Within grassroots football, as a parent or coach you hear different views about the pro’s and cons of academy and development centre football.
None of this was ever on my radar as a kid when I played. Maybe there weren’t as many clubs that had academies back then? Maybe there weren’t as many scouts looking for players back then? Maybe it was just that I wasn’t good enough. Most likely a bit of all three – but mainly the latter.
One of my mates joined an academy when we were about 14. He enjoyed it for the couple of years that he was there. He’d been asked to train with the academy while playing at our grassroots team. The ‘scout’ that asked him, played in the first team of the academy in question, in what was the old 3rd Division but also helped out with our training from time to time. As much as my mate enjoyed it, I’m not as sure about his Dad, with the ground being about 40 miles away, they must have clocked some serious miles up while he was on their books.
As my lad’s team have developed and become individually better players and also improved greatly as a team, they’ve found themselves in the top division of a strong league and the scouts are certainly out in bigger numbers, looking for their latest potential players.
Over the last season and a bit, I’ve played a little game whenever it’s become apparent that there’s a scout watching a game. To be honest, if you look around, they’re easy enough to spot on a Sunday morning – usually wearing a manager’s coat with a club badge on and often taking notes is a bit of a giveaway. When I’ve known there’s one watching, I’ve tried to guess which players, if any, from my lad’s team they might want to get in touch with, or come and watch again.
Now that I’m on the coaching side of the pitch, I tend to know before kick off if there’ll be a scout at one of our games. The protocol they should follow is that firstly they advise the manager in advance that they’re planning on coming to the game. Then, before kick off, they come over and introduce themselves to the manager and show their i.d. card. Generally you don’t tend to get random people wanting to shake hands with the manager during the warm up, so there’s a good chance it’ll be a scout. All this doesn’t tend to go down too well because you immediately begin to start stressing that it’s the first stage of potentially losing one (or more) of your players. If the coach thinks any of the players are worth another look, they may come back and watch the player again. Alternatively, they’ll contact the manager after the game and ask for said player’s parent’s phone number.
At this point, I think it’s worth saying that most coaches wouldn’t want to stand in the way of any player who is given the opportunity of going down this route, if that’s what the player wants.
What may happen next is that the player will then train with the academy or development/shadow squad for about six weeks. If it is development/shadow squad football (rather than academy) the player will be able to continue playing for the grassroots team on Sundays. The first possible problem from the grassroots team’s perspective is that they may train on the same night as each other, which will cause disruption to preparations for games as the player in question is not involved with the rest of the team until half an hour before kick off on the day of the game. The next thing to get under the skin of the grassroots team is that if, after the trial period the academy wants to sign the player and the player decides to leave, there are no ‘transfer windows’ as such. The player signs for the academy and the grassroots team is suddenly a player short.
This happens frequently to grassroots teams and they’re left with little they can do about it. Grassroots teams can only start advertising their trials each year from June 1st and the season usually starts the first weekend in September which gives them 3 months to get the players for their squad. As they aren’t playing competitive games yet and it’s getting into holiday season, the scouts aren’t out in force.
The problem is that the scouts start watching games as soon as the season starts. If a scout sees a player they like and they go through the process, in theory the grassroots team could lose a player as little as 6 weeks into the season. At this point, players have generally found their clubs and trials are now a distant memory. The only option the grassroots team have is to carry on with a player less, unless they hear of any players being released from academies, or there are any others who have slipped through the net but to be honest there don’t tend to be many players of any standard still looking for a team.
The way the system works is that if the scout thinks they may be good enough for an academy and the player wants to go, the grassroots team can do nothing about it.
So here’s the thing. At the last home match, a scout from one of the local teams came to watch.
To be honest a scout had been to watch our lads a few weeks previously and asked about our right-back. As the lad had been training with them since then, we thought he might just be checking up on him, in a match rather than just at their training sessions.
The game went more or less to plan. The opposition were a few places (and points) below our lads but a warning of complacency had been firmly placed in our lad’s ears at training and also before kick off. No goals in the opening 10 minutes or so wasn’t ideal but then we scored. Once it got to 3-0, the opposition heads went down, the team lost their shape and it became a question not of whether or not we’d win but how many we’d win by. My lad hadn’t had many shots to deal with but the ones he had to save, he did comfortably and he’d been very vocal, asking for back passes and dealing with them calmly. We won 8-0.
So it was a big surprise that afternoon when his manager gave me a ring to ask if I wanted to speak to the scout about my lad’s availability to train with the academy.
