Building from the Ground Up

This week saw the release of a cinematic documentary entitled "The Class of 92." The film charts the rise of 6 players from the Manchester United youth team of 1992, with the narrative centering on the social & cultural shift within Britain during that time. The club itself had gone through numerous face lifts prior to their inclusion, however it was the vision of Sir Alex Ferguson that allowed these players to become the spine of a club for over a decade, and elevate them to the top of European football. Fast forward to the current day and as the necessity to buy big grips our managers like a vice, are the days of a youth team graduate a distant memory? Is it a fallacy to think our Academy system isn't producing players, or are they simply not being serviced properly? In this piece I intend to explore how our top level game is becoming increasingly disconnected from its own youth programs.

The Youth team model has been an intrinsic part of the British game in the post war era, as it has provided clubs with a platform in which to cultivate young talent, and school them in their philosophies for a fairly low expense. These "Farm Teams" often play the same system as the 1st team, so it provides each player with an environment they will encounter should they be promoted up the ladder. The evolution of the academy system has taken a few twists and turns over the years, with its current incarnation being arguably its most convoluted.

- Clubs have dropped the age of entry significantly, and can now field teams as young as under 12 into competitive match play. This has created a highly aggressive market in which players are "recruited", when they are barely old enough to cumulatively understand the process in the first place.

- Clubs have been known to procure families to re-locate to within a designated "Catchment" area, so the player qualifies for participation. The costs of such a venture are often picked up by the clubs.

- Pro Level Youth teams now have a transfer budget, which has saw them enter the trading market, and populate their side with an array of international players.

This leads me to question whether our clubs are simply using the youth team model to further their "brand" rather than bring through the best local talent. The youth program was once a major artery in the bond between club & supporter, however it seems it has now degenerated into a rather expensive PR exercise.

In this year's Forbes list of Most Valuable Clubs, England had the highest representation encompassing 7 of the 20 clubs listed. Beneath these super powers, there are those who regularly compete in the top division, and are still able to turn over in-ordinate sums of money from TV revenue alone. A byproduct of this fiscal prudence has been a vast increase in the level of infrastructure at our clubs. From immaculate training complexes, to sports science & education facilities, our clubs have unparalleled access to world class resources. Rewind back to the time of the "Class of 92" and they were turning out at United's age old training ground "The Cliff", which in comparison to Carrington is a throwback of Dickensian proportions. With the inception of younger teams, players are now at clubs for longer periods of time, and are therefore exposed to more high level coaching in their formative years. In yester year a junior player may have never met a professional coach until 16, so their chances of "making it" relied largely on their ability to integrate quickly. In past endeavors a youth team would be managed by a former 1st team player, whose career was harrowingly cut short, but had went onto "work with the kids." Now our top teams scour the globe for coaches who are highly qualified, both in licensure & in age group specific training. So if we are to view the current landscape as one of an improvement upon times gone by, then why has there been a decrease in home grown talent in our top sides? Surely youth players must now be benefitting from heightened levels of professionalism? The statistics would exclaim otherwise.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City & Liverpool form the top 4 of the Barclays premier league, and year on year invest vast sums of money into youth development. At the start of this season each of these clubs were permitted to select 25 players that would form their 1st team squads. Of the combined 100 players who were selected, a total of only 15 had been part of their respective clubs youth program. More interestingly only 6 of the 15 had made more than 10 appearances for their clubs 1st team. A similar story can be told of the BPL's bottom 3 clubs Sunderland, Crystal Palace & Fulham. At 1st glance they may seem more "Community Based" in their size and stature, however after bypassing this notion, it allows us to derive a different outcome. Of their combined 75 players selected, only 4 in total were part of their club's youth set up. These statistics lead me to question why our top clubs even bother with youth programs? If there is such disparity throughout the league, then surely the expense of such an exercise would be better spent elsewhere?

At board level in England there has been a direct shift from strategy to preservation in the last decade, with the seemingly relentless hiring/firing of managers being its end result. Attaining/preserving Premier League status is for many clubs it's singular focus, therefore this short term view renders a majority of the Academies work meaningless. If a manager's performance is graded on little more than 10-12 games, we cannot be surprised that he would favor spending money on a short term fix. In short, his tenure decides which policy to emply. There are examples of clubs who have laid solid foundations for the future, with Southampton being a beacon in rather cloudier times. They are a club that completely restructured their organization after being relegated to League 1. Seeing the errors of their ways, their owners spent significantly on building a development team, that worked tirelessly to produce young players who could impact the 1st team. Allied to this there fan base championed these young stars, giving them the support to propel themselves to new heights. Managers have came & went during this period, but all have shared a consistent view that youth players are an integral part of the club. Now in the Premiership the club are enjoying new levels of success, with their main protagonist of the youth academy, Adam Llana, recently representing the English national team.

What's abundantly clear is that there has to be a mentality shift in how we perceive the academy system, at all levels of the game. Simply viewing these as teams affiliated to the club provides us with little structure, and endangers both the security of the club & prosperity of our national game. Winning a youth championship should serve the manager with 4 to 5 players who he can integrate into a 1st team, not act as another statistic on the clubs honors list. We as fans must remove ourselves from the search for this fictitious "Next Level" we seem to aspire to these days. Spending big is a frivolous use of monies that may not be at our disposal in years to come. Therefore we must employ a renewed focus on youth development, and see integration as a key stage in the process. If we are to see anything like the "class of 92" again we need to place trust in our young players and have faith in a holistic model that, given time, will benefit our national & international game for years to come.