I trust you all had an enjoyable Christmas and are looking forward to celebrating the New Year.

This time of year is quite a difficult one at the Academy where we begin to make decisions regarding our under-16 players' futures.

These players are registered until the end of the season and are trying to secure a two-year scholarship to begin in the summer and there are two reasons as to why we try to make our decisions so early in the season.

Firstly, we like to offer the players showing the necessary potential scholarship forms early to avoid any risk of losing the player at the end of the season when his registration expires.

Secondly, the players who are not showing the potential we believe they need to become a scholar at our Football Club are informed as early as possible in order to allow them to go on trial elsewhere and secure a contract at another club.

Informing players that they are not going to be offered contracts at a Club they could have been registered at since the age of nine is certainly not easy. The lads would have been dreaming of becoming a Norwich City player from a very young age and we must go about this process in the correct manner and give the young players all the help they need in order to obtain trials at other professional clubs.

On the plus side, the players who have been offered scholarship contracts for next season are one step closer to realising their dream and its just as important that we support them fully in order to ensure they fulfil their potential.

At this stage we have offered scholarship contracts to a number of our under-16 players and as soon as they have accepted their offers I will notify you all of the players involved.

One player who has already committed to his scholarship offer is goalkeeper Remi Matthews. Remi has been registered with us for a large number of years now and has developed very well during his time here.

He has recently been playing for the under-18 team and has performed well and fully deserves his contract offer and we are delighted that he has accepted the terms.

On behalf of all at the Football Club I would like to congratulate Remi on his achievement and hope he enjoys a long and successful career at the Club.

Happy New Year and I hope you enjoy the game.

Ricky Martin
Academy Manager