Academy productivity audit
Is the academy worth what it costs us?
Exhibit 1
The question
Almost every club measures its academy by how many players reach a professional contract somewhere. That is the number that flatters. The number that matters is the share of your own first team's minutes played by players you trained, against what comparable clubs manage.
Who this is for
Clubs spending real money on an academy without a figure for what it returns — which is most of them.
Exhibit 2
How it runs
- Week 1Definitions agreed firstClub-trained means three years at the club between fifteen and twenty-one. Agreed in writing before any number is produced, because a definition chosen after the fact is marketing.
- Weeks 2–3The four measuresMinutes share, integration rate, ten-year return, and cost per graduate minute. Each against five comparable clubs.
- Weeks 4–5Where it breaksAlmost always one age band, and almost always the transition to the first team rather than the coaching below it.
- Week 6Produce to play, or produce to sellBoth are legitimate strategies. Running one while measuring yourself by the other is not, and it is extremely common.
What you receive
What you receive
- Your four productivity measures, benchmarked against five peers
- Ten-year academy return against ten-year academy cost
- The age band where the pathway actually breaks
- A recommendation on produce-to-play against produce-to-sell
What this is not
This is not a coaching audit and it does not assess your curriculum or your staff. If the finding is that the coaching below sixteen is the problem, I will say so and recommend somebody who does that work, rather than extending this into it.