ONE OF the big stories out of Cherries this past month has been the upgrading of the club’s academy status.

Following years of hard work, the club have now been awarded category two status, following an audit by the Professional Game Academy Audit Company.

The reassignment will see Alan Connell’s development squad play in a competitive league structure, having previously just played friendly and cup matches.

The under-18s also will now move into a different league, having previously featured in the EFL Youth Alliance and Merit League against similar-ranked academies.

Away from match results, the academy’s primary focus will always be to try and produce players to progress into the first team.

Despite the hurdles in place with being in category three, Cherries have still managed to coach some players up to the level to feature in the first team in recent years.

Bournemouth Echo:

In the Championship, the likes of Mark Travers, Jaidon Anthony, Jordan Zemura and Gavin Kilkenny all played key roles in clinching promotion under Scott Parker.

That said, each of the quartet only arrived at Cherries towards the latter end of their teens, perhaps highlighting further the difficulty in bringing a player all the way through from younger age groups into the senior side, particularly with Cherries now in the Premier League.

Sam Surridge and Jack Simpson would be good recent examples players who did make that step, with the numbers dwindling in recent years.

In the decades gone by, under the watchful eye of academy guru Joe Roach, who has recently left the club, talents such as Danny Ings, Brett Pitman and Sam Vokes all came up through the ranks, when Cherries operated in the lower leagues.

When the category two award was announced, Cherries’ academy manager Sam Gisborne was quick to pay tribute to the work Roach did.

This has been something long in the pipeline for Cherries, particularly accelerated by work on the new training ground at Canford Magna.

Despite looking to sell the club, former owner Maxim Demin pushed ahead with plans to build on the former golf course. New owner Bill Foley has doubled down on that important work since buying the club from Demin towards the end of last year.

Speaking last summer, then-boss Scott Parker was asked about the importance of the new training ground, with the first phase of development commencing in June 2022.

He told the Daily Echo: “The guys in the academy do an unbelievable job.

“Facilities are obviously probably not at the real level of the top academies and fair play in terms of what we’ve managed to bring through so far in a category three academy has been pretty extraordinary really.”

Following Foley’s arrival, he laid out his plans to continue work at the facility, moving some of the younger age groups over to train there first, with the women’s and men’s senior teams to follow.

Bournemouth Echo:

Speaking as first team head coach in January about the hope for an upgraded academy status, Gary O’Neil said: “It would be massive. I’ve worked at a top academy at Liverpool, incredible facilities, incredible level of players that they manage to attract.

“It’s obviously very different here, category three. The sea takes up a lot of the recruitment area as well for Bournemouth.

“There’s a circle around you can recruit from. Quite a lot of it is forest and quite a lot of it is sea, so, difficult!

“Improving the category would be huge for us.”

He added: “The academy as you saw with the impact JZ, Jaidon and Travs had, to produce even a few is massive for a football club.

“It saves you so much money on going out and recruiting others. Being able to recruit your own always has a special feeling with the fans as well, when you produce your own.

“I came through at Portsmouth and you have a real good relationship with the fans when you’ve managed to come through the youth team as one of their own.

“I think it’s a real big ask for cat three academies to produce Premier League players.

“They do a great job in the academy, we’ve got great coaches, some great young kids.

“But the long-term plan is important because there’s no magic wand.

“It needs to be done in the right way and that’s what under Bill the new owner, the club is looking to do.”

Bournemouth Echo:

Having played friendlies against non-league Poole Town and Weymouth, Connell is set to take the development squad to France later this weekend to compete in the Tournoi Europeen.

Discussing the upgrade to category two, Connell told Cherries’ website: “This is what everyone has been working towards ever since I have been here.

“It starts at the top with the owners and the board and so many different people deserve great credit.

“To get it over the line is monumental for the football club, the people who work in the academy and, most importantly, for the players.

“To be the development squad manager going into our first league campaign with the teams we’re going to be playing against is a game changer.”

Cherries will come up against Monaco, St-Etienne and Guingamp in the group stage in Brittany, starting on Friday.