Long-term vision of football club key to pair signing contracts.
Over the past 12 months, the football club have invested in the future with a number of Academy graduates penning professional contracts and with Category 2 status applied for, the long-term vision of Peterborough United is to produce our own players and build on the excellent links with the community.
Ricky-Jade Jones, Harrison Burrows, Flynn Clarke, Benjamin Mensah, Sam Cartwright, Brad Rolt, Archie Jones and Kyle Barker have all penned professional deals since coming through the Academy and young goalkeeper Will Blackmore was the latest to pen a long-term deal after making great strides in the last 12 months last week.
Academy manager Kieran Scarff said: “The aim of this football club is to continue to produce our own players through the Academy. On the pitch, the under 18s have enjoyed great success over the last few seasons and the players are improving and developing all of the time under our hard-working coaches.
“The gaffer has always made it clear there is a pathway from the Academy to the first team squad and we will be utilising under 23 football as a way of helping to bridge that gap. With the pandemic, it has been challenging this season to have regular under 23 fixtures, but moving forward, we want that to be implemented to give younger players the opportunity to make that next step.
“With that in mind, we are delighted that two players from the under 18s have agreed contracts with us. Hameed Ishola came to us in pre-season and did very well during that period of time and earned an opportunity for us, which he has taken with both hands. He is a someone that we have a lot of faith in, he is strong, scores goals and is a real handful.
“Dave Bodie is a central defender who we feel deserves the opportunity to continue his development with us. He is another that has really grasped his chance, he is a good one-on-one defender and will benefit from what we are trying to implement moving forward. There is always an opportunity at this football club to progress.”