Women/girl's Academy teams

Another nice international goal by Rachael Adedini, playing two years up btw.

Hope we’ve got a clear pathway to present to her and she gets to train with the first team soon. Would hate to lose her just because our current head coach refuses to give opportunities to youngsters.

 
Our U14s have reached the quarter-finals in the PGA Champions Cup.

Aston Villa vs United
Man City vs Liverpool
Brighton vs Arsenal
Chelsea vs West Ham

The ties will be played on Saturday 25 January.
 
The U14s have made it to the semi-finals of the Champions Cup by beating Villa 2-1 in the quarters. The list of semi-finalists is pretty expected; United, Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal.
 
The U21s are in the semi-finals of the FA National League plate.

Bournemouth vs United U21s
Cheltenham vs So’ton U21s
 
top1whoisman said:
The U14s have made it to the semi-finals of the Champions Cup by beating Villa 2-1 in the quarters. The list of semi-finalists is pretty expected; United, Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal.
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Saturday 22 February
Arsenal vs United
Chelsea vs Man City
 
Really good news about the U14s reaching the final.

I've just scanned back a couple of pages and see references to the U14s, U16s and U21s - does an U18 team exist?
 
Demon Barber said:
Really good news about the U14s reaching the final.

I've just scanned back a couple of pages and see references to the U14s, U16s and U21s - does an U18 team exist?
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I don't think so at the moment, not in a weekly match sense at least. Back when United women started we ran a Y19 team for a while, but there wasn't really a national structure - so it mostly played local cup matches etc.

One of the changes made as WSL1 became more professional was the FA starting up more national/regional academy competitions. Plus it introduced development/U21 teams.

I don't know if that squeezed out the U18/19 team completely. I wouldn't be surprised if there's still the odd Cup or summer tournament etc that we roll it out for, for example. Certainly we normally play a young U21 team, I think it is usually made up of U18s + the odd first teamer recovering from injury etc.
 
jojojo said:
I don't think so at the moment, not in a weekly match sense at least. Back when United women started we ran a Y19 team for a while, but there wasn't really a national structure - so it mostly played local cup matches etc.

One of the changes made as WSL1 became more professional was the FA starting up more national/regional academy competitions. Plus it introduced development/U21 teams.

I don't know if that squeezed out the U18/19 team completely. I wouldn't be surprised if there's still the odd Cup or summer tournament etc that we roll it out for, for example. Certainly we normally play a young U21 team, I think it is usually made up of U18s + the odd first teamer recovering from injury etc.
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Thanks, as ever, for the detailed response. I'm just a bit surprised that there is no U18s structure, but perhaps there are simply not enough girls/young women attached to the academies/development teams. Women's football still has a long way to go.

I do like the structure in Spain and am surprised that we have not emulated it here - an A, B and C team all in the same pyramid.
 
Demon Barber said:
Thanks, as ever, for the detailed response. I'm just a bit surprised that there is no U18s structure, but perhaps there are simply not enough girls/young women attached to the academies/development teams. Women's football still has a long way to go.

I do like the structure in Spain and am surprised that we have not emulated it here - an A, B and C team all in the same pyramid.
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It kind of does happen, their is a development team in my niece's league @ tier 6 of the Women's pyramid and my niece's team have their own development team in the 9th tier that batter every team they play.

Bury have teams in the 5th, 9th and 10th tiers.
 
cj_sparky said:
It kind of does happen, their is a development team in my niece's league @ tier 6 of the Women's pyramid and my niece's team have their own development team in the 9th tier that batter every team they play.

Bury have teams in the 5th, 9th and 10th tiers.
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Thanks for the response, but I was kind of suggesting that United (and others) could have an A team in the WSL, a B team in the Championship, and a C team in Division 1, provided the B and C teams can work their way up. That way our whole women's structure can have regular fixtures against good opposition, which to my way of thinking can only be good for development.

The counter-argument, of course, is that the major clubs will simply dominate. That's true to a degree, but no club can have two teams in the same division. I'd also expand the number of teams in the WSL and below and suggest 2 teams promoted/relegated to introduce a bit more jeopardy.

Edit: glad your niece's club is doing well.
 
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