Leeds United officially have one of the most productive academy programmes in English football. The Whites have invested heavily in the youth system at Thorp Arch in recent years and according to the Training Ground Guru’s Academy Productivity Rankings, it seems their efforts are paying dividends.
The West Yorkshire outfit have jumped into the top 10 of the rankings after producing a number of players across the top five leagues during the 2021-22 campaign. Sitting eighth represents huge growth from last year, when Leeds were 16th in the table, which features every Category One, Two and Three academy in the country.
The rankings monitor the number of England-qualified academy graduates who made at least one appearance in the Premier League, Football League or National League last season. Using a list of English male players in the top five leagues, the Training Ground Guru can work out which academy has produced the most players and which has the biggest hit rate when it comes to their production line.
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As such, Leeds’ ranking of eighth is a huge endorsement to the work the club have been doing below the first-team level for a number of years now. Last season alone saw Leeds hand out league debuts to the likes of Charlie Cresswell, Lewis Bate and Sam Greenwood and the Whites are keen to build on that pathway with a number of youngsters on the verge of a first-team debut at present.
Chelsea sit on top of the rankings table, knocking Manchester United off the perch they have sat on since the rankings were first produced back in 2016-17. The Red Devils are second in this year's table, while Arsenal are third and Manchester City have moved up from 14th to fourth as their academy investment pays off.
Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and West Ham United are the only other teams with a better total weighting across the top five leagues, while Crewe Alexandra, who were relegated from League One last season are ninth and have developed a reputation for producing top quality talent, despite their lowly league position.
Liverpool are 10th on the list, while the likes of Southampton (11th), Aston Villa (14th), Leicester City (21st), Newcastle United (27th), are all further back.
You can find the full rankings list here.
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