Alex Lowry Signs Contract Extension

[Uilleam 5,394]

On 09/05/2022 at 15:32, Bill said:

👍 Perhaps I misunderstand what you’re referring to as churn rate. I can envisage a highish turnover within the development group as a whole … but not necessarily within the elite who are transitioning into the first team, or indeed the first team squad itself. 
 

Or do you mean something else?

Here is an article from today's Times, in which Tony Pulis (yes, that Tony Pulis) discusses his research into the academy system/model. 

Quite fortuitous, really. 

 

 

Tony Pulis: Most academy kids are never going to play football – not enough is done for them

The former Crystal Palace and Stoke City manager tells Matt Lawton why the Premier League’s youth development system is in need of a drastic overhaul

Matt Lawton, Chief Sports Correspondent

Wednesday May 11 2022, 4.30pm, The Times

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tony-pulis-most-academy-kids-are-never-going-to-play-football-not-enough-is-done-for-them-rjz2n3z6t

 

Growing up in Newport, Tony Pulis used to love it when his dad could find the time to watch him play football. “It meant I’d get a lift home, sitting on the crossbar of his bicycle,” he says. “We never had a car.”

Pulis has seen how the life of an elite young footballer has changed since then. Not just during his career as a player and then a Premier League manager, but through the generations of his own family.

He watched his son, Anthony, battle through the ranks, from an apprentice at Portsmouth to a journeyman professional at 12 different clubs before making the transition into coaching. And now he is quietly tracking the progress of his grandson, a talented eight-year-old enjoying the benefits of a category one academy at a Premier League club, and a product of the Elite Player Performance Plan that was launched ten years ago to produce more home-grown players for the country’s top clubs.

It is, however, a system that Pulis — who left his most recent managerial role, at Sheffield Wednesday, in December 2020 — believes is in need of a complete overhaul.

As Pulis observes from the sidelines with other relatives, he marvels at the standard of the facilities and the support these kids receive. This is an under-9s match we are watching but they are playing on a pitch fit for Premier League superstars under the guidance of coaches, physiotherapists and player care officers. Kit, including boots, is among the many things that are provided free of charge. “It’s brilliant,” Pulis says. “The academy my grandson attends is terrific, it really is.”

 

But Pulis has big concerns — not for the gifted few who eventually emerge from the system to enjoy careers as professional players, but instead for the vast majority who do not; those who at different stages of the process are discarded and suddenly have to deal with crushing rejection, the death of a dream, and often with not much of an idea about what to do next.

In some cases, the scale of that disappointment has had tragic consequences. Jeremy Wisten was 16 and only months away from securing a first professional contract when he was released by Manchester City. Less than two years later, in October 2020, he took his own life.

 

Mental health issues are commonplace, as Pulis, 64, has discovered. “I spoke to one father whose son was released at 18,” he says. “It took them two years to put him back together. He’s back on track now, and getting an education, but they lost him for a while.”

As Pulis says, academy football has become an industry within an industry — a search for talent that could eventually command a sum of tens of millions of pounds.

Players as young as nine now sign contracts, even though Pulis estimates that “only 0.5 per cent of the players from that age group will make a living out of the game”. Yet one top-flight club have been known to send limousines to the homes of these boys on the day they sign their contracts, giving the entire family that first taste of the jetset lifestyle they hope football can provide for them.

“It’s like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory,” Pulis says. “The kids and their families are sold this dream, and I’m not sure how often they are warned about how unlikely it is that they will actually make it.”

 

Pulis sees the commitment both the boys and their families make. Matches which fall under an Academy Games Programme that involves more than 10,000 fixtures every season can involve round trips of between 200 and 300 miles. Training takes place, even at this age, three nights a week, with matches at the weekend.

When clubs distribute their academy brochures to families, some include a code of conduct for parents, and the relatives attending this match are certainly well behaved. That said, one father could be heard bemoaning his nine-year-old’s “body language” to another parent.

 

It is when these lads get older, however, that Pulis sees serious problems. The academies require them to start missing school for what is called “day release”, with clubs providing their own schooling in classrooms at their academies. The issue with this, of course, is obvious: the lack of continuity compared with other children at their school.

The Premier League delivers a formal education programme for all apprentices aged between 16 and 19 who have signed a full-time scholarship agreement at a club, with a BTEC qualification mandatory.

But Pulis argues that this is hugely inadequate, and is in fact failing the scholars who may want to pursue a different form of education. The data is not readily available but Pulis has been told that by this stage the education of many of these young players has already been compromised. Statistically, young academy players achieve year six SAT scores above the national average. By 16, however, their exam results fall below that benchmark.

The real challenge comes, of course, when the clubs decide to let players go. Attempts are made to relocate them to other clubs — as was done by City on behalf of Wisten — but too often these boys are in no fit state, mentally, to seize an opportunity at a lower-league club.

 

Wisten began to struggle when he was dropped from City’s elite youth squad after suffering a knee injury. His parents tried to console him but he found it difficult to cope with the disappointment. At the time of the 18-year-old’s death, his father, Manila, said: “We told him it didn’t matter, that we were proud of him. He withdrew. He spent a lot of time in his room after that. I don’t think he ever moved on. I can only speak for my son, but I want to highlight the issue that kids in football need to be taken care of mentally.”

