CEO pleased with how the academy is progressing
Shrewsbury Town’s youth academy has been given a boost as two academy graduates have now made their debut in the Shrewsbury Town first team.
Ryan Sears and Ryan Barnett have both made the senior debuts with John Askey’s team and will continue to provide the manager with a selection headache.
Brian Caldwell is pleased to see two Shrewsbury youth products achieve their debuts and is happy to see the progression pathway.
“It’s great to see Ryan Barnett and Ryan Sears do so well in the two games,” Brian said. “Everybody is proud when you have a local player who has come through the academy play with the first team.
“It helps the academy in the long term too as it shows a pathway. If you look around this area and you see the likes of Wolves in the Premier League, West Brom and Villa who we are competing with, we should be able to get the best young players because we have a pathway.
“I think we have a really good academy structure in place. Eric Ramsey has taken over and has a great team of coaches and we have a continuity of staff. I think the structure is really, really good.
“They were audited recently and given a three year licence at category three with no re-audits, which is great.
“They were obviously very happy with the progress and what we have in place at the academy. It’s about taking that forward and making sure we get the next crop of players coming through who can play in the first team for Shrewsbury Town.
“Nothing makes us more proud than seeing a local boy who has come through the academy playing for the Shrewsbury Town’s first team.
“There is real scope for that going forward. I know Eric is really excited with the team he has at Under-18’s now.
“We will be actively be trying to promote their games and their fixtures. Hopefully we can get our fan base to their home games at the sports village, to come and see the next generation of Shrewsbury Town players.”
The U18s are in action this Saturday when they take on Walsall at the Shrewsbury Sports Village in the EFL Alliance cup, kick-off is 11am and admission is free.