it like they do with the men’s academy teams. I invest quite a lot of my time in the academy and I’d be very interested in following them and finding out who the next Tooney or Katie Zelem are.

The Leicester game and how it unfolded is classic United. The footage would’ve been great to see.

But we don’t even have a mention of them winning the title, anywhere. Not on the app, not on the club’s website, nothing on socials either.

It’s pathetic.
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As I understand it, the Women's academy is run by the MU Foundation so it started more like a local charity initiative to help girls play football rather than a serious pathway to the first team.

I dont actually know if any girls progressed from the youth teams to the first team?
Obviously we have Toone & Zelem but they had to go elsewhere before coming back to United because there was no Women's team in those days.

This is obviously very different to the Men's Academy with all the associated history etc.

This is not an excuse for the complete lack of coverage though, I don't personally expect to see any live footage but it's crazy that there isn't even a photo or congratulations post on official club channels.

I guess this is the kind of thing that will need to change in the future to become a serious Women's set up.
 
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Rood said:
As I understand it, the Women's academy is run by the MU Foundation so it started more like a local charity initiative to help girls play football rather than a serious pathway to the first team.

I dont actually know if any girls progressed from the youth teams to the first team?
Obviously we have Toone & Zelem but they had to go elsewhere before coming back to United.

This is obviously very different to the Men's Academy with all the associated history etc.

This is not an excuse for the complete lack of coverage though, I don't personally expect to see any live footage but it's crazy that there isn't even a photo or congratulations post on official club channels.

I guess this is the kind of thing that will need to change in the future to become a serious Women's set up.
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Budget wise they really need to realise that there could be players in the younger teams that can be in the first team squad and actually save them money. You cannot have an academy and not produce any players for the first team.
 
Rood said:
As I understand it, the Women's academy is run by the MU Foundation so it started more like a local charity initiative to help girls play football rather than a serious pathway to the first team.

I dont actually know if any girls progressed from the youth teams to the first team?
Obviously we have Toone & Zelem but they had to go elsewhere before coming back to United because there was no Women's team in those days.

This is obviously very different to the Men's Academy with all the associated history etc.

This is not an excuse for the complete lack of coverage though, I don't personally expect to see any live footage but it's crazy that there isn't even a photo or congratulations post on official club channels.

I guess this is the kind of thing that will need to change in the future to become a serious Women's set up.
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Yeah I understand that, but if we invested in the girls’ academy, as @DomesticTadpole said, we’d save a lot of money on transfer fees that are growing quickly in the women’s game.

By now we maybe should’ve already seen some of our academy players making debuts for the first team. It’s been six years and as I understand it we’re doing pretty well in many age groups nationally.
 
jojojo said:
Officially Bancroft leaves at the end of the season. I'd guess she's only doing handover stuff at the moment. But with no one permanent to handover to I'm not at all sure what that would look like.

I'm still hoping that "someone" is handling contract renewal negotiations for players like Earps and Garcia and that "someone" is looking at new signings.

In terms of Ineos, MUTV and United social media accounts etc I suspect the women's team is a long way down the list and the U21 and Academy teams are running on vapour. I do understand it in terms of the immediate future - the money involved is just a blip on the spreadsheet. The numbers involved in terms of social media reflect our history - the women's team twitter has about 400k followers, the men's team have about 40 millions.

Deeply frustrating though as it feels like at the moment the women's game is moving on and we're going to kick the can down the road.
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I guess it's Matt Johnson as the interim, and Hargreaves for negotiations? Not particularly optimistic on the renewals at this point, given last year.

I agree, I think it'd be a huge missed opportunity. It's small overall but accordingly easier to make a clear impact, for a lot less than the amount they're haggling over Ashworth. Maybe the cup final grabs some attention, at least (or perhaps more likely an "everything seems fine there" assessment).
 
top1whoisman said:
Yeah I understand that, but if we invested in the girls’ academy, as @DomesticTadpole said, we’d save a lot of money on transfer fees that are growing quickly in the women’s game.

By now we maybe should’ve already seen some of our academy players making debuts for the first team. It’s been six years and as I understand it we’re doing pretty well in many age groups nationally.
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Most seem to either get loaned out or bombed out to other teams for nothing. You would hope that we can see Grace Clinton is a really excellant player.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
Most seem to either get loaned out or bombed out to other teams for nothing. You would hope that we can see Grace Clinton is a really excellant player.
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She was a signing so she's probably got a chance :lol:
 
DomesticTadpole said:
Most seem to either get loaned out or bombed out to other teams for nothing. You would hope that we can see Grace Clinton is a really excellant player.
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Yeah that to me personally is even more important than the financial side of it. Our young players finally have a first team to aim at and it would be so disappointing to see them continue to leave us. Clinton probably the best current example.

That of course is more down to the manager and I’m afraid as long as Skinner is at the club there’s next to no chance we’ll see young players integrated to even the matchday squads.

The loan program should definitely be used but by the time they are on Clinton’s level they should definitely be playing for us.
 
top1whoisman said:
Yeah I understand that, but if we invested in the girls’ academy, as @DomesticTadpole said, we’d save a lot of money on transfer fees that are growing quickly in the women’s game.

By now we maybe should’ve already seen some of our academy players making debuts for the first team. It’s been six years and as I understand it we’re doing pretty well in many age groups nationally.
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That's my point really, the whole Women's Academy needs to be restructured completely. That it's still part of the charity/community side of the club 6 years after starting the Women's team shows where it stands in the list of priorities.

I don't know if this is part of Matt Johnson's remit seeing as he was at MU Foundation.
 
Rood said:
That's my point really, the whole Women's Academy needs to be restructured completely. That it's still part of the charity/community side of the club 6 years after starting the Women's team shows where it stands in the list of priorities.

