Entertainment For Lively Minds
A football story
While I'm aware that everyone is sick of football I feel the need to share a personal story that may or may not be relevant.
From a very early age one of my twin sons was obviously a talented footballer. By the age of 8 he used both feet and could do virtually anything with a ball, if he saw Ronaldinho on the telly he would go in the garden to replicate it. He joined a local team and within a month I was approached by someone from a Premiership club who invited him to a "Development Centre" 6 months later he was invited to train with this clubs Under 9 squad at the clubs ground, an hour and a half from where we live in good traffic. Training started at 5pm and he finished school at 3.30 pm, do the maths. Within 3 weeks he was invited to play for the under 9's he played 4 games and performed well. He was 9 years old and three nights a week training and a game on Sunday was too much so I approached the most local Premiership club explained my situation and they invited him to pre-season training. We left the first club on good terms, they understood the travelling was too much. He played one game for club two after which he was informed that he wasn't "ready" for this level and was sent back to club two's development centre from which he was subsequently released. The reason given was his lack of aggression, now I accept my boy couldn't tackle his way out of a wet paper bag and tracking back was something someone else could do but he was 9 years old and could take corners or free kicks with both feet, could control anything that was within 2 feet of him, pass, score goals and beat people with ease.
The good news is that he now plays for fun and loves it. I am at pains to point out that I am no pushy parent and in reality my son was probably never going to be good enough but I wonder how many other slightly shy, non pushy, non aggressive but talented kids are rejected or ignored by our system. Would Messi have been rejected for his size? Would Henry's relaxed demeanour have excluded him? I don't know, what I do know is that in a football mad country like ours where millions of kids play and love football we really don't bring many players through that can make a difference. Maybe what happens after they sign their first contract changes things or maybe the coaches just want the biggest, loudest, strongest kids that give instant results rather than persevere with talent that might bring long term improvement.
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Very illuminating
It ties in with something I've noticed when travelling. It seems to me that if you watch a group of 3 or 4 English kids with a football they will generally stick one of them in goal and just focus on hammering the ball at them - everything is about the 'glory' of scoring a goal, with no thought about how skill and tactics might be needed to engineer the opportunity in the first place. Elsewhere in the world - particularly in South America - kids will happily just run around with the ball to no particular end other than enjoying showing some skills, dribbling and keeping possession. It definitely seems like a cultural thing.
Gosh, that's terrible Dave
You must be very relieved your son hasn't been put off football for life.
Leo the lottery winner
Messi was indeed considered too small - so small that he needed hormone treatment to reboot his arrested growth. But, even though one of Argentina's "big two", River Plate, were interested in him, neither they nor anybody else were prepared to invest the 500 quid a month that his treatment would cost.
Enter Barcelona - and even that was touch and go, with the decision going right up to the chairman before the OK was given to sign him, prepare the syringes, and ship him and his family across the Atlantic.
The pubescent "Pulga" was also offered to Real Madrid, but a combination of circumstances meant that he would become, and probably will always be, a Barça player. First, with the dust only recently having settled from the Figo affair, Jorge Valdano was reluctant to piss Barcelona off even more by poaching another player off them, even though at that stage no written contract (or actually, and now famously, a scribble on a serviette) had been signed. And, second, the Messis happened to have relatives living in Catalonia who offered to help them settle in.
Had it not been for the stubborn insistence of Charly Rexach (a Barcelona legend and Cruyff's former No. 2) on signing el enano maravilloso ("the wonderdwarf") come what may, he would have gone back to Rosario - no doubt to be dropped by his club, Newell's Old Boys, soon after because of his size, and returning to playing five-a-side for fun with his mates, while the world kept on turning, turning, turning - in complete ignorance of his existence.
As Dave says, whether a young player will make it, and where, is often determined by factors that have very little to do with the only thing that one would think should matter: the lad's potential. And it does make you wonder how many other Messis - or even, because now we'll never know, other Amitris - quietly slip through the net.
A Lucky Escape, Dave
My 12 year-old plays for both his school and a local club side. In both instances he regularly comes up against what are termed Academy players from the local premiership clubs (Man United, City, Bolton, Burnley - now Championship of course). I think without exception these are the players who push, pull, niggle, dive and abuse the referee and opposition. I don't know what they teach them at these much vaunted Academies but they don't seem to enjoy playing- only winning - and it isn't pretty to watch. My son is a good player and has been watched by scouts in the past but he says himself he'd rather enjoy playing with his mates than turn into the sort of player the Academies seem to turn out.
From your story, Dave, I'd count it as a lucky escape for your son.
Sport or business? Cost or investment?
To bring on young home-grown talent requires long-term investment.
If you want to be able to pay shareholder dividends, it's cheaper in the short term to buy in (mostly) overseas talent.
Seemples.
brilliant posts
Thanks for sharing Dave. Very illuminating. Lovely stuff too Archie.
Trust the massive
to come up with a considered, insightful post, even on the dreaded football - thanks Dave.
(And that's coming from someone who's had zero interest in anything fitba-related since Joe Jordan's glory days at Leeds United)
Dave
Buy him a guitar, and tell him to learn more about Del Amitri, not Del Piero.
For those that are interested
a couple more observations that I didn't want to bore everyone with in the main post.
The development centres are like giant trawler nets scooping up any child that looks even remotely talented. 1 coach between 20-30 boys at each age group.
The academies are soul less fun free environments. The boys that are "signed" look on new boys with suspicion and mistrust. They have their club kit while the new boys train in their own gear.
The facilities are such high quality that the boys are spoilt immediately. The standard of pitches my lad played on were immaculate beyond belief, bowling greens for football.
The coaches in my experience were still concerned by the win and being competitive rather than skill and real development.
The parents are paranoid and obsessive. One mother I met left her job so she could meet the clubs commitments, her son was 9.
Your chances are improved by where you live. Look at the origin of the current England squad. Most are from Essex / East London or the North West in areas where there are high concentration of clubs. I guess credit must be given to West Ham and Man Utd, their success rate is higher than most.
I watched one of the under 16 games where the boys are in their last youth season. Coaches desperate to win, boys desperate not to mess up and waste the previous years and the parents paranoid, obsessive and close, so close to realising their dreams but in reality as far away as they've ever been.
Coaches look for the stereotypical footballer. Attitude, build, is as important as ability. The coach that persisted with Peter Crouch deserves praise because I guarantee he would have been met by dissenting voices from all quarters.
My final thought from what I observed is that the coaches know who the odd real star is and know that he has to play in a team so they need to encourage others. Hundreds of kids are led to believe they might make it when in reality they never had a chance. The coaches know it, the club know it, the parents probably know it but don't want to admit it. The boys give up their childhood for a million to one shot or a career with MK Dons or Brentford if they're lucky.
An exciting experience opened my eyes to a system that doesn't work and put my boy off football for a while. My guilt at putting him through it lives with me still and although I am lucky that he still enjoys it and it didn't break him I also know it still lives with him. Imagine putting a 9 year old boy in that environment and then telling him it's not going to carry on because he's not good enough.
Oh and he does play guitar and he thinks Del Amitri are shite.
Brilliant post, Dave. I've a
Brilliant post, Dave. I've a very young son myself who is showing some natural talent. I'm torn between encouraging him through more formal channels out of fatherly duty with all that entails (major commitment, pushy parents, deluded kids) or just letting him enjoy himself and hopefully be one of the first picked in the playground. I was leaning towards the latter before your post, your experiences confirm my suspicions.
I reckon he'll be better at cricket anyway.