U23s/youth watch

If Blackett-Taylor is to earn a new contract with us, I think he's going to have to go to Walsall and get plenty of game time, and play well; he'll be twenty-two this year, and hasn't gotten anywhere near our first team squad, if he doesn't impress between now and the end of the season, I think that will be it for him as far as his Villa career is concerned, can probably say the same for McKirdy as well...

Purslow said at the recent AGM that one of the things they want to do is revamp the u23s, because at the moment ours aren't considered up to standard of first team football, and if we aren't producing players good enought for us, a championship side, then something's not right.

I'll make a prediction though... I wouldn't be surprised to see one of Colin Odutayo or Jacob Ramsey make the first team squad before the end of the season.

Jordan Lyden has left the club, announced by himself on his instagram. I think he'll be followed by quite a few of our other u23s in the summer.

Both Mitch Clark, and Harvey Knibbs have been let go by the club. Surprised by both of those, looks like the club aren't messing about, maybe we're going to see a big overall of the academy set up. O'Hare signed on for an extra year a few weeks back.

Edit: Apparently Harry McKirdy, Jordan Cox, Kelsey Mooney, Alex Prosser, and Corey Blackett Taylor have all been released as well. All this follows Sean Kimberely the Academy Director, leaving the club last month.

Looks like theres more to this than meets the eye of mere supporters,

Well we're not planning to scrap the academy or anything like that, in March the club asked for planning permission to build an extension to Bodymoor Heath which will house a new gymnasium, as they feel the current one is no longer big enough for both the first team, and development squads.

Planning Statement PDF

Hopefully it's all part of a big plan to make our academy one of the best, and make it good enough to feed the first team decent players on a consistent basis.

Hepburn-Murphy (Trammere Rovers), Jake Doyle-Hayes (Cheltenham Town), Andre Green (Preston North End) and Lewis Brunt (carlise Unite), have all gone on season long loans. I imagine we will be looking for clubs for Sulliman, Revan, Clarke, Ramsey, O'Hare, and possibly Davis as well.

Edit: Brunt didn't end up going to Carlise, he had an initial two week trial with them with a view to going on a season long loan, but they didn't take up the option.