Football’s Lost Generation: The Real Life of Academy Football
Empty Arenas: Financially, football across the globe has suffered due to a lack of spectators in stadiums.
Since the outbreak of Coronavirus, football clubs across the UK have been placed in a period of financial uncertainty with a generation of young talented footballers paying the ultimate price.
Twenty of Europe’s biggest clubs have recorded losses of more than €1bn in revenue in the past year due to the pandemic, according to market analyst KPMG.
In an attempt to recover severe financial losses, professional academies have prematurely cut short several bright futures within the game amid growing uncertainty over a return date to academy football.
So, what is the real reality of academy life and are professional clubs offering sufficient help to safeguard these aspiring youngsters hindered by the pandemic?
Paul Pettigrew, 24, a Former Morton FC academy footballer and now GamTalk UK founder said:
“Ruthless is how I would describe it. You’re held in the highest of regards and all of a sudden you can be dropped almost out of the sky.
“At the very start, my team coach told me that Morton currently haven’t got a sitting defensive midfielder and you could fill that gap in a year.
“So that fills you with massive confidence. I was playing really well and moved up another level to the development team. Then I got injured and came back about three weeks before we were to find out if we were to get contracts.
“My coach said to me: if you can get back in and get a couple of games under your belt, you’ll be fine here. So, I was thinking I’ll be fine, but then I went to my meeting and just got bumped.
“It wasn’t even my coach; it was the head of academy who had seen about three or four games all year who just sacked me. So, ruthless is how I would describe It.”
Jamie Ewings, 36, and current Motherwell FC academy coach acknowledged Paul’s tough experiences but believes that academy football is better structured since his own experiences as a player with Hibs 21 years ago.
“The industry is very cut and throat. Back then it was almost out of sight out of mind, and you just had to deal with It.
“In today’s society, we are encouraging people to speak out and with people speaking out, they are going to voice their opinion on their treatment. I think there is a learning curve for clubs now with these things are starting to come to the floor.
“Sometimes people can look at it and say: I wasn’t given the ample playing time and wasn’t treated greatly by the club, but at the same time it could be looked at as sour grapes. It’s just opinions.”
Following his release from Morton, Paul suffered from a deep gambling addiction which cost him £100,000 in the space of four years. Dashed hopes of a professional playing career a key factor.
“My first addiction in life was football. It was all I cared about, it’s all I thought about and it’s all I wanted.
“So, you’ve got all that there and when you fall completely out of love with it, you’ve got a massive hole that you need to fill, and gambling just filled it perfectly.”
An ITV survey with 100 academy players released last year found that 88% of respondents had experienced depression or anxiety since their release and 72% felt that they were not given enough support by the club.
An anonymous respondent said: “People should be treated like people, not like assets to a business.”
“Imagine you are doing well; you’re obviously thinking you’re going to make a career out of football. So, do you try as hard in school? Do you think of an alternative career? You probably put all your eggs in the one basket and think it’s going to be football,” Paul explained.
“So, when that doesn’t happen you can be left lost. When you’re released from an academy you’re lost because there is a sense of embarrassment entangled with feeling as if you’ve let people down, you’ve let yourself down and it’s a horrible feeling.
“It’s trauma because you just don’t know how to deal with it and your still so young ”
However, in his experience as a development coach with Motherwell, Jamie believes that modern society is preventing children from experiencing adversity.
“I always try to relate it back to my personal experiences. Yes, when I left Hibs, I was annoyed but my old man used to always say to me: see the guy who didn’t want you, you’ll always remember that so try to prove them wrong.
“I think in today’s society we do try as parents to protect our kids a little more and that’s not a football thing, it’s just a society thing. At the end of the day, you can only do so much as a parent, and you do need to allow your child to experience adversity and try to build up their resilience and character.
“The worlds not perfect and they do need the stumbling blocks and those roadblocks in life. That’s just my opinion, but I feel that society plays a massive part in these kids futures.”
Watershed Moment: The death of Man City’s Jeremy Wisten was an eye-opener for the footballing world following his release.
The support available for academy footballers has been publicly scrutinised since the tragic death of then-17-year-old Manchester City defender Jeremy Wisten. A talented young player who committed suicide following his release from the club.
At any one time, 10,000 to 12,000 boys are within the English youth football development system. At Premier League level, 3500 boys from the age of nine are within an academy setup but some can be recruited earlier.
Of those recruited at the age of nine, less than 0.5% will ever make a living out of the game. So, should academies be doing more to successfully prepare and safeguard these young adults for an alternative career path after football?
“I think that’s what needs to be implemented in academies in this country. Like an exit plan”, said Paul.
“There definitely needs to be help in order for not just their mental health but to help plan a career after it. Maybe some clubs do that, I don’t know every club but in my experience and from what I’ve heard, nobody does it.”
Despite opposing the signing of players from a young age, Jamie has questioned how feasible a post-academy system would be for less affluent leagues like in Scotland with finances already scarce for most teams.
“When I see Man City and Liverpool signing five-and six-year-olds. I just go wow, because how do they know that kid in 10 years’ time or even five years’ time will still have the same passion for football. How do they know that? They don’t.
“In Scotland, we’ve not got the time or the resources to put towards aftercare for players that have left the club. That is the level we are playing and working with because resources are going into the first team.
“At the end of the day it’s a result’s driven business and it starts from the top and trickles all the way down.
“We are not going to keep guys just out of total gesture if they are not bringing in any value. It’s just like any normal organisation.”