As Pulis says, at any one time there are between 10,000 and 12,000 boys in the academy system — 3,500 in the Premier League academies alone — yet his research indicates that as many as 95 per cent of these players will not have a career in the game. The head of education at a category one academy — which are the top-ranked academies in the country — told Pulis that 78 per cent of players who turn professional at 18 are no longer playing football three years later. Another said that from 400 players who sign professional forms at 18, only eight will still be playing in the top five tiers of English football by the time they turn 22.

“Having spent all my working life in the game, I have been shocked by the statistics that I have compiled through my research,” Pulis says.

 

“Academy football gives false hope to 95 per cent of its workforce, and unfortunately it has done very little to address that. Young lads are used to service the system. Without the numbers, full-on coaching sessions could not take place, a games programme that incorporates over 90 per cent of all professional clubs could not take place, and the whole army of employed academy staff would be made redundant.

“As a young lad with unlimited hopes in life, the dream of becoming a professional football player is just so special. The opportunity given through the academy system drives his and his family’s hopes of achievement. Lads will spend year after year dreaming of that day, but 95 per cent of those lads will never experience that joy. In fact for most, the experience of total rejection and despair will be felt.”

 

It has led Pulis to draft a proposal he has already taken to the Premier League and the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) — one that involves the formation of a dual-scholarship programme overseen by an independent body, funded by the Premier League, that focuses only on the education of the players in preparation for an alternative career.

Pulis has spoken to schools, colleges and universities that would happily go into partnership with such a scheme — including colleges in the United States — to provide an education for these players as well as a games programme that could become a springboard back into professional football. After all, some boys will develop later than others.

The UK, says Pulis, would be divided into six regions, with regional directors and teams of mentors dispersed to work with the young players at different clubs. They would assist players and their families in tailoring an education for the individual, while also making sure that the required standards are met.

“If they are going to demand that commitment of players and their families, then football has got to provide some kind of a safety net,” Pulis says. “And the safety net is an education; a bespoke education that can lead to an alternative career. Some boys might not be academic. They could be better suited to a more vocational course. It would be the job of the mentors to help determine that.”

Pulis explains why he is so motivated to implement change.

 

“It’s only since my grandson has gone into an academy that I’ve really started to pay attention to just how big that part of the football industry has become,” he says. “In many ways it is better than it was before. But in certain areas I don’t think it is doing enough.

“My concern is around the balance with the educational side. And my concern is about the amount of sacrifice the parents are making. A lot of parents will see all this and start to dream of their lads one day becoming a professional. They will be bowled over by everything. That’s fine for the players who come through; the five per cent. It’s a fantastic profession, one that has given both me and my family a great life.

“But the statistics show that most of these kids are never going to play football, and not enough is being provided for them.

“The system makes massive demands on families. The kids will see less of their friends, the parents might devote more time to this one child than their other kids. The travelling and time that is involved. There’s a big sacrifice that is made. I want these dual scholarships to support these lads even after they have been released.

“The academies are first class. I’m not sure there are better facilities anywhere in the world. But any one club can have as many as 250 boys in their academy and the majority will be working for the elite minority. Everyone knows that.”

 

Pulis has spent the best part of a year conducting his research and drafting his proposal.

“I’ve spoken to lots of relevant people,” he says. “It can be devastating for a boy and his family when he is rejected. Some of these boys will feel they have let down their families. For some it might have been seen as a way out of poverty. It can affect the parents, siblings. It can lead to the horror stories we sadly hear about.

“I’ve spoken to universities and colleges who would love to have these kids. There is a solution here, and I’ve presented my proposal to both the PFA and the Premier League. I’m now waiting to see how they respond but I hope they are receptive. I hope they understand where I am coming from. I hope they can see it from the point of view of the parents and families.”

Pulis has studied the academy brochures players and their families receive, and the focus is very much on the success stories rather than what, for most of them, will be the grim reality of failure.

Such brochures advise parents how to secure day release from their son’s school, highlighting the wonderful opportunity they have. And while there are references to the support they can provide should a player be released, it tends to focus more on trying to find an alternative club. Further to that, the remit of the player care teams seems to mainly concern those who are in the academy rather than those who have left.

So far, only Crystal Palace have attempted to tackle the issue of supporting players after they have departed. In February they became the first top-flight club to offer a three-year aftercare programme to help scholars deal with the “trauma” of being released. They acknowledged the “sheer volume” of players who drop out, even after signing at 18.

“One club,” Pulis says. “We need to see change right across the system.”

 

Ten years of the Premier League’s Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP)

 

0.5 per cent the proportion of under-9 players – the youngest age group – who Pulis estimates will make a living out of the game professionally

 

98 per cent the proportion of 16-year-olds with scholarships at all professional clubs who will either be released or who will drop out of professional football completely, according to Pulis

 

97 per cent of former elite academy players now aged 21-26 did not make a single Premier League appearance, according to reports this year

 

That report stated that 70 per cent of the former academy players were not handed a professional contract at a Premier League or Football League club

 

72 per cent of players released from Premier League or Football League clubs surveyed last year said they felt they were not given enough support by the club after they were cut

 

88 per cent of players surveyed said they had experienced depression or anxiety after being released

 

10,000-12,000 the number of boys in football’s youth development system at any one time

 

3,500 the approximate number of boys in Premier League academies

 

250 the number of boys each Premier League club is allowed to register in their academy