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.
 
Kind of related to the Academy setup, an interesting discussion on mixed football - whether that refers to girls playing for boys teams or girls' teams playing in leagues against boys' teams.



There are arguments both ways in this, as there's also evidence that girls' teams are vital for broadening participation at junior level. That's because they allow the social connections to be built that can make training and playing more fun and help breakdown the fear that they'll be laughed at or ignored.
 
Mentioned in other thread that our PGA are in the National League Cup this year (I think it's the first year WSL youth teams have entered)

We are in Group Q with Wolves, Stoke and Wythenshawe:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025–26_FA_Women's_National_League_Cup

It's a huge deal for Wythenshawe Women in particular as they just got promoted to the National League for the first time in their history - match is on Thursday night and should attract a decent crowd in South Manchester

 
Our U21s (PGA) lost in the National League Cup to Wolves after being 1 up - there is no mention on our socials of these matches, you have to go to the opposition team to see details

 
3 of our Academy played for the U23s

Simpson & Barry scored

Begs the question with our thin squad - should they have gone on loan?

 
Rood said:
3 of our Academy played for the U23s

Simpson & Barry scored

Begs the question with our thin squad - should they have gone on loan?

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Well, Mared Griffith stayed with us and has been player of the match in Wales' last two matches - and she still hasn't played a minute in WSL.

We play players out of position and we've played with a lot of empty seats on the bench instead of playing youngsters. I'm not sure this season would have been any different.
 
jojojo said:
Well, Mared Griffith stayed with us and has been player of the match in Wales' last two matches - and she still hasn't played a minute in WSL.

We play players out of position and we've played with a lot of empty seats on the bench instead of playing youngsters. I'm not sure this season would have been any different.
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It is a mistake from Skinner and is already costing the team - we saw with Grace Clinton that he's not a good judge of when young players are ready
 
Rood said:
It is a mistake from Skinner and is already costing the team - we saw with Grace Clinton that he's not a good judge of when young players are ready
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As much as I’d like to pin it all of Skinner, if any of our loanees were ready to be part of our squad, you’d think they would have attracted interest from other WSL clubs in the summer. But instead they’re all playing in WSL2. To me, that seems to indicate that the gap between academy and senior football is too big right now, and the question for the club is how to bridge that gap.

Since we’ve reformed the women’s team, the only player from our academy to get more than a handful of minutes in any significant game is Safia. I think she’s the only player from the team who won the youth double a few years ago that’s still at the club (a few are on loan). And she was heavily criticised for her performances, especially after the Wolfsburg game.
 
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