(29/5/2010)-Norwegian Trialist

Carl Henry Refvik (14) from Norwegian third division side, Vidar FK based in Stavanger recently completed a trial with City. He had caught the eye of City scouts when he played in the Nike Premier Cup with a Vidar 15-årslag in Oslo earlier this spring. 

Having taken part in three training sessions and playing in a match under the leadership of the club's youth coaches.  Along with other trialists from Spain, Portugal and England against a Burnley side. City won 4-2 and Carl scored twice

Carl Henry, made such an impression that he has been invited back for a further trial in July

 

 

(28/5/2010)- Academy to open in India

City are delighted to announce that the club has struck a deal that will see the Blues open an international Academy in India.

David Pullan, the club’s chief marketing officer, was in Lavasa this week to seal the agreement that will see operations kick-off by the end of 2011.

“We are setting up an academy in every sense of the term. Our physical and digital presence will be there all through the year. The entire academy training module followed at Manchester City will be replicated in Lavasa and we are positive of a successful result,” he said

City’s Academy will provide the coaching materials and methods of support. In essence we will train the coaches. We are getting involved where it really matters.”

The academy will cater to the residents of the under-construction township which is an hour from Pune and will target children between the age group of 9 to eighteen years

The club will fly down coaches initially where they will then create a model for recruitment of local coaches who will be trained by the club coaches before taking over.

Nathan Andrews, executive vice-president of Lavasa said that the partnership with City was a big one:

“We are building academies in eight different sports and football is definitely a key element there. To have a big club like Manchester City on board is absolutely great,” he said.

 

ARTICLE TAKEN FROM OFFICIAL WEBSITE

(28/05/2010)-Manchester Senior Cup

The first fixture of next seasons Manchester Senior Cup has been announed with City playing Manchester United on 24th August in a home fixture at Hyde United

(27/5/2010)-Academy sign Irish keeper

Republic of Ireland U16 keeper Ian Lawlor has accepted a contract to join City's academy set up.

Following a successful trial which included being in the squad for the recent Madrid Tournament. The former Chanel College, Dublin pupil and Home Farm keeper will join City in September 2010.

(26/5/2010)-Two more friendlies announced

Radcliffe Borough announced a friendly yesterday against a City X1, however we think they have their kick off down with the wrong time, giving it as a 3pm kick off on a Wednesday.

 

As mentioned previously on MCRAA , Macclesfield have finally announced details of a friendly against City

 

FOR FULL DETAILS SEE FORTHCOMING FIXTURES

Madrid Update

It looks like we have been knocked out of this competition at the early stages, as the facebook status of some of the players involved says' they are coming home tomorrow(26/5/2010)'

 

 

Scott Sellars was proud of his mix-and-match City youngsters as they battled their way to two defeats in the prestigious Madrid Under-18 Tournament.

The Boy Blues came home early from Spain after a 3-1 opening setback against Getafe was followed by a 2-1 loss against Boca Juniors that left City ruing unfortunate circumstances.

Academy coach Sellars said: "Before we went we had a lot of injury problems. We took a young group including five Under-15s, and it was a real challenge for the players who went.

"We also felt we couldn't take any Under-16s because of GCSEs. So with so many key players missing we never expected to win the tournament as we did out in Abu Dhabi.

 

"The timing wasn't good, but the boys who played will all benefit from the experience. The lads acquitted themselves very well against Boca, who were more experienced and stronger but we gave them a nailbiter."

City's scorers were Devante Cole against Getafe and Juan Ramon against Boca Juniors.

 

 

SQUAD LIST


GOALKEEPERS
1-LORIS KARIUS (DEU)
13-IAN LAWLOR (IRL)

DEFENDERS
2-THOMAS SMITH (GBR)
3-TOM SKOGSRUD (NOR)
4-FREDERIC VESELI (CHE)
6-NILS ZANDER (DEU)
12-CONOR MORRISSEY (IRL)
15-ELLIS PLUMMER

MIDFIELDERS
5-ANASTATIOS KAPSALOPODAS (GRC)
7-JOAN ANGEL ROMAN (ESP)
8-AHMAD BENALI (GBR)
16-LOUIS HUTTON
18-GEORGE EVANS (GBR)

FORWARDS
9-EMERICK HIPPIAS (FRA)
10-HARRY BUNN (GBR)
11-JEREMY HELAN (FRA)
14-BRADLEY ROBINSON (GBR)
17-DEVANTE DEWAR-COLE

Guidetti Finishes Loan

John Guidetti has now completed his loan spell at Swedish team IF Brommapojkarna as the Swedish league takes a mid summer break and returns in July after the completion of the World Cup.

 

 

John was at IF Brommapojkarna for nine games where he started seven of those nine games and came on as a late substitute in his first game there. He scored three goals; his final goal coming in his last match against the well known Malmo.

 

Lets hope John has enjoyed his loan as well as gained valuable experience ready for the new season and the pre-season friendly fixtures that City have got lined up in July and August.

 

 

Rodgers To Join City

There is a lot of press speculation at the moment that former Reading manager Brendan Rodgers is to join City in some form of coaching role.

 

Well we could speculate as much as we like, but its an interesting story especially as Citys academy side had one of their poorest seasons ever and Brendan used to be youth team coach at Reading then at Chelsea under Jose Mourinho, make want you want of it.

