Proud History Bright Future continues to be the theme at Oxford United with three Honours Boards going on to the walls at the Training Ground today.
The club has a very proud history of producing young players, with 101 now having progressed from the youth team to play first team football- Nico Jones and Jack Stevens making their debuts in the last few games last season.
Both are now top of the list on one of three boards at the Training Ground. Board 1 has the 101 players to play for the first team after representing the youth team. A second board shows the 22 players who have played for their country while with the club after playing for United’s Academy, and the third board shows recent victories for our age groups over Category 1 Academies in recent years.
The boards were paid for thanks to kind donations from Academy parents and all three face a fantastic mural which shows the timeline right through from the club’s formation in 1893 through to the current day where 16-year-olds Slavi Spasov and Fabio Lopes made their debuts in a season which saw Shandon Baptiste captain the side against Manchester City.
Academy Manager Dan Harris told us:
“The boards look great but they also have an important function: we want any young players at the club to see that there is a clear pathway for them, and what they can go on to achieve if they have the right attitude and work ethic as well as the talent the possess.
“Right at the end of one wall is a space saying ‘who’s next?’ while the new boards have space for us to add names when that next crop of young players step up and pull on the yellow shirt in the first team.”