The grassroots season was drawing to a close with only 3 league games remaining for my lad’s team.
The games left to play were all rearrangements because of postponements enforced by the great British weather. If the lad’s games had gone ahead first time round, their season would have been done and dusted by mid-March. In hindsight that would have made the last couple of months a bit less hectic for him.
He was training with an academy and also an Emerging Talent Centre (ETC). The ETC training clashed with his grassroots training, so I had a word with his grassroots manager to see if he’d be OK with him missing grassroots training while he had a few weeks with the ETC. We were told that it would be for 6-8 weeks and after that period of time, he’d be given a decision on how he’d performed and how they saw his likely progression. What coincided with the end of the 8 weeks at the ETC, was the rumour that the other academy wanted to put him on a YD8 form, to give him an official 6 week trial.
I texted the Recruitment Officer at the ETC to advise that he wouldn’t be able to continue training with them because the YD8 form means no involvement with any other professional clubs – I should clarify that as this was my lad’s first involvement with any academies, I was learning all these procedures and processes as I went along – the Recruitment Officer texted me straight back saying that they wanted to offer him the YD8 form as well and asked how soon we could go in, to complete the forms.
A couple of things went in their favour. Firstly, it’s the team he supports and secondly, the other offer was only a rumour, so we thought he’d be foolish to turn down a concrete trial offer. The date was set for the following week to go to the academy, sign the forms and then get straight into his first training session.
When we arrived at the academy, the Head of Recruitment took us to his office. The first thing we were told during the meeting was that they had been very impressed with how he’d performed in training at the ETC but also that there are relatively few young lads that are given the opportunity to progress to the academy. As well as that, a scout had watched his grassroots team and passed his details to the academy, so, he came in his words, “highly recommended”. He should be very pleased with getting to this stage and was encouraged to grasp the opportunity with both hands – from both a football point of view but also from the social side of things. He was encouraged to mix with the academy lads and integrate as much as possible during the trial. Not always easy when you don’t know any of them. The other thing that was mentioned to us was that the two academy keepers in his age group would likely see him as a threat (as it is very rare to have three keepers within an age group) so he should concentrate on his trial and his own game.
I’ve always been fairly confident about his ability as a goalkeeper but it’s fair to say, I wasn’t sure if he’d fall short in an academy environment. Neither of us knew if there would be a gulf in class between him and the other keepers already there. To be honest I wasn’t sure how he’d fair with the ‘social’ side of the deal either. He’s an outgoing, fairly confident lad but it always takes a certain amount of time to settle in and the Head of Recruitment said he’d seen plenty of lads with bags of ability but they had failed because of not fitting in with the other players.
We were given a booklet with all the information he needed about his trial and also found out from the meeting that training would be three evenings a week, with the likelihood of games being arranged against other academies or grassroots teams on Saturdays or Sundays. At this point, specifically because of him being a keeper, I clarified the dates of his grassroots games and he said they would try to avoid those particular Sundays. We came out of the meeting and he was shown down to the changing rooms to meet the lads and the coaches. I went the other way, walked outside and waited for him to come outside so I could watch his session.
Throughout his trial period, the training sessions took the general structure of an hour with the goalkeeper coaches, then the remainder of the session (an hour, or an hour and a half) with the outfield lads and outfield coaches.
The first session seemed to be very successful. For a start, he’d enjoyed it. He also knew the two goalkeeper coaches, so felt at ease straight away and then on the way home, he reeled a few names off – lads that he’d only met a couple of hours ago. He was happy, so I was happy. And importantly, he was already looking forward to training the following day.
At the following evening’s session, I was stood near the parents while he was training and overheard something that made me feel great. They didn’t know who I was and probably didn’t know I could hear the conversation but they were talking about my lad. The conversation was about the ‘new keeper’ and “does anybody know where he’s come from?”, “I watched him last night and he did really well” and “he’s quite tall isn’t he”.
The nervous knot in my stomach was unwinding a lot sooner than I’d expected.
The sessions went by and he continued to enjoy them, he mixed more and more with the other lads as well as the older keepers during training. I got talking to the u14’s keeper’s dads and they both said their lads had commented on how well he’d been doing. Everything seemed to be going great.
