doing it for the kids:
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Posted: September 19th 2008
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Well it’s taken us five years to get there, and we knew it would be tough. And on seeing the opening day fixtures...well I trembled just a bit. I hid it from the lads, but no matter...they trembled anyway. Which is why we lost 5-0.
I’m always wary about comparing youth football to ‘real’ football. However it has to be said that, especially by the time you get to u15 level, clear comparisons can be drawn regarding the gap between the divisions.
We’ve spent five years getting slowly closer to Division One, and last year we finally romped Div Two, so handsomely that on paper Div One should hold few fears. Realistically, though, we’re probably a bit like Sunderland a couple of years back. The manner of our promotion suggests we can survive...but competing with the real big boys is a tall order.
And how, you may ask, do these big boys become so big? Clearly money isn’t involved. And it’s not as simple as ‘coming from a traditionally footballing part of town’ (though our being from one of the posher areas can be a hindrance at times).
Simply, they become big because they try to get all the best players. Not just from their part of town, but from all over. Community club? Sod that, we want to win. By the time you reach u15, enough parents are happy for their son to travel a bit further afield for his football, especially if it means he’s playing in a high ranking team, and thus can cling on to his (or his parents’) fast-fading Academy dream for just a bit longer.
However unlike ‘real’ football, the ‘big boys’ are in a constant state of flux. Their success does inevitably attract scouts. They then lose a couple of players to Academies...another one or two maybe decide they would rather play with their school mates in the local community club after all...and the whole thing collapses.
So most of these ‘all stars’ teams can sustain a period of dominance for 2 seasons, at a push 3. But when one folds, most of the lads move onto another wannabe all stars team, and so the cycle goes on. Thus the best of the community teams, striving for the heights but doggedly sticking to using lads who live in the region which the team’s name bears, always hit a brick wall.
You can have regular top half finishes, maybe making it as far as 4th or 5th...whilst the make up of the teams above you changes in terms of names, but is usually the same personnel, guns for hire signing up for whatever manager promises them he’s just picked up a handful of Academy drop outs, not to mention poaching “the big striker from club X, the winger from club Y and the ‘keeper from club Z”.
Many of you will be familiar with the story of east London’s Senrab club where, in the early 90s, a glut of future stars all came through from one kids’ club at around the same time: John Terry, Paul Konchesky, Jermaine Defoe, Bobby Zamora, Lee Bowyer, Ledley King, JLloyd Samuel...
Senrab’s coach at the time admitted all he was interested in was having the best team, and he’d take (poach) players from all over to get it. But this was before the Academies became the well-oiled scouting machines they are today, their talent-spotting starting as young as 7 or 8.
In modern day kids’ football, the Senrab model seems flawed, particularly in smaller towns like ours with a limited number of potential future stars bobbing around...you end up being an academy for the Academies, and eventually jack it in or, if your own son isn’t one of the lucky ones who gets scouted, starting all over again.
Anyway...such practises are less obvious in girls’ football...but such is the “it’s all about winning” mindset that is so central to the British psyche, it does still exist. Our u11 girls kicked off last weekend against a team we’d beaten twice last season with something to spare. This time round, against a very different squad, we got beaten 5-1.
I’m happy to give this particular opponent the benefit of the doubt...it could be they’ve just added a few new names to their squad, are thus giving more girls the chance to play...and the new additions just happen to be particularly good. Maybe. There are other teams in the League to whom I wouldn’t afford such good will. The team who won their opening day fixture by insisting on playing a full length fixture with a full complement of 7 players on at all times, despite their opponents only being able to rustle up five players due to injury and illness, will also have won themselves few friends.
So 5-0 and 5-1 defeats meant a bit of a gloomy mood in our household. But we still can’t wait for the second game...