So my 7 year old plays for a local football team round here... one of the better ones. 6 of his team mates are with the local clubs academy. 6 of them! They take them in earlier than that and sign them up on contracts at around that age and cut the rest. These academies have a mix of of lovely parents whose kids love football and want to support them and pushy ones wanting little jimmy to be a star so they can bask in reflected glory. The whole thing disgusts me to be honest. Way too young to be breaking dreams.
I have my level 2 qualifications and used to train the youngsters whilst working on moving up. Chelsea were banned from our training ground for taking youngsters promising them the world and dumping them when they didn't make the cut. A simple trial would have been fair enough, but the way they went about their business was terrible and demoralising for the youngsters who were top of the league all season and probably believed the hype they were hearing
Bucks/South, I’m fine with the academy concept just the starting age - and especially for ‘signing up’. I think by the time they’re 10 or 11, they’re old enough to at least understand and make some choices. At 7 they all think they’re going to be a footballer when they grow up. There’s plenty of time in life to come to terms with failure. Jeez I’ve had loads of practice . Doesn’t need to start at 7.
Jordan Pickford out for a month, makes it interesting for frank as he’s saved them so many points and arguably kept them up last season. Hopefully they’ll drop a few points.
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