I said I’d ask the main man first but would take the number in case. First of all, it’s very flattering. It shows that his hard work has paid off to some extent. When it’s your own lad, as any parent can tell you, you’re their biggest fan but also their biggest critic. Sometimes because of that, the edges become a bit blurred and you don’t see what other people see. Whether that’s good or bad. However, it’s even more flattering when the scout says your lad’s been on their radar for a while, that they’ve been to watch him a couple of times but the games have been comfortable enough for the team (and him) and he’s not had much to do.
Anyway, my lad wanted to go training with them – I think partly because his mate was already training with them – and that’s the main thing, it needed to be his decision. As it turned out, the goalkeepers trained two nights, one of which was the same as his grassroots team, so I explained he’d only be able to train with the academy one night a week. He said it was no problem, so I took the details of where and when he’d be training with them. Another keeper’s Dad – a friend of mine, after spending countless hours stood watching our lads train together, often in the pouring rain – is more in the know than me and said the standard timeline would be a couple of training sessions, followed by his trial period, usually six weeks.
As it got closer to the day, he was getting more and more nervous but for once, I wasn’t. I honestly couldn’t care less if he plays for an academy or not. He’s happy with his grassroots club, he’s made a lot of good friends and he looks to me to be continually developing as a goalie. Alternatively, if he is good enough for an academy and he decides that where his future is, then of course, he’ll have my full support. The usual Sunday morning phrases were churned out by yours truly to put his mind at rest. I also told him to enjoy the experience as it might not come around again.
The keeper’s Dad knew the coach who would be taking him at the training sessions (and the following trials) and said my lad would be fine with him. He said the coach in question would get the best out of him and my lad would enjoy it once he got going. He was right. My lad went over and introduced himself, helped the coach move various goals into position and seemed to be at ease straight away. As it turned out he was the youngest keeper, as all the established academy keepers were either the year above him or older. But you wouldn’t necessarily have thought so. He performed very well and that’s coming from his biggest critic! The second part of the session was a game with the outfield lads. As he came off the pitch, he said he needed to be there for the same time the following week and that he’d enjoyed it. Good enough for me.
The following week was a similar session, goalkeeper training, followed by a game. As he walked off the pitch, the coach was talking with him. My lad said the coach and someone else needed to talk to us both. Not sure what about though. Me neither. I had no idea what they could want to talk to us about, I just assumed the trial period would start the following week but maybe the details were different?
The four of us sat down together. They got straight to the point. There would be no trial for him.
They wanted him to sign for the academy, just like that. It sort of took my breath away. Obviously I didn’t want him to make a decision there and then, so we said we’d let them know later in the week. I wanted him to give it full consideration because it’s a lot to take in and the knock on effect could obviously have a big impact on his grassroots team, depending what he decided. His initial decision was that he was going to stay with the grassroots team because he didn’t want to leave them without a keeper mid way through the season – good choice son – but also just because he loves it there. I told him to keep thinking about it through the week and I’d ring them on Saturday, so he’d got a deadline in his head. I asked him every day up until the Saturday and he never wavered.
When I rang up and explained the situation, there was a definite sound of disappointment in the voice at the other end of the phone. Would it make any difference if he trained with the academy until the end of the season and signed for them then, so as not to leave his team in the lurch? I said I’d have that discussion with him. The answer was the same, so I let them know. It seems he’s not ready for academy football yet.
I also rang his team manager to let him know the outcome. There seemed to be as much relief from his manager as there had been disappointment from the academy. To be honest there was a great deal of relief on my part. If I’m honest the speed at which the academy wanted to sign him surprised me, more than just a little bit. At least we could get back to concentrating on his Sunday football again, without any distractions and that started the next day with a tough game at home. 3rd v 4th in the table. As I was getting ready to warm him up, his manager told me that a scout from a different club was coming to watch our game.
After about 10 minutes and with us leading 1-0, the opposition won a free kick just outside my lad’s area. He set his four man wall up. I don’t watch the striker in these situations, just the goalie. The ball flew over the wall with pace, heading to his right but also staying low enough to sneak under the bar. He moved his feet quickly, pushed off his right foot and his left arm came up as he moved through the air. His fingertips flicked the ball onto the bar and over for a corner. Unfortunately they lost 2-1 but it was as good a save as I’ve seen him make in five and a half years of playing.
“If it was David de Gea that had made that save, we’d still be talking about it now”, said the scout when he rang me the following day…
…suppose I’d better keep the faith.
Keeper of the faith 