Crewe Alexandra F.C. Academy


gained a strong reputation for its youth policy, achieving official status as an FA Youth Academy in the late 1990s. By concentrating on developing its own players the club remained profitable by selling them on after they have gained experience with Crewe. The Academy is known to stress technical excellence, which accords with the aim to have the first team play attractive, passing football. Most of the club's achievement in youth development have come from former manager Dario Gradi, who now serves as manager of the Academy.
Players who passed through the ranks at Crewe include the England international players Geoff Thomas and David Platt and Welshman Robbie Savage, and Northern Ireland internationals Neil Lennon and Steve Jones. All these were youngsters signed from other clubs, but Gradi also had considerable success in nurturing Crewe's own trainees - notably full England internationals Rob Jones, Danny Murphy, Seth Johnson and Dean Ashton and Wales international David Vaughan.
More than 80 former youth players have also made it into the first team at Crewe. In April 2013, in the team's final game of the season, manager Steve Davis fielded a team whose starting 11 were all Crewe Academy graduates - a feat repeated by Davis's successor David Artell on 5 May 2018.

Current Academy players

Graduates

Players highlighted in bold have gained international caps for their countries. Players who were signed straight to the first team from elsewhere are not included.