Sheffield Wednesday U21

Sheffield Wednesday's academy grew out of a club whose own roots lie in a cricket side from 1820, and by the time it turned professional the Owlerton neighbourhood had already given the senior team its nickname and its ground. That inheritance is what the U21s carry: the same "Owls" name, applied to a squad that plays not at Hillsborough but at the Middlewood Training Ground, a low-key setup holding around a thousand people rather than the tens of thousands the first team draws.

The academy itself dates to 1948, and its clearest mark came in 2016–17, when the U21 side won the Professional Development League, the national title for clubs at that level. The following season the U18s took their own league title, and between the two age groups the production line has been steady rather than spectacular: Liam Palmer and Joe Wildsmith both worked through the ranks to become fixtures for the first team, and defenders such as Jordan Thorniley and Matt Penney followed the same path from the training pitches to competitive football.

What the U21s are ultimately preparing for is the step up into a fixture list still shaped by the Steel City Derby against Sheffield United, and by a first-team trophy cabinet that stretches back to FA Cups won in the 1890s and 1900s and four League titles either side of the First World War era. None of that history is played out on the small terraces at Middlewood. It sits a short walk away, at Hillsborough, where Sheffield's own crowds have watched the senior side for well over a century.