With this morning’s proposals relating to the EPPP (Elite Player Performance Plan), the shape and future of academies in the Football League could well be coming to an abrupt and unsavory dead end.
Under the plans, the process in which youth prospects are purchased by Premier League clubs will be directly related to how long the player in question has been at their previous academy, instead of the current system, in which each specific case is heard by a tribunal and a compensation package is agreed in relation to the perceived potential of the player in question.
To put this into some level of perspective, a player such as our own high profile academy case, John Bostock would have been allowed to leave us for Spurs for a maximum fee of £350,000 instead of the £700,000 initial fee which will rise to £1.25 million dependent on appearances which the tribunal agreed at the time of the transfer to be a fair figure for all parties concerned.
It does not take a brain surgeon to see that the disparity in those two figures represents a huge shift in favour of the purchasing clubs balance sheets in the short and long-term, and could in essence lead to the death of youth academies throughout the UK, simply as a result of a lack of future revenue.
The plans also aim to abolish the current rules which stipulate that players must live within 90 minutes travelling distance from their club, a rule which was designed to ensure the natural growth of young footballers in both an educational and physical sense was disrupted to the minimum level possible in their formative years.
If the new proposals are to be put in place, there will be nothing stopping a club such as Sunderland sending their scouts to watch a youth product playing for Exeter and lure him away with promises of money and first team football, regardless of what is best for his development at a key stage in his life and career. This is a system which is impossible to argue for on any level, other than as a money saving device for clubs with the disposable income to take a gamble on a player at a very low price.
The third part of this complex and ridiculous puzzle focuses on the stipulations and check points academies will have to adhere to, if they are to fall within what will be regarded as a Category One level centre. These include having a full-time staff of at least 18 employees, an annual budget of at least £2.3 million and a previous record of "success" which will judged solely by the Premier League and its members.
Once again, it doesn't take long to realise that almost every club outside of the Premier League and a fair few within it, will not be able to reach these thresholds, and as a result will not be anywhere close to being granted the status of a Category One academy. This in turn will mean that the gap, which is already huge between Premier clubs and the rest of the Football League, will continue to widen, but at a far greater rate.
The sketchy reasoning given by the people who are behind the proposals, centers on the perception that young players who train at the best facilities will automatically become better players than if they were to remain in their normal environment. The comfort of training at a club which the players know and feel comfortable in, with coaches that understand their needs and development rate is being dismissed as pointless by many, who appear to have conveniently forgotten the likes of Dario Gradi at Crewe who has consistently produced top players on a very small budget, anyone remember Dean Ashton?
It appears that the PR spiel churned out following the national team consistently failing at major tournaments has been taken and run with by the countries media outlets who have been brainwashed into thinking that we have finally discovered the Holy Grail of youth development. In the main, they appear to feel the new system will instantly turn our national team into a well drilled, passing side that will conquer all before them because they now all train with Chelsea or Manchester United.
It is a myth that because the facilities are better the coaching is as well. Take a look at our very own youth coach Gary Issott, who has worked tirelessly in recent years to continue the excellent reputation of our academy, by producing such young players as Victor Moses, Sean Scannell, Nathaniel Clyne, Wilfried Zaha and Jon Williams to name a few, all of which were done without a bloated annual budget and numerous full-time staff, but instead with copious amounts of effort and care for all aspects of their growth as professionals.
I could go on for far longer, but to do so could well see me labelled as a mad, ranting nutter, something no one wants to see, the long and short of it is that, if these proposals are to be passed, they would signal the death knell for the financial future of "small" Football League clubs, and as a consequence, a large proportion of the young talented footballers being made available up and down the country.
All we can hope is that, with our new involvement with the Oasis academy, which was announced this afternoon at 2pm, we can continue to produce young players of the standard we are known and respected for already, despite this further obstacle to our success being put directly in front of our faces.
One thing we can still hope for is that young men continue to follow in the footsteps of Jon Williams and Sean Scannell, who only last month, committed their immediate futures to Crystal Palace on professional terms regardless of what agents and managers may have said to them from other clubs. If that continues to happen it will keep the main bargaining power in the clubs hands, meaning that they are still able to negotiate a fee which they find acceptable, rather than being forced to accept the tiny sums dictated to them by the money men ruining our game from the top down.
We can only hope.
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Until next time.
