During his unsuccessful 8 week academy trial, one of the games he played was against another academy team who he’d previously been training with.
Before he went out to play the game, we were stood in the reception area of the academy, when one of the opposition coaches went up to my lad, put his arm round his shoulder and said something to him. My lad smiled and said something back. Immediately, I was wondering what had been said, so it was almost the first thing I asked him after the game.
As he’d spent four or five weeks training with them, they knew what he was like both from a football point of view and also his personality. So much so that they were planning on offering him official trial papers before the other club stepped in, to do the same.
“If it doesn’t work out here, come and play for me.” was the response I got to my question on the car journey home. He had a big grin on his face when he told me. It had been a huge boost to his confidence, as he’d not been on trial long and when he found out who the opposition was that day, he was a bit unsure what their reaction would be when they realised who was going to be in the opposite goal.
When he’d been training for the four or five weeks with that team, as I was looking on, he never seemed fully settled. I think partly due to the team being in a different town and not knowing the other lads who were already there. I also think that because it was his first experience of training with an academy as opposed to grassroots football, he was more apprehensive than usual.
So, with his confidence now lifted, he continued his trial, which stretched from the initial six weeks, to eight in total. He played a few more games and I thought did pretty well, right up until the meeting when we were told they wouldn’t be signing him. His confidence immediately nose dived, as, without wanting to count any chickens, I was fairly confident that he’d shown enough during the trial and in matches to warrant being given a chance. Throughout his trial, I’d been extremely careful with how I worded things when we were talking about how we thought training and matches had gone – I believe the phrase is ‘I managed his expectations’.
Regardless of me trying to avoid answering his questions about what I thought would happen, telling him to just do his best, “that’s all anybody can ask” and changing the subject at the earliest chance, it became apparent after the decision was made, that he also thought he’d done enough to be asked to sign. There were no tears or anger. He wasn’t even mardy. He was just surprised.
Unfortunately for him, the fortnight extra that the trial was spun out for ultimately meant that he was unable to pick up training with the other club, as all the academies finished at the same time for their Summer breaks. Based on what little (almost non-existent) feedback I managed to get in the two months after he was unsuccessful, the extra two weeks worth of training wouldn’t have made any difference to the outcome anyway.
Apart from there being ‘no guarantee of his final height’, they said he needed to improve with his footwork – not something he (or I) was advised at any point during his trial but something we would have done extra training to try and achieve, had we known.
Either way, the two weeks wouldn’t have shown a marked improvement in his distribution. Ironically, his kicking was of a very good standard from a grassroots perspective and having never had any involvement in academy football up until this point, I would have thought they would have understood that he was highly unlikely to be the finished article in every department.
Once I found out that training with the other academy wasn’t going to be an option, at least for the time being, I had a good idea that he was going to stick to grassroots football. In my mind, if it came down to it, the pull of his current team versus the uncertainty of another (possibly unsuccessful) trial, with his confidence at a particularly low ebb, there was only going to be one outcome.
And that was the case. A guaranteed trial with an academy team got the thumbs down.
I’ve always told him he should do what makes him happy and that’s exactly what he’s chosen to do. So fair play to him.
In what seemed like no time at all, he’d made his decision and was back into pre-season training with his grassroots mates. Then came the hamstring injury in the friendly against the u13’s and the race to be able to take part in the schoolboys trial.
At school, on the following Tuesday, his teacher showed him the email he’d received from the Schools FA. It said he’d been successful and was invited to the final trial, that coming Saturday. We were chuffed to bits for him. Regardless of whether he got in, I told him it was a great achievement to get to the final trial. The extra few days enabled him to keep resting his hamstring and continue doing the stretches to strengthen it and get back to full fitness.
By Saturday morning he said it was feeling 99% right. Enough to give a good account of his ability. At the trial, there were enough familiar faces from grassroots football – either ex team mates or opposition players – to ease any nerves he had and he looked relaxed.
Throughout the warm up and drills, he didn’t look out of place, which has always been one of my worries as his Dad – that there’d be a big difference between some of the lads who have played at a higher level and him. It’s just natural that you wouldn’t want your lad to be out of their depth, particularly as a keeper where a difference in ability would be obvious to everyone watching on. The recent academy experience proved that it’s an unfounded worry and most likely (as usual) just me overthinking things and generally being a pessimist.
When it came to the game at the end, the coaches looked to be mixing the teams up to be making them a combination of last year’s players and this year’s trialists. Within the first few minutes, it was apparent that my lad was on the weaker of the teams. By this point, I’d got over my irrational fear of him being embarrassed by the standard of play and saw he had the opportunity to shine as he was by far the busier keeper. His side lost 3-1 but he did well, making a few decent saves and playing out well with his feet. All in all, I thought he came out of the trial looking good.
I was careful not to say too much in the car on the way home. I’d learnt my lesson from the academy a few weeks before on that score.
He was happy with how he’d done and that’s all that mattered. He’d done his best and his hamstring was feeling fine, so what more can you ask? The decision was due to be emailed to school on the Monday.
He didn’t get any news on that Monday due to his teacher not being in. But I did. I got an email on Monday morning to say he was in the squad for the season. A fantastic achievement after the disappointment of the academy’s decision and overcoming the injury in time to take part in the trials.
As one door closed, he got a different opportunity (and took it) because he kept the faith.
Keeper of the faith 