My daughter gave me a book. Bran
Clough's "Walking on Water". Yup, sounds like Spring Lane!A couple of quotes
from Cloughie:
"All kids want to win and have to learn how to lose, but these days too many
parents put too much pressure on little lads who should be enjoying every second on the
football pitch. Our Simon used to run a team called FC Wanderers and I've never seen so
many up-and-coming Alf Ramseys in my life - parents on the touchline thinking they were
coaching their kids. There were about twenty of them, the same twenty every week, shouting
their heads off. The mothers were the worst offenders and they hadn't a clue what they
were shouting about. They'd heard some self-styled expert trotting out the same phrase on
the telly."
Good old Cloughie - can even upset people from the grave.
Then he goes on to say:
"Another thing that worries me …. is the academy. ….
Now we have a National Academy and every club seems to have one of its own as well; if
it hasn’t got one, it's regarded as a bit of a stigma. No academy? Can't be much of a
football club then. What total, utter garbage.
They're grabbing kids almost before they've lost their milk teeth and although these
places no doubt produce some good players at the end of the conveyor belt, I'm not sure
they will produce enough to justify the investment and expense. Call me old fashioned but
I think some of those good players would emerge anyway without the need for such intense
teaching processes. I'm scared the kids are being brainwashed and by the time they are
eighteen or twenty they'll all be walking around the same way, like robots. There will be
nothing natural about them because their individuality will have been coached out of
them"
Brian went on to say more, including pointing at Jackie Charlton as an example of a
player who was a late developer - and who become one of only 11 Britons ever to win a
World Cup winners medal. He wouldn’t have been invited to join any modern Academy.
Perhaps Brian would have approved of Colchester United who have a School of Excellence
instead of an Academy. I wonder what the difference is? I'm not sure how much Brian has
researched this particular subject though. He still talks in terms of the financial side
of developing youngsters. I haven’t finished the book yet but it doesn't seem to
mention the psychological effect that rejection from a league club has on an 11 year old
boy. Nor does he show an understanding that the professional clubs are exactly that -
professional businesses whose stock of trade is young boys who can be used to generate a
profit for the shareholders. The purpose of the Academies is to generate long term revenue
- especially for the smaller clubs like Colchester United. And what happens to the young
men who come so close, but fall at the last fence, at clubs like Arsenal and Chelsea? You
may find them at centre-back for Colchester - so what happens to the boys from Colchester
United's School of Excellence who spent all the spare time of their youth working to
fulfill a dream of becoming a Professional Footballer?