A Brutal Business:
Professional football clubs want quality players, end of story. Developing young players is an investment of the time, effort and resources of the staff of their academy or centre of excellence. Even clubs with a strong emphasis on youth development need a return on their investments. Places in the academy are limited and scholarships are even more at a premium. They have to make life-changing decisions about young players. They can’t afford sentiment, especially at elite level. They have to believe that the youngster will become an asset to the club. It’s become a business – often a brutal one.
The vast majority of the boys that make it into the academy don’t get scholarships either. Cardiff City has a very successful academy that has contributed players to the first team and assets that have been sold on to bigger clubs for a profit. It has more than paid for itself several times over, yet the wastage rate is high. The academy has several boys passing through it at any time. “I think in total, all the way round the age groups a rough estimate would be around 140,” says Academy Director Neal Ardley. “We are constantly bringing in new lads on six week trials and trialists.”
Of those around ten percent will get a scholarship and if half of them ever play for Cardiff City, they will have exceeded expectations. About 95% of those passing through an academy or centre of excellence will never play professional football. Even those getting scholarships have a high wastage rate.
Rates of Development:
As Blake says only five or six will be offered scholarships, which prepares them for the next stage of their development – one step away from a career in professional football. From there they move on to the reserves or possibly the first team squad if they are good enough. Generally these players progress through the various age groups of the academy or centre of excellence. Aaron Ramsey and Joe Ledley both joined young and made it through Cardiff’s academy, but they developed at vastly different rates. Ramsey stood out at an early age, whereas Ledley blossomed late.
Blake points out that football is not unique. Aptitude and development rates vary in many professions and in education. “It’s like in the classroom,” he says. “Not every boy or every girl are going to be at the same achievement level. They’ll all be different. Some will make it and unfortunately some don’t make it. That’s the crux of the thing.”
But Blake wants a more efficient process and believes that it must be possible to achieve. “I think what we need to think about is how those who come into it have got a better chance of making it when they come through full time,” said Blake. “In terms of the fourteen, rather than only getting five who come through as full time professionals, try and get ten. Increase the numbers. I think that’s an area we need to improve – increasing the numbers once they come into the full time system, but historically, it’s always been the same in many regards.”
Maximising Potential:
There are many reasons that young players don’t make the hoped for breakthrough, but coaching is obviously a very important part of their development, so what would be the optimum number of players per coach, that Blake believes would increase help the chances of bringing through ten out of the fourteen or fifteen boys, rather than five or six?
“It depends on the coach,” he says, “because if you are talking about one to one tuition, if you’ve got twenty players and you want one coach per boy, you’re going to have twenty coaches. It’s not possible. It’s like a classroom. You’re not going to have twenty teachers.” But development doesn’t depend on the coaches alone.
Blake belives that they youngsters must contribute more as well. “Players also need to take more ownership of their learning,” he says. “A lot of it is placed on coaches. When things go wrong, it’s the coach’s fault, but when things go right, it’s the player that have done it. It’s a two way thing. If they want to succeed, they need to put themselves out – same as the coaches.”
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