At the initial meeting, we’d been given the end date for his trial (exactly 6 weeks later) and were told there’d be a meeting after his third week just to check everything was going ok. We were also told that it was very unlikely that anything would happen after that meeting half way through the trial – in other words, he wouldn’t be signed at that point and he wouldn’t be released either, unless something had cropped up that gave them cause for concern. The meeting never happened, although when I did ask about it I was told that there was no need for the meeting and that everything would be covered when his six weeks was up.
In the mean time, fixtures were being arranged for him to play in.
The first couple were against other academies. It was Sod’s Law that the first one was against the academy he’d been training with previously. He was nervous but I think more worried about what the other academy coaches might say to him, if and when they saw him. He needn’t have been on edge. One of them came over to him, shook his hand, asked if he was OK and was he enjoying his trial? The other coach did pretty much the same a few minutes later. It put his mind at rest and also showed what they thought of him. I thought it was a touch of class to make a point of coming over and asking how he was. In the game, he played well, made a couple of good saves and came out and made a brave block. They won 2-1 and he was happy to have got the first game under his belt, as well as realising he hadn’t made any enemies.
He played another couple of games before being asked to play ‘a year up’, for the u14’s. It was against a grassroots team but I only found out while I was walking up to the pitch to watch, that the opposition were u15’s. So the lads he was playing against were two years older than him. He played the first half of the game and did really well with a deflection just before half time. It was half blocked by a defender’s leg and looped up and over him. He moved his feet quickly, jumped up and back, managed to get fingertips to the ball and it skimmed past the far post. I counted eight of his outfield team mates either fist bump him or slap him on the back before they defended the corner.
In academy games, there’s much more emphasis on playing out from the back and he had plenty of back passes to deal with, all of which he did. On one of them, he looked to have taken a bit too much time and the centre forward was on top of him. He just knocked it onto his other foot, moved away from the oncoming player and passed the ball to his full back. A few minutes into the second half, one of the defenders had to come off and without any other substitutes, he was back on but playing on the left wing. He nearly scored as well. He was buzzing on the journey home.
The following week he was asked to play for the u14’s again. The opposition was again an u15’s team. But this time it was Leicestershire Schoolboys. He played the second half but as I looked at the shape of the team as they restarted, I could only count nine outfield players. There were no injuries. One of the other parents said it’s quite common for them to take a player off, to stretch the team more. Once again, he did well and made a few saves and dealt with all the back passes with little enough fuss. He was feeling very happy with himself afterwards.
I wondered if he was being asked to play in these couple of games specifically just to give him game time, or if he fitted the bill better as cover for the u14’s than the other two u13’s keepers. When he was stood at the side of them, he was considerably taller than both of them. I know that height is not the ‘be all and end all’ as far as keepers are concerned but the difference between them was noticeable. Especially if they were stood in front of a full sized goal. The more I thought about different aspects, the more I thought he was ticking boxes from the academy football point of view.
He was now at the stage where he was mixing with all the u13’s lads and plenty of the u14’s as well. Tick. Every time he was training, he was doing it with a smile on his face and looked comfortable in the surroundings. Tick.
The six week end date came and went. The general opinion amongst the academy parents was that this was a good sign and that if they weren’t interested in signing him, they would have asked for us to have a meeting well before this point and given us the bad news. While he’d been at the academy, a good number of the lads (into double figures) had said they thought he’d be asked to sign. An outfield lad had been at the academy for eight weeks before he’d signed, so without getting his hopes up, it appeared that all was going well for my lad. I didn’t want to come over as too pushy and be badgering for a finish date and his grassroots season had now finished, so I figured we’d just let it run it’s course.
On the eighth week of his trial, there was no training for two of the three days because the academy lads were having their retain/release meetings – where the academy make a decision to either keep or release the players. A couple of hours before the final training session of the week when the lads were actually due in for training, I messaged the Lead Coach to ask if they knew when they were planning on having a meeting regarding a decision on my lad. “I was planning to sit down after the session if that’s ok?”
I didn’t mention the conversation to my lad as I knew he’d not be able to concentrate on training if the decision was hanging over his head. On the way to the academy, I asked him what he would say regarding his strengths/weaknesses and how he thought he’d done while he’d been there if a meeting was to take place. He asked if there was a meeting arranged. I just said there must be something soon because of him having been there for eight weeks. His honest opinion was that overall he’d done well, particularly enjoyed ‘playing up’ for the u14’s (against u15’s) and he commented on having got on well with the other lads as per the advice he’d been given in that first meeting.
