I have a 4 month old son and with all the academy deals and releases it got me thinking. What are your experiences with your boys playing for professional football club academies? How does it work? Do the boys gets scouted at Sunday league level? Do they go to clubs for trials? How brutal is it? How often are they expected to train with an academy at say 10 years old? Sorry for the barrage of questions any info on it would be interesting for me literally have no idea how it works
My sons friends went to academies, Sheffield utd, Chesterfield. Coaches recommend them to scouts and then they get offered to go for trials. Way more at academies than can make pro contracts of course. For me, I wanted my son to be decent enough at football that he could always join in any social team.
That’s the brutal part. When they’ve been accepted into the academy, many think they’ve pretty much made it. When probably 5% are kept on past 15/16. It comes as a big shock to many.
Is he interested in football and does he enjoy it. that’s the first two questions I’d be asking when any child is old enough and it goes for pretty much any other activity. As without that you are flogging a dead horse, but please don’t take this the wrong way he’s 4 months old and you’ve dreamed of a career as a professional footballer for the lad.
I loathe academies. About 5 years back I coached my lads Junior team. Just local kids, no-one was turned away on ability (they were 4 when I started, 7/8 when I finished), and I think I got lucky as we had 4-5 very talented kids and a mix of abilities for the rest. As soon as they started doing well the whole thing became awful. I had scouts from Man City turn up to matches but to be fair to them they were always polite came to me to ask about kids and waited until I spoke to the parents. We played a cup final and a scout from Derby was walking up the touchline talking to parents without even the courtesy to ask. He was under no obligation to ask me, it wasn't like we owned registrations but it was courtesy to ask. 4 of 5 of the really talented kids were picked up by Sheff Utd, Man City and Rotherham. The 5th lad had plenty of people sniffing round him but his Dad just didn't think lads that age should be in an academy anyway. Long story short(ish) all 4 of them came back to us but three of them were utterly ruined by their experience. Long training sessions multiple times per week, trials that they didn't get through but the clubs didn't want to release them so invited them into an extended trials. I was told the training was very strict with coaches shouting at the kids, one Dad fell out with the club and walked out of the session. Another told a 7 year old he needed to lose weight if he wanted to get in. The kids I got back seemed drained of enthusiasm and demoralised. One club suggested that our junior team wouldn't be good for him in the long term and asked him to join another team "with whom we have an excellent relationship". A couple of the Dads had their heads turned and became pains in arse to deal with. One of them wanted a meeting to discuss my plans for his son's development. The whole thing turned sour very quickly and until academies came sniffing it was a great enjoyable experience. I'm sure that there'll be good stories out there but I hated it. To my mind academies should be banned from going near kids until they are secondary schools at least. They'd probably still do it anyway though.
Thanks for your experiences! Of course I would never push my son to play if he didn’t enjoy it and don’t really have any plans to do that. Just wondered as all! I sort of expected it to be quite a brutal process, those lads that got released yesterday probably put most of their life to the club then just get a paragraph saying thanks for your work, sad really for teenagers I feel bad for them!
Learning to swim was the only thing I insisted they did. The rest was what they asked to do. The girls stuck to everything they started but my son doesn't. He likes football though but has been in a few different teams. I think in general boys don't seem so bothered about extra curriclar stuff.[/QUOTE]
[/QUOTE] I have 3 daughter’s 2 grown up now and a 9 year old. Like you RH always encouraged swimming. None, interested in football, which I ‘m still trying to decide if it was a good or bad thing. Financially good, but socially not so good. Eldest used to have a Man City shirt as a young teenager but that was an Oasis thing. I always tried to just let them be kids as much as I could, Pushy parents that try to make their kids adults before their time annoy the hell out of me.
It’s a bit since I was involved in Junior football so things might have changed a bit but personally I wouldn’t rush to get a kid in an academy even if he had some talent at an early age . If you have a decent local club where their mates play keep them there . It’s a rare thing to get a pro contract , I’ve seen lads go to academies locally at 11 and 12 , being the best players at their clubs , only to return at 15 with their mates having progressed beyond them in footballing terms and enjoying playing more
My sons team played Barnsley academy when they were about 7/8 and hammered them. One of the lads got signed by Barnsley after the game and is still on the academy now 10 years later. He was a midfield/forward then he’s a defender now. Academies with take kids who are good at age 7 or 8. But if kids are late developers they will have to be exceptional to be be picked up at 12/13
when he was about 8 my son played for a local team - one of the players was way ahead of the others and I believe he was taken on at Sheffield Wednesday. 5/6 years later he's back with the local team - not a star any more - the other boys have got better but he hasn't! There are other sports available - local Athletics Club - Swimming - hockey. Think the most important thing is for kids to enjoy the sport they're doing and not to be pressurised.
Listened to a radio documentary on football academies some time ago and was amazed to learn that only 2% of academy lads go on to make a living in the professional game
Like your post - neighbour's son is, as you say, w4ank at football and his father is obsessed with having a son who is a good footballer makes his life really unpleasant - spends hours each evening trying to teach his son (10) - tells the son he's a disappointment etc. Main thing is kids should enjoy the sport they take on.
Interesting, don’t worry guys I’m not planning on forcing my son to be the next Cauley Woodrow or anything I was just curious to know how it all worked for if he started playing for local team as it seems very harsh and brutal lol... awful seeing those lads being released who had been at the club for most their lives
If you catch him snorting lines of baby powder you might well have the next Maradona on your hands, though.
Don’t have to be decent to get in a social team Helen. I’m the proof. True story. When I was around 14. my elder bro. Cousins and their mates joined the Barnsley Sunday league. Most came from Jump. And managed to get the pitch at Broomhill. Jump already in use. They/we were called Wombwell rovers ( aka Raggy rovers) 1st season, no points, scored 20+. Against 130+ promoted 2nd season 1 point can’t remember the other figures. promoted. if I remember right there were either six or eight divisions around 1970. And because teams dropped out. Promotion was a given. Got battered by the same teams for at least 3 yrs. our first win was against a team from Scisset. 3rd year. Saying that we always gave em a run for their money.