Crewe Alexandra F.C. Academy

Crewe Alexandra F.C. gained a strong reputation for its youth policy, achieving official status as a FA Youth Academy in the late 1990s. By concentrating on developing its own players the club remained profitable (a rare thing in lower division football at the time) by selling them on after they have gained experience with Crewe. The Academy is known to stress technical excellence, which accords with the aim to have the first team play attractive, passing football. Most of the club's achievement in youth development have come from former manager Dario Gradi, who now serves as manager of the Academy.

Players who passed through the ranks at Crewe include the England international players Geoff Thomas and David Platt and Welshman Robbie Savage, and Northern Ireland internationals Neil Lennon and Steve Jones (Platt was the most successful, totalling more than £20 million in transfers and captaining the England team). All these were youngsters signed from other clubs, but Gradi also had considerable success in nurturing Crewe's own trainees - notably full England internationals Rob Jones, Danny Murphy, Seth Johnson and Dean Ashton and Wales international David Vaughan.

Approximately 75 former youth players have also made it into the first team at Crewe. In April 2013, in the team's final game of the season, manager Steve Davis fielded a team whose starting 11 were all Crewe Academy graduates. ^[1]^[2]

Current Academy players

Nat.	Player	Place of birth	Position	International caps	Previous club
2nd Year Scholars
	Liam Matthews	Brighton	GK	-	– Brighton and Hove Albion
	Connor Smith	Crewe	GK	-	–
	Joe Kearns	Liverpool	DF	-	–
	Jon Moran	Crewe	DF	-	–
	Joe Howell	Chester	MF	-	–
	Toby Mullarkey	Warrington	MF	-	–
	Michael Pino	Chester	MF	-	–
	Andre Brown	Birmingham	FW	-	–
	Chris Speed	Alsager	FW	-	–
	Liam O’Neill	Warrington	FW	-	–

Graduates

Players highlighted in bold have gained international caps for their countries. Players who were signed straight to the first team from elsewhere are not included (such as former internationals Neil Lennon, David Platt, Robbie Savage, and Geoff Thomas).

References

↑ "Crewe 2-0 Walsall". BBC Sport. 27 April 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
↑ Scott, Ged (24 April 2013). "Crewe Alexandra: Dario Gradi's academy dream set to come true". BBC Sport. Retrieved 29 April 2013.

External links

Crewe Alexandra Football Club

The club	Players Managers Academy Seasons Records and statistics Women's team

Grounds	Alexandra Recreation Ground Gresty Road

Other	Dario Gradi Drive Blue Moon

Seasons	1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16

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