20 Sep 2017 11:35:58
Partly to change the subject and partly because of an interesting post on Huddersfield Academy yesterday I wanted to talk about youth development. I think youth development is fundamentally flawed at the big clubs, putting aside the damage done to smaller academies by hoovering up all their talent (see Huddersfield) it is more efficient for a rich club to pay for a player than for them to develop one. Academies take years to train a player and their output has a poor record. If you look at the big 6 clubs there are only 11 home trained players (this includes Solanke who was trained at Chelsea) in their first team squads. Of those 11 only 2 are established first 11 player (Kane and Rashford), 4 are hoping to establish themselves (Iwobi, Winks, TAA and Solanke), 3 are hanging on by their fingernails (Wilshire, Lingard and Flanagan) and the last two are just pups starting out (Walker-Peters and Woodburn) .

If you look at our players nationally we have a terrible reputation, in terms of our talent pool we should be on a par with Italy, France and Spain (Germany’s is an order bigger) but these countries are outperforming us, why? I believe it’s because the clubs in those countries can’t afford to fix all their problems with money and are therefore forced to utilise their youth players. Furthermore countries like Holland and Portugal are outperforming us, despite having much smaller talent pools, probably because they are ‘selling’ leagues; they have fully established youth development programmes and their best talent is continually stripped meaning there are plenty of opportunities for their youths to prove themselves. It’s similar in South America, with a one way flow of talent across the atlantic there are always opportunities for talented and determined young players.

In England there are two problems, the youth players don’t have the same route to the first team at the big clubs and, those who are so talented that they force their way through, often struggle from ‘too much, too soon’ syndrome and lack the work ethic that marks out the truly great players. If you compare Kane or Rashford to Wilshire the former two both got their opportunities by good fortune (failure of Solgado and an injury crisis respectively) as opposed to Wilshire who was told he was destined for the top from age 16.

Whilst it is always great to see a home-grown player break into the first team it has become such a rare occurrence and the current system is so damaging, that I think it should end. Essentially I wouldn’t want young talent playing at a big club until around 21. What advantage would this have? All the young talent in the country would move to smaller clubs where there is a route to the first team. As they couldn’t move till they were older they’d serve full apprenticeships rather than sit on a bench somewhere else. Furthermore they wouldn’t receive ridiculous wages early on robbing them of their desire to improve. The Championship is a very competitive league and it’s standards are probably similar or higher to a lot of the minor leagues around Europe, it should be utilised as a breeding ground for talent.

I think a rule along the lines of ‘Players must be 21 or older on the date of the first PL game of the season to be eligible to play in the PL. Players who were registered at clubs who have been promoted from the Championship in the last three seasons are exempt’. Such a system would hold back the u-21s who are of a sufficient quality and desire but those players would still make it, just a couple of years later. What do people think, ridiculous or could it work?

1.) 20 Sep 2017
20 Sep 2017 12:11:50
Whilst i more or less agree with your post Putney, having an age cap i feel would also restrict a players ability to learn. Do you not thnk a young 18-19 year old training with the likes of Ronalso, Ibra, Coutinho etc would help develop their game? I would mi=uch rather learn as much as i can from these types of players.

2.) 20 Sep 2017
20 Sep 2017 12:39:05
That's an interest point stuie and one I hadn't considered. My gut feeling is that's a nice to have but not as important as good coaching. How many of those players you mentioned were training with greats themselves when they were teenagers?

{Ed001's Note - the best players were not coached to be great, the Bests etc. Coaching hones what is there. I would say we need to find a way to bring back more impromptu fun games of football for children. When I was growing up, you could have anything from 3 kids up to 50 or 60 on any scrap of ground we could find. Now there are cars everywhere, kids are too afraid to kick a ball around in the streets.}

3.) 20 Sep 2017
20 Sep 2017 12:56:26
The countries whose youths seem more progressive and ahead in most parts in my mind are germany, holland and spain (leave south american teams out of this convo) all have one thing i can think of in common obviously extreme players like asencio in spain go straight towards their first team but all these leagues are set up so their second teams which are mainly u23 players all play in lower division leagues against senior sides (in spain they are called b and c sides, germanys 2nd (II) and in holland they are called jong. just so you can see what i mean) . What this does in my opinion is gets them used to playing against adults for the want of a better word helps get used to the physicality of the game.

{Ed001's Note - more to the point, at least in Spain from what I saw anyway, there is lots of space for kids to kick a ball about and they usually are out playing, not stuck indoors.}

4.) 20 Sep 2017
20 Sep 2017 12:59:01
I agree that things have changed ed, but I doubt they'll go back to how they were. I think there's still loads of talent in England, I just don't think it's being managed correctly. In a better system Wilshire, Barkley and Sterling would be world class. Instead they're wasted talents.

5.) 20 Sep 2017
20 Sep 2017 14:36:27
I think its bigger than just a football issue in UK, though that side of it could be far improved upon.

To me part of it is society and government related, for example I live across from a park that I grew up playing football in junior and youth leagues as well as just kicking a ball about with my mates, for years now the council have stopped maintaining the park and it doesn't even have goalposts any more - I see this replicated all around.

6.) 21 Sep 2017
21 Sep 2017 10:54:39
Agree with the Ed on this one. I coach youth football. now I'm no expert and only have level 1 and I don't claim to be a brilliant coach. But my philosophy is on encouraging them to play with passion, enjoyment and without fear of trying something.

I'm not suggesting I'm ever going to coach the next England star but even at the basic level I coach at, I've seen a marked improvement in the way they play. What I am now introducing to them is that best for the team mentality so they don't sulk when they have to play in defence 😉.