This may have already been posted but i couldnt find it when i just had a quick look, sorry if it has shout out for the saints academy http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/feb/03/the-secret-footballer "It always amuses me when I hear parents taking such delight that their 10-year-old has been "taken in" by one of the top clubs. Should my son ever express a real desire to play football, God forbid, I would be looking at the number of players that have come through a club's youth system, not the number of trophies in the cabinet. Knocking on the door of a club like Southampton might be an idea. Here, away from the limelight, Saints' academy has produced, in recent years, Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, Leon Best, Andrew Surman, Wayne Bridge, Nathan Dyer, Chris Baird and Alex Oxlade‑Chamberlain to name but a few. It is modelled on Barcelona's famous La MasÃa academy and run at a cost of £2.3m a year, and Southampton have now produced players valued at more than £100m. Geography generally plays a big part in where a youngster will initially start out but it certainly isn't just the kids that are "taken in" by the big names of English football. Some parents like the complimentary tickets at Premier League clubs." always an interesting read i find
Good find, the article in question also mentions the NextGen Series - a kind of U-18 Champion's League if you will. Wonder why we aren't involved? Maybe because of the league we are in?
Does anyone know who the secret footballer is? Has there been any rumours? He sort of gives details away that, if recorded and analysed, might help someone deduce who he could be. I used to find it vaguely interesting, but it's so blatantly and heavily ghost-written by a Guardian writer that I don't even bother with it now.