England
Spurs Example of Premier League Youth Neglect
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Mark Bateman
When the Premier League was founded in 1992, most of the clubs who took part in its inaugural season had squads consisting primarily of homegrown talent. In fact, English football teams would go on to produce dozens of gifted British footballers who in turn would go on to dominate the world scene for the next two decades.
Now though few Premier League clubs are ready to invest in their youth academies due to several factors, mainly the relative cheapness of buying players from abroad, the ease of signing an aspiring young star from the lower leagues, the pressure for immediate success and also the amount of time and effort it takes to nurture players. A solid youth system is seen by some big teams as a waste of resources.
To put it bluntly, because of the great riches that can be made by being in the top flight, clubs who gave young British players their chance years ago are reluctant to do so now.
However, it is not just the teams who are to blame; the Football Association is also at fault for the slowdown of future English players.
The men who run football’s top league preach a policy of nurturing youth, but are simply not doing enough to encourage the elite teams to produce more players via their youth set-ups. This has regularly seen the men in Soho Square at loggerheads with FIFA president Sepp Blatter who is keen to see a majority of foreign players in teams’ curbed and more chances for young players at clubs to establish themselves.
One team particularly guilty of not nurturing its own youngsters is Tottenham Hotspur.
Leeds United fans have had to watch in horror as their team, who only eight years ago were playing in a Champions League semi-final, fall from grace in spectacular fashion. During this time they have seen a number of emerging stars leave Elland Road on the cheap, several of whom headed for White Hart Lane. Aaron Lennon, Danny Rose and Paul Robinson moved to London for nominal fees and Tottenham have or will go on to make a massive profit on the re-sale of these players.
The last time Spurs produced a successful young player of their own was when club captain Ledley King burst onto the scene some 10 years ago. Since then, Spurs have pumped most of their substantial financial resources into signing players who have already established themselves, or they have signed rising stars from clubs lower down the football pyramid and developed them into the finished article. This approach involves less time and money than starting from scratch.
Of course, not all Premier League sides follow this example. Manchester United, who gave England the likes of Paul Scholes, David Beckham and Ryan Giggs in the early years of the Premier League are still bringing through youngsters to this day. However, due to the demand for immediate success in the top flight, whether it be challenging for honours or fighting for survival, few managers are prepared to give young players their chance in the first team.
Lower down the leagues, clubs like Leeds United are benefiting enormously from their youth set-up, even though demand for success is the same. Leeds now have players like Jonny Howson, Aidan White, Ben Parker and the much admired, Fabian Delph, in their team. These players have a bright future in the game and now that Leeds are no longer in a precarious financial predicament, rather than moving on to the Premier League prematurely they could be helping Leeds get back to the top flight.
Premier League teams seem to have forgotten that all footballers, whether they are British or foreign, started out as a trainee somewhere. Youth Academies help clubs be self sustaining and should the top flight’s riches run out, it will be the teams with the strong academies that will profit, not those who spend only for today.
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8 Responses to “Spurs Example of Premier League Youth Neglect”
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FEEDBURNER
When you say Spurs you mean Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea.
Oh sure there were the Man U youngsters of the 90s but without Schmeichel/Keane/Cantona/Ince they would have won sod all.
So stop your anti-Spurs/pro-big 4 bias and report the facts.
Steve Carr; Dean Marney; Phil Ifil; Stephen Kelly; Lee Barnard.
These all came through the Spurs youth system to play in the first team in the last ten years. Carr, Kelly and Marney played a significant number of first team games, while Ifil and Barnard were given a few chances. There was also Jamie Slabber, but he only played one or two games before moving on.
Nonetheless, this shows that Spurs have been willing to give youth team players a go, and while Carr and Kelly are Irish, they were nonetheless long-term products of the Spurs youth system.
Seems a bit odd to pick out a single team like this, especially when not all of the things cited are correct.
For example the lasst Tottenham player to come through the reserve system was Jamie O’Hara last season. Totenham are not even the highest profile club to have done this, would Chelsea not have been a better subject for an article like this? Not only have Chelsea bought all but one of their strongest first team, but also they also buy staff from other clubs too (remember the Frank Arneson incident?).
Manchester United were mentioned as a team who bring players through. Lets look at the Utd first team from the first page on the website (as it seems to be ranked in seniority):
Heaton played previously for Wrexham.
Van Der Sar bought from Fulham.
Evra from Monaco.
Hargreaves from Bayern.
Ferdinand from Leeds.
Ronaldo from Sporting Lisbon.
Anderson from FC Porto.
Berbatov from Tottenham.
Rooney from Everton.
Giggs who attended the Manchester City School of Excellence (this player was listed as home grown, surely he was poached?)
Foster from Stoke City.
Park from PSV.
Tosic from Partizan.
Vidic from Spartak Moscow.
Carrick from Tottenham.
Nani from Sporting Lisbon.
Beckham incidentally attended the Tottenham Hotspur school of excellence. So on the one side the article state Tottenham Hotspur do not bring through players and on the other cite Manchester United as the saviour of bringing players through when they have spent more money on other clubs players than most other teams. Including two big money signings from Tottenham which total almost 50million pounds, yes 50 million! How are other teams supposed to compete? Also if Manchester United spent that kind of money on two of your players would you go out and buy some more or would you say, no we’ll wait for 5 seasons to bring some more through. Like it or not in this day and age the permier league is a business and chairman protect their interests by buying and selling players. There is not the emphasis on home grown players that there once was and there will never be again until some kind of hoegrown rule is put in to place, this of course will never happen as UEFA will intervene as well as the court of human rights.
The fact that you mentioned leeds as an example makes me think you are a leeds fan so are naturally bitter that tottenham have taken a couple of younger players in recent years. But as people above have mentioned we (spurs) have also brought through our youth system crouch luke young who have both played for england as well as a number of players that are playing league football somewhere. Though i dont think we have done as well as we could. Worth mentioning the are far worse clubs when it comes to neglecting youth players.
Not many kids are good enough these days to rise from schoolboy to first team regular. Even the majority of Arsenals success are kids bought when young or using the loophole that stops them signing a contract until they are 18. Have a look at their current youth squad there is a lot of promise there.. even ignoring the ones they signed.
I am reporting the facts as I see it as a non Premier League fan.
Over the years teams have dwindeled in their production of their own young players.
I believe that all top flight teams are guilty of not doing enough for youth team football.
As I mention in the article, nearlly all of them are more interested in signing a finished article or an emerging talent, as This costs less and means less time needs to be spent on them.
I have highlighted the reasons why I think Premier teams are like this and I am glad you have highlighted points I have missed.
The reason I chose Spurs is because of the lack of regular movement in their youth system for the past decade and their desire to spend most of their money on signing and re-signing established players.
This article was written to stimulate discussion and that is what it has done.
At the end of the day England as a football power will come to an end soon if more is not done.
The reason Leeds blood so many of their youngsters is because they are not in a financial position to do otherwise, and also benefit from playing at a lower level.
If you were looking for a Premiership comparison then Middlesborough would have been a better bet. As it is, you are comparing apples to oranges.
Middlesborough de a great job of producing young players both now and when they was in the Premier League. Leeds are actually turning over a profit now and do not need to sell their young players. These players are keen to move to the Premier League because of the promise of riches and the social status involved. It is not good for their development and for every Aaron Lennon who succeeds there is a Danny Rose who fails