What is the point of a Junior Team

Good OP Lincoln, I was having the same discussion in the pub after yesterdays game too.

I have a friend who is a scout for Chelsea, and this is how he effectively told me how it all works. Hopefully it might explain some of your points above.

There is a huge chasm in modern day football in the way that the big clubs acquire youngsters in comparison to the lesser sides. Clubs like Chelsea, City, United, Liverpool and Arsenal have their tentacles reaching world wide. Every single tip on a youngster is followed up. No matter what the standard of football or where the lad is based. No player slips through the net these days, or it is very rare that they do. Oddly enough our own Charlie Austin is one of these. But it is still rare for a player to come through in their later years and go on to be an International in the way that Les Ferdinand and Chris Waddle did many moons ago.

What this robust scouting policy means in real terms is that clubs such as Chelsea have a huge and well financed academy. They can effectively 'minesweep' literally hundreds of these youngsters a year from all corners of the globe and accommodate them all. When you consider that there are six or seven other clubs in England alone doing the same thing there is not a vast amount of young talent left. And that's without taking into account that there are about thirty other clubs from the major European leagues carrying out this practise too.

Chelsea's policy is that if they can hoover up as much domestic talent as possible they can have the pick of the crop. It also stops other clubs recruiting anyone decent. For example if little Johnny Smith aged ten from Hammersmith is earmarked as a special talent Chelsea will have him on their books, regardless of QPR, Fulham and Brentford being interested in him as well. Chelsea can offer far more financially or otherwise than the other clubs can. This will also prevent any of the other clubs benefiting from Johnny should they sign him. They don't want other clubs to have the chance of getting a good player and also making a nice few million from selling him on should he develop to his potential. By recruiting as many players as possible it keeps the smaller clubs small. It also means that teams like QPR have a smaller and more limited pool in which to recruit from.

Chelsea have hundreds of these youngsters in their academy and on their books. Ninety five percent of them will be let go at some stage and they'll probably not go on to play any standard of professional football. But that doesn't matter, the rest will still go on to make them money. How many of these players will actually break into Chelsea first team squad anyway? They currently have twenty eight players out on loan this season. Pretty incredible.

Even if a club like QPR does develop a promising talent that one of the other biggies somehow missed out on, it's still no problem. They help there selves to him. Raheem Sterling anyone?

 

No of course not mate. My apologies for it coming across in the way that it has. It was not intended to be an exhaustive explanation. A combination of rushing my typing, cooking dinner and helping the kids do their homework is to blame.

I just tried to put across one aspect of the reasons why seemingly lesser clubs bring through the top players. As has been pointed out, Southampton are one of the exceptions and if we can get to have an academy like theirs within the next ten years we'll have done very well.