I don't know if this is part of Matt Johnson's remit seeing as he was at MU Foundation.
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Yes, couldn’t agree more.
 
Waheeey, someone at the club finally realised they won a fecking title. And used a photo taken by a parent of a player or something.

 
Ubik said:
Has Bancroft actually left yet? Either way you get the sense things are pretty directionless right now, and it seems clear that the women's side is at the bottom of the priority list for Ineos.
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Unfortunately you're probably right.
Ineos will undoubtedly work on the men's team first, getting the backroom staff in place, which they're trying to do, they have a major issue with the manager, and sorting out new signings etc. I'm hopeful that they will be looking at Polly Bancroft's replacement, and they may offer Skinner a years contract before possibly concentrating a little more on the women's football next close season.
 
Under-16s also take on the Gunners in the Under-16s PGA Cup final on Saturday.
 
top1whoisman said:
Under-16s also take on the Gunners in the Under-16s PGA Cup final on Saturday.
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Played at Sixfields, the home venue for Northampton Town. Kick off is 11.00 am, free entry, and normally there is free parking next to the ground when Northampton Town ladies play there, but not 100% certain of that.
 
red woppit said:
Played at Sixfields, the home venue for Northampton Town. Kick off is 11.00 am, free entry, and normally there is free parking next to the ground when Northampton Town ladies play there, but not 100% certain of that.
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This post deserves recognition. Thank you.
 
Demon Barber said:
This post deserves recognition. Thank you.
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You're welcome.

Manchester United girls under 16 team have just beaten Arsenal girls 3-1 in the PGA final. A very dominant display.
Should have scored more goals, but several very good individual performances.
Charlotte Hill (I think) was named potm, scoring two goals.
United's keeper, who was one of the shortest in the team, had to make several excellent saves towards the end of the game after United had a player sent of for handling the ball on the line, Arsenal scoring the penalty.
I was surprised with the technique of these players, from both sides, excellent. The coaches seem to be doing a good job.
More silverware from the ladies though, I just wish the club website would promote the ladies a bit more, I found all the information on the Arsenal website.
 
red woppit said:
You're welcome.

Manchester United girls under 16 team have just beaten Arsenal girls 3-1 in the PGA final. A very dominant display.
Should have scored more goals, but several very good individual performances.
Charlotte Hill (I think) was named potm, scoring two goals.
United's keeper, who was one of the shortest in the team, had to make several excellent saves towards the end of the game after United had a player sent of for handling the ball on the line, Arsenal scoring the penalty.
I was surprised with the technique of these players, from both sides, excellent. The coaches seem to be doing a good job.
More silverware from the ladies though, I just wish the club website would promote the ladies a bit more, I found all the information on the Arsenal website.
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Thank you for the info.

Love this.

 
At least we're admitting that we have an U21 team now :lol:

Next question is - have we sent an official photographer?
 
jojojo said:
At least we're admitting that we have an U21 team now :lol:

Next question is - have we sent an official photographer?
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Nah, come on. Just give tickets to the Chelsea game to a parent who takes a couple of photos with their phones.
 
Plus the full ladies have a much better chancing of lifting the FA Cup than the Men’s team?
 
Brilliant! Fingers crossed we see some get chances next year.

Woziak said:
Plus the full ladies have a much better chancing of lifting the FA Cup than the Men’s team?
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Yeah, we should be favourites but will have to improve on our performance against Spurs a couple of games back.
 
Ubik said:
Brilliant! Fingers crossed we see some get chances next year.


Yeah, we should be favourites but will have to improve on our performance against Spurs a couple of games back.
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Agreed but the Under 18’s boys and under 21’s girls have done the club proud, hopefully some of that will to win that’s being installed in youth teams.
 
Rood said:
Ok - shame that none of those girls have filtered into the first team yet
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Indeed. We need a manager who trusts youth and rotates the squad. Perhaps use the League Cup to learn more about how they cope on first team level.

At least I personally would be much more patient in terms of catching the top 3 if we tried to do it with some homegrown talent integrated into the squad.
 
top1whoisman said:
Indeed. We need a manager who trusts youth and rotates the squad. Perhaps use the League Cup to learn more about how they cope on first team level.

At least I personally would be much more patient in terms of catching the top 3 if we tried to do it with some homegrown talent integrated into the squad.
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Fantastic news, and thank you to all those who provided updates.
 
top1whoisman said:
Indeed. We need a manager who trusts youth and rotates the squad. Perhaps use the League Cup to learn more about how they cope on first team level.

At least I personally would be much more patient in terms of catching the top 3 if we tried to do it with some homegrown talent integrated into the squad.
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Maybe the gap between this level and WSL is too big, I wonder if many of Arsenal's youth make it through as they supposedly have a better set up

Also I don't know if Women's Academy players like this are full time professionals as their equivalents in the Men's Academy would be
 
Rood said:
Maybe the gap between this level and WSL is too big, I wonder if many of Arsenal's youth make it through as they supposedly have a better set up

Also I don't know if Women's Academy players like this are full time professionals as their equivalents in the Men's Academy would be
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I think most are kind of borderline pro and still in education - school/college. So not full-time. In fact they can't sign pro papers until they're 18. That means basically they get signed by the first team squad at 18/19 (or don't) and some will stay a bit longer as part-timers going to college.

The U21 to WSL is too big a leap for most players.

The frustration comes when a young player or incoming player doesn't get playing time even when they do have pro experience. Grace Clinton for example had a few matches for Everton before she came to us and then did half a season from us with Bristol in the Championship - which ought to count. But she had zero first team minutes for us before going to Spurs on loan and becoming a full international for England. It doesn't make me think we're good at integrating new talent.
 
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