The piece written by 70s legend is pretty much spot on.

And I agree it pretty much is a money making scheme, not necessarily by Norwich City mind. The Suffolk NCFC PDC is a franchise off of the Community sports foundation so I assume the money ends up with them. They obviously run the Nest and Carrow park etc which are excellent places to play football. One more thing to say In my experience the coaching in the Suffolk PDC is no where as good as the Norfolk based PDC. I pay for my son to train at the Wymondham PDC centre and its well worth the money, the coaching etc is ace.

The piece if anyone wants to read it,

From my experience of both the Ipswich PDP & the Norwich PDC, the Norwich one is miles ahead. Pricing is similar, but the Ipswich one you have to buy the kit & the Norwich one the kit is optional up to elite level whereupon entry you have to purchase a kit package.
From what I saw with my son's experience, the Ipswich one got reinvented a few years back and started with good intentions but now the impression you get is that they don't really give a monkeys about the kids within it and nobody is treated with much respect. It's a money maker pure and simple. However because of the attitude towards it, it's not making anywhere near the money it could. I would say there were 2-3 times as many kids a couple of years ago to who are now in it at the Ipswich centre. A lot have left to go to the Norwich one which is thriving, with another centre in Ipswich opening.

Most parents who have kids in the PDP know that there isn't a clear pathway to the academy and it's just a money maker but it's good for the kids to have some 'proper' training when all they have is their local team with a kids dad who runs it and their training involved just playing a match because dad/manager has a hangover and can't be bothered to organise any proper drills. Like I said sadly Ipswich started out with good intentions but it's gone badly downhill since then.

The Ipswich PDP have very few matches organised & hardly any kids (if any) get picked out to progress higher. Coach's never stay more than 2-3 months and there doesn't appear to be any structure to what they do during the 2 course blocks. However the Norwich one, they have well organised sessions, regular matches against real teams & if any kids impress they get to train or play with the elite (or even higher). They even have tours to other clubs like Arsenal & Southampton where they go on a coach, stay at a hotel, do a tour of the ground & play a match. It's a real academy away trip experience which Ipswich simply don't do. It makes money and the kids love it so why Ipswich don't do similar is a mystery.

The last match my son played for Ipswich the coach hardky spoke to the boys, he didn't introduce himself or look like he wanted to be there. He told them to pick their own positions and then just stood watching for the whole match without saying a word. The Norwich one they did a full warm-up, organised a game plan, a pattern of play he wanted to see during the match & coached continuously throughout the game. The two experiences are like chalk and cheese unfortunately.

My son is blue through and through and would do the Ipswich PDP over Norwich every time but even he knows he got very little out of it other getting to wear the badge of the club he loves. Sad times really that they are on our patch, doing a better job of making money and coaching kids than we are. Judging by the amount of boys Norwich have at their centres there is a decent amount of money to be made that we are missing out on through either lack of interest or organisation.

From my experience of both the Ipswich PDP & the Norwich PDC, the Norwich one is miles ahead. Pricing is similar, but the Ipswich one you have to buy the kit & the Norwich one the kit is optional up to elite level whereupon entry you have to purchase a kit package.
From what I saw with my son's experience, the Ipswich one got reinvented a few years back and started with good intentions but now the impression you get is that they don't really give a monkeys about the kids within it and nobody is treated with much respect. It's a money maker pure and simple. However because of the attitude towards it, it's not making anywhere near the money it could. I would say there were 2-3 times as many kids a couple of years ago to who are now in it at the Ipswich centre. A lot have left to go to the Norwich one which is thriving, with another centre in Ipswich opening.

Most parents who have kids in the PDP know that there isn't a clear pathway to the academy and it's just a money maker but it's good for the kids to have some 'proper' training when all they have is their local team with a kids dad who runs it and their training involved just playing a match because dad/manager has a hangover and can't be bothered to organise any proper drills. Like I said sadly Ipswich started out with good intentions but it's gone badly downhill since then.

The Ipswich PDP have very few matches organised & hardly any kids (if any) get picked out to progress higher. Coach's never stay more than 2-3 months and there doesn't appear to be any structure to what they do during the 2 course blocks. However the Norwich one, they have well organised sessions, regular matches against real teams & if any kids impress they get to train or play with the elite (or even higher). They even have tours to other clubs like Arsenal & Southampton where they go on a coach, stay at a hotel, do a tour of the ground & play a match. It's a real academy away trip experience which Ipswich simply don't do. It makes money and the kids love it so why Ipswich don't do similar is a mystery.

The last match my son played for Ipswich the coach hardky spoke to the boys, he didn't introduce himself or look like he wanted to be there. He told them to pick their own positions and then just stood watching for the whole match without saying a word. The Norwich one they did a full warm-up, organised a game plan, a pattern of play he wanted to see during the match & coached continuously throughout the game. The two experiences are like chalk and cheese unfortunately.

My son is blue through and through and would do the Ipswich PDP over Norwich every time but even he knows he got very little out of it other getting to wear the badge of the club he loves. Sad times really that they are on our patch, doing a better job of making money and coaching kids than we are. Judging by the amount of boys Norwich have at their centres there is a decent amount of money to be made that we are missing out on through either lack of interest or organisation.

Posted By: strap_on sally, Feb 26, 11:05:46