 

Given all of Rodgers experience and credentials in youth academies if he is to take over our academy set up we hope that senior City management see this possible appointment of one of at least five years as we saw from having Jim Cassell for over ten years the improvements that were made and had it not been the ability for the previous first team management to use Jim and his undoubted knowledge; there might have been a smoother transition for when Jim was going to retire.

Madrid Tourn Details

Thanks to one of our Norwegian followers for this information:

 

Manchester City are to take place in the  U18 community of Madrid tournament between 23rd May and 30th May

 

City are in group 3 of 4 along with Boca Juniors and Getafe

 

Their first game is on the 24th in Pozeulo against Boca Juniors at 17.00pm

 

Depending on the results, 27 May, is the day set aside for the quarter-final plays of competition. On Saturday 29th the semi-finals take place and 30th May is final day., .

Morecambe Friendly

Morecambe have announced a pre-season fixture against a Manchester City X1 at their new Globe Arena. This however will not be the first fixture at the stadium as games against PNE and as yet an un-named team will be played their before City's visit.

Re-Focus

Today City have announced that their Head of Academy Business and Operations, Mark Allen(pictured) will be giving the academy a new focus.

 

We at MCFCRAA are not surprised at these actions given that the academy had one of its least successful seasons for quite a while.

 

You only have to look at the stats that only three of the thirty one players that have come through the academy at City are no longer playing professional football to know that this academy is built on great foundations.

 

Surely then the future plans will be to build on these solid foundations to bring in and develop the best talent available whilst ensuring that all the young players that graduate from the academy are able to forge a career in professional football away from City if they are unavailable to meet the needs of City's first team at the time.

Elite Squad In-Take

City today have confirmed all of the eight players from the academy that are graduating to the Elite Development Squad. The names of these players are:

Ahmad Benali, Omar Elabdellaoui, John Guidetti, Jeremy Helan, Tom Smith, Sean Tse, Freddie Veseli, and Reece Wabara. All of these names were fully expected by MCFCRAA. The only reservation we hold here is that although Sean Tse is a very talented defender/midfielder his problems with injuries over the past two seasons might turn round and bite him in respect of furthering his career at City past this next season.

 

City have surprisingly also given Chris Chantler a year's contract extension. Chris is a very likeable lad; but a player with a long future at City he is not. All we can conclude is that City have plans to loan out a lot of this elite squad during the season and so will need players to play in the possible fuller reserve fixture list next season.

 

The retained list of existing elite squad is Adam Clayton, Scott Kay, Javan Vidal, Ben Mee, James Poole, Donal McDermott, Ryan McGivern, Robbie Mak, David Ball, Kieran Trippier and Andrew Tutte but here at MCFCRAA we expect a few of those players to have signed for different clubs during the season; much like Clayton McDonald and Paul Marshall did this season.

 

The elite squad that will have a part to play in the first team will obviously be the likes of Dedryck Boyata, Greg Cunningham, Abdi Ibrahim and Alex Tchuimeni-Nimely with we are sure some new transfers arriving in during the summer to assist the home grown quota of U21s.

 

 

Pitch Gets Dug Up

As you can see by the image the U16s pitch has been dug up to relay a new one very similar to the U18s one. The main reason apart from creating a fantastic playing surface is to remove the mounds in the goalmouth that reduce the centre height of the goal to create an even height throughout the goalmouth.

Conference Cumbria

City Reserves have arranged their second pre-season friendly match and they will be playing Blue Square Premier conference side Barrow AFC on Saturday 31st July with a 3pm kick off at their Holker Street Stadium.

Ola Madrid

News reaches us at MCRAA that a City U18 side will be jetting off to Madrid shortly. If any of you academy players who read this site can give us any further details please get in touch with us through the contact pages

Season's Decided

So the academy season is finally over and City have finished sixth after Blackburn and Wolves drew today. Also decided today was the the English academy play-off final between Arsenal and Nottingham Forest and it was Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium this afternoon that won 5-3. This season also saw the Chelsea academy win their first FA Youth cup since their major influx of finances. I would fully expect all this season's usually suspects to be riding high again next season as City will probably be also rans.

Au Revoir Paris

Although MCRAA have known for some time we can now confirm  winger James Paris will seek other pastures as he will not be offered a new contract with City

Alex Henshall--Swindon???

Manchester City are set to sign England youth winger Alex Henshall, 16, from Swindon.

A handful of clubs, headed by Liverpool , had wanted Henshall but City are close to clinching the deal and will have the Wiltshire kid in their ranks from next season.

Lancashire Senior Cup

Another exclusive for you from MCRAA our sources tell us that a City reserve side will be participating in the Lancashire Senior cup next season

Reserve Venue

News reaches us here at MCRAA that the venue for next seasons(2010-2011) FA Premier reserve games will be back at an old venue, namely that of Ewen Fields the home of Hyde United FC

New Recruits

The  official programme finally got round to announcing who Citys new batch of academy players would be for 2010/2011 season, we at MCRAA have known for some time but chose not to publish the details

 

When the programme did there were a number of alarming errors, the players are as follows

 

Luke Coulson (Defender)

Courtney Husband (Goalkeeper) he is actually left sided midfielder/defender

Kieran Halsall(Goalkeeper) its actually Tom Halsall

Adam Drury (Winger)

Paul Clowes(Midfielder)

Emyr Hews(Midfield)

George King(Defender) see attached link for more details

 

http://aylesfordfc.co.uk/#/afcs-king-george-i/4539282211

 

we also heard Kieran Kennedy had been taken on, but there is no mention