I was curious so I checked .....
Since they integrated Cat. One Academy's into the tournament in 2016/17, only 5 times has an academy side reached the quarters-
2016/17 Swansea
2017/18 Chelsea
2018/19 City
2019/20 Leicester
2021/22 Arsenal
With Chelsea the only one to progress to the semi which they lost in 2017/18.
Utd failed to get out the groups last year. Next year will be L'pool's 4th year of participating and of the previous 9 group games, we've still yet to win 1.
It's really tough in so far as you're coming up against seasoned pro's who know every trick in the book and punish every little mistake. Most of the games we've played, we've played the league team off the park for 50/60 minuets, ran out of gas, and got punished heavily late on. And set-pieces is another hard learning curve that our kids have been punished with against savvier, far bigger, physical players in the air. And with the games normally being scheduled for International breaks, you're even more weakened as most of the top players are away with their Nations U18/ 19/ 20/ 21's.
So the prospects of an academy side ever winning this tournament/ making the Wembley final are the slim side of slim.
But I personally like it as a really good development/ teaching tool where results really don't matter and it's all about proper cup football experience against grown men.
Whether I'd like academy sides developing in the competition if I followed a League One/ League Two side is a whole other discussion.