GERMANY has launched new regulations that will transform the way football is played by Under-11s in the country.

ASTON VILLA will begin work on their new Inner City Academy next to Villa Park this summer. The new facility is intended to cater for youngsters from inner city areas who might find it difficult to get to Bodymoor Heath.

ARSENAL Academy Manager Per Mertesacker says there is a risk of clubs missing out on a ‘sweet spot of development’ by making scholarship decisions on players at Under-16s.

AFTER 25 years of coaching in other countries, Steve Kean has returned to his native Scotland to become Academy Director at Hibernian - and he and the club have big ambitions, as he tells TGG.

IAIN BRUNNSCHWEILER is to head up a ‘pioneering’ new Technical Development Department that Southampton hope will support their intention to be "the most productive Academy in the country on a consistent basis.”

DYLAN WILLIAMS and Omar Kellyman are the latest Academy stars to leave crisis-hit Derby County. Little wonder that manager Wayne Rooney is demoralised.

CRYSTAL PALACE have become the first club in the country to offer a three-year aftercare programme to help scholars to cope with the “trauma” of being released.

GARY DICKER has been appointed as Brighton’s Under-18s coach after retiring as an over-aged player with the U23s.

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN had the 19th most productive Academy in this country in 2020/21, despite having made the controversial decision to downgrade from Category Two to Four in September 2017.

MEHMET ALI has left Reading to become the new Under-23s assistant at Arsenal.

LEE CATTERMOLE has been appointed as Middlesbrough’s new Under-18s Lead, marking a return to the club where he began his own playing career.

WIGAN Head of Academy Gregor Rioch explains how the youth set-up has kept the club afloat - and outlines its ambitions for the future.