I disagree, without the academy we would have no club! The top few that have been sold (before hitting the first team) along with the ones that have played (JMT/Pym etc) have made the club millions! If you then take in to account that out of the current first team squad we have 13 players that have come through the academy then the stats speak for themself!! The club also gets funded for the academy from the EFL!! Over the next few seasons they have a few more lads that will definitely hit the first team along with the top few that will obviously be sold!!I don't apologise for taking the same view that I always have which is the benefits of running an Academy are overstated. Sure when you are fortunate enough to see a player through his formative years and he signs a professional contract, you can see a real return on your investment. However, more and more kids are advised to milk the system and if they have real potential their agents move them on to bigger clubs who are happy to pay the pittance involved against a punt that the kid will make real money in the future. I accept that an Academy has social benefits, but I'm not sure that should interfere with a commercial judgement. A team of quality contacts (scouts) would be able to unearth a reliable supply of kids who have just missed out on making the cut further up the pyramid and are maybe now playing non league. The group of coaches we have should be able to turn these players into assets for the first team and long term commercial assets for the club. (I don't expect this view to be universally held)