Coventry City start their Professional Development Academy League 2 North campaign with a trip to Sheffield United on Saturday.
With City's owners SISU not being able to come up with the required £2.35m, City's Academy has been effectively relegated to the second tier of Academy football and the days of Greg Rioch's team beating the likes of Aston Villa, Chelsea or Tottenham are over.
Whilst, there will still be the local games against Birmingham City and Leicester City, who pipped City by a solitary point to the Academy League Group B title last season to look forward to, the Sky Blues will now play at U18 (and U21) level, sides from Yorkshire, the East Midlands, Crewe and Wigan.
City have played Sheffield United before, winning 6-2 in Sheffield on August 27th 2011 with Billy Daniels getting a hat-trick and goals from Jemal Wiseman, Courtney Richards and Jonson Clarke-Harris.
The seven substitutes for the first team rule will mean that Rioch will not be able to field his strongest team for every game but the way, his team has played in pre-season, beating the likes of Liverpool 4-1, there are high hopes that City's Academy can continue to provide players for the first team and get results on the pitch.