Crewe Alexandra F.C. Academy

Crewe Alexandra F.C. gained a strong reputation for its youth policy, achieving official status as a FA Youth Academy in the late 1990s. By concentrating on developing its own players the club remained profitable (a rare thing in lower division football at the time) by selling them on after they have gained experience with Crewe. The Academy is known to stress technical excellence, which accords with the aim to have the first team play attractive, passing football. Most of the club's achievement in youth development have come from former manager Dario Gradi, who now serves as manager of the Academy.

Players who passed through the ranks at Crewe include the England international players Geoff Thomas and David Platt and Welshman Robbie Savage, and Northern Ireland internationals Neil Lennon and Steve Jones (Platt was the most successful, totalling more than £20 million in transfers and captaining the England team). All these were youngsters signed from other clubs, but Gradi also had considerable success in nurturing Crewe's own trainees - notably full England internationals Rob Jones, Danny Murphy, Seth Johnson and Dean Ashton and Wales international David Vaughan.

Approximately 75 former youth players have also made it into the first team at Crewe.

Current squad

As of October 2010.

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 18 GK Ben Garrett DF Luke George DF Danny Ting 20 DF Oliver Turton DF Andy White DF Ryan Hughes DF George Ray DF Joe Guest 24 MF Casper Hughes

No. Position Player MF Paris Bateman MF Brendan Daniels MF Chris Peach FW Harry Clayton FW Michael Koral FW Jason Oswell 18 FW Max Clayton 25 FW Nick Powell

Graduates

Players highlighted in bold have gained international caps for their countries. Players who were signed straight to the first team from elsewhere are not included (such as former internationals Neil Lennon, David Platt, Robbie Savage, and Geoff Thomas).

Dele Adebola Ben Amos Dean Ashton Ryan Austin James Bailey Lee Bell Paul Bignot Junior Brown Mark Carrington Max Clayton Chris Clements Harry Davis Maurice Doyle Adam Dugdale Paul Edwards Rob Edwards Gareth Evans Nick Farquharson Christopher Flynn Stephen Foster Steve Garvey John Grant Michael Higdon Caspar Hughes Rob Hulse

Michael Jackson Eddie Johnson Seth Johnson Billy Jones Rob Jones Scott Leather AJ Leitch-Smith Matthew Lund Kenny Lunt Nicky Maynard Ben Marshall Chris McCready Shaun Miller Byron Moore Danny Murphy Luke Murphy Mike Newell Michael O'Connor Tom Pope Nick Powell Paul Rennie Mark Rivers Ben Rix Gary Roberts Mark Roberts James Robinson

Danny Shelley Peter Smith Neil Sorvel Kevin Street Ritchie Sutton Stuart Tomlinson Matthew Tootle Phil Trainer Oliver Turton David Vaughan Richard Walker Steve Walters Ashley Westwood Gareth Whalley Owain Fôn Williams Kyle Wilson Andy Woodward David Wright Adam Yates

External links

• Club website
• Official website