Interested for thoughts and experiences with football academies. My 8 year old is very good at football (doesn’t get it from me!). We have been approached by two premiership academies for him to train with them. Pretty much every time his Sunday league team plays at a tournament we get a tap on the shoulder.
We took him along to the first and he didn’t enjoy it and didn’t want to go back so we didn’t push it. With the initial approach we weren’t keen at all. Heard lots of horror stories about football academies and from our perspective we want to avoid him getting sucked into the system, not focusing on school and then being spat out at the end with nothing to show for it. It seems that at around 14 they move into the academy to do schooling which I am sure is sub standard... if things are going well at that age then it would obviously be pretty much impossible to pull him out of that system.
The flip side is we want to support him in whatever he is good at and enjoys and allow him to fulfil his potential.
does anyone have any experience of kids joining these academies and it not taking over lives and ruining their education??? Am I worrying about nothing?
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My m7 dave's lad got in at 8 to one of the London prem academies. 4 nights a week plus weekends. Spat out after 10 weeks.
Fck that shyt
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Friend of mine is toying with it for his daughter. I think for the time being she's staying at her regular school but doing stuff with a couple of academies during the school holidays so she's still on the radar and getting more coaching than her Sunday team can offer.
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@wangs - that’s exactly my concern. The dilemma is actively keeping these opportunities away from him though... if it were anything else I’m sure we’d be pushing him forward but the football academies seem high risk...
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surely if he is good enough they will still be interested in a few years time? I would give him a few more years to simply play football for enjoyment and then re-assess.
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Is this the only way players can make it now? Or can you still get scouted playing school football or whatever?
8 seems really young to get exposed to that kind of environment imo
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They start the recruitment thing ridiculously early Hank.
At 4, I took my lad along to the local club - loads of his mates there. Was run for free by Chelsea "trainers" i.e. scouts (we live deep in chelsea country sadly). They quickly separated them into the possibles and the improbables. Like within 2 weeks. Needless to say the lad was in the latter category - he couldn't be less arsed about football. That category were basically ignored and left to the dads to coach.
I understand from m8s who've worked on a few football insolvencies that the brown envelopes for transfers extend down to scouts who spot kids as young as that. So they get a kickback when Andy Bigdick striker transfers to Leeds for £30m as a 25 year old because they noticed he was a bit tall at 4 and could do keepie ups.
Thankfully all the probables got put in a different school class to mine by luck. So I dont have to interact with the MADLY obsessed pushy dads.
I truly hope they all end up playing for leatherhead.
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My brother had this for Gymnastics, trained by team GB coaches for two years then at 11 he was dropped.
He used to love gymnastics but quit it then as he didn't see any point
(I got my KiteKat certificates and not much else)
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They did the same at gymnastics four ours phoebs - segregation at about 4 for those that had olympic potential. All of whom have now been binned by 6.
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It does seem ridiculous and yes the scouts get kick backs if the kids are later signed so clear incentive for them to fill the hopper early on in the hope some of them are later signed. My instinct is to avoid them altogether and keep him playing Sunday league but then I think if he was being offered elite training and opportunities in anything else i wouldn’t hesitate. Frankly I don’t want him to go down that route as it’s an all or nothing gamble and being a lawyer that doesn’t feel very comfortable!!
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Just imagine having to spend your time with parents living their dreams through their children. The sort of people who aren't very good at sport, don't really participate but can't stop going on about it as if it's the only thing in their life.
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i know a few kids who play for watford / chelsea / spurs /Reading. They train v hard and are on the diets and some have reached boot cleaning stage. Their parents are generally under no illusions about future career but it's excellent for getting sports scholarships to senior school.
actually i've just googled one of them and he's made his professional debut (but not for the club that he was juniors with but I think watford are still prem?). He never went to an academy school for lessons.
Unlike the gymnastics, it's actually something that can be retained as a life interest / activity so if you can deal with the ferrying around, I'd say it's worth doing while he's still interested. What I'd advise against is signing with an agent on any kind of exclusive basis yet.
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Took my daughter to mini athletics at the weekend. She was embarrassingly shit. Told everyone she was my niece.
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actually something else is that if you don't let him do it, it will hold him back ultimately (my pal who played in the prem for about a decade harbours resentment that his parents never pushed him / gave him these opportunities and if they had, he wouldn't have had to work his way up from lower league / could have played international)
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Rugby academies are just the same. We had a very talented kid at Dorking Juniors where he played with my boy. All of a sudden the kid stopped showing up. His Dad said he'd signed for an academy. Ok then, give him five minutes ]probably
Elliot Daly.
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Cheers that’s all really helpful!
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What I am taking from that post, Chambo, is that rugby academies are actually not the same.
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Couple of observations:
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Wot Wang and YearofthePig sed.
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A pal’s kid was just good enough that the prospect of a pro football career kept him focused on football and not school through his teens; injuries and ending up a bit short for a centre half meant that he ended up unhappy at a lower division Scottish club for a year (and never played). Now he works in a call centre.
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Definitely a khuntish thing for a parent living vicariously to fvck up their kid's childhood over from age 8.
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Made me laugh Wellington.
"Took my daughter to mini athletics at the weekend. She was embarrassingly shit. Told everyone she was my niece."
Well when most of the good little athletes have failed to make the GB team your daughter will be CEO of big bollocks Plc earning the big money.
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Not quite the Childcatchers as portrayed here with football Stix, they do plenty of academics and do let them out from time to time.
For every Daly there are a hundred others who don't make it, lose interest or go to university instead.
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I suspect that a lot of how they fair academically when in these sports teams academies depends on parenting and whether the parents actively make them focus on their studies etc.
I bet there are a lot of parents who see a potential cash cow and just force their kids into putting all their eggs in the making it in football basket.
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My son went to university instead. He played with or against a few who are now in Premiership rugby sides, two are in the current England side. All from Surrey junior leagues.
i had a few approaches from people, but he wasn't interested in going down that route.
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