He went down to train with the lads and I went in to the viewing area to watch. The u14’s keeper’s dad was in there and he told me one of the u13’s keepers had been released but all the outfielders had been retained and asked me if we’d heard anything. I told him about the meeting and he was convinced that they’d want to sign him, having just released a keeper, along with him having been at the academy for eight weeks. He was sure that they would have made a decision on him a few weeks before, they wouldn’t have drawn the trial out if he wasn’t part of their plans and it would be harsh to let him train before telling him he’d been unsuccessful.
While I was watching, a friend of mine (a fellow goalkeeper’s dad) came in to see how my lad was doing. He knew a decision was due that evening and had dropped in to watch some of the session and offer us some moral support. On watching the session, his first comment was on the size of the keepers and the height advantage my lad had over the other two. His second was on how good my lad’s footwork was. Tick.
I knew the decision wasn’t cut and dried but I was as confident as I had been at any point during the last eight weeks that my lad would be getting the news he wanted. He came into reception with the other lads after the session had finished and told me we needed to have a meeting with the Lead Coach. He had a couple of other lads to see before us, so we had to wait 15 minutes or so before we went in for his decision. After what seemed like an age, we went into a side room and sat down.
Even before he started talking, I could tell that it wasn’t good news. He had nothing in his hands, no paperwork, no notes.
And then there it was, “First of all, really well done on how you’ve performed while you’ve been here but…” The words “You’re as good a goalkeeper as I can remember having on trial here…” and “You’re far, far too good for Sunday League…” were sounding very hollow. I can’t begin to imagine what my lad was feeling. All the way through, I’ve managed his expectations to the best of my ability but even up to just a few minutes before the bad news, the academy lads were still telling him he’d be asked to sign.
To be honest the decision surprised me. To the extent that I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t have any questions lined up or anything. Nothing at all. We were both a bit shell shocked as we wandered back out of the room and towards the car park. The academy lads have a group chat set up and my lad was part of it while he was on trial. On the way home he put a message on saying he’d not got in. His phone pinged more or less straight away with a reply from the captain, “On your Mum’s life?”
It was only a few minutes into the journey home when it dawned on me that there was no feedback given to us on his performance. Not a single word. I felt stupid that it hadn’t occurred to me to ask. For them to have made a decision on him either way, they must have made notes on his strengths/weaknesses and what areas he needs to improve on. Regardless of if that’s the end of the road for him with that particular academy – which it is – surely they owe us their professional opinion after keeping him there for a fortnight longer than previously agreed.
I don’t want it to come across as sour grapes because if he’s not up to the standard they’re looking for, that’s fair enough, that’s life, but for him to improve he needs to have constructive feedback to be able to address whichever areas need improvement. Apart from anything else, it’s common courtesy for a lad who hasn’t missed a training session or game, who’s arrived early for every session and done exactly what’s been asked of him from day one (to week eight).
The extra couple of weeks they kept him at the academy could also prove to be more important/costly for him than we realised if he wants to continue down the academy route. The other academy asked to be kept informed of his progress at his trial. So when we found out, I let them know the outcome. It appears that all the academies wind down within a day or two of each other in May, until some time in July. If he’d known after the agreed six weeks that he wasn’t successful, he could have at least trained with the other academy for a couple of weeks before the break.
I’ve asked for specific feedback on his time at the academy and as of now, a week later, I’m still waiting. The Lead Coach hasn’t responded to my messages and I’ve been in contact with two other people at the academy to try to get any information. Surely to make a considered decision on whether a player is of the right standard during a trial, the coaches (both goalkeeper and outfield) would need to complete paperwork, have a proper evaluation, assessment and feedback. I really hope I’m wrong but the fact that it’s taking as long as it is to even respond to me would suggest they haven’t done any of this. The last message I received was a text saying “***** should be sending you a message”. Hardly convincing and sounding highly unlikely that I can expect the courtesy of an actual conversation any time soon.
Whatever the outcome is – and I’m not holding my breath about getting any useful information – he’s put 100% in and done his level best. Sometimes it’s just not enough. He’s over the initial disappointment but I know he’s got some fire in his belly and a point to prove.
Whatever happens, we’ll both keep the faith.
Keeper of the faith 