EXIT TRIALS
Hundreds of teenagers rejected by their clubs have one last chance to make it. Welcome to the...
It is the culling season for teenage footballers and nerves are understandably raw. A goalkeeper misses his kick, the back-pass rolls against the foot of a post, he scrambles across to clear but only as far as the striker who knocks it into an open net.
No one laughs at this comedy of errors. scouts sink deeper into their long, quilted coats, scribbling notes and tapping phones, team-mates offer encouragement and parents try to transmit their silent support.
these are the English Football League exit trials and around 300 youngsters are fighting to keep their dreams alive.
Aged 15 and 16, they already know there will be no scholarship contract offered by the club where they have been registered to play schoolboy football and this is a chance to impress someone else.
More than 100 scouts and coaches from all tiers of the game mill around, panning for gold, some with shopping lists, seeking to fill specific positions, others more open-minded, hoping someone might catch their attention.
time is still on the side of these players. the average age of a debut in the EFL is nearly 20. in the Premier League it is about 23. And there are some notable successes from these trials.
Watford spotted Marvin sordell when Fulham let him go and five years later sold him to Bolton for £ 3million. sordell played for England Under 21s and Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics and is playing in the Championship for Burton.
theo Robinson was discarded by stoke and picked up by Watford. At 28, Robinson has won international caps for Jamaica and has recently left Lincoln for southend, his 12th club since he left Vicarage Road for Huddersfield for £300,000.
Former Nottingham Forest defender steve Chettle, who is assistant manager of National League North club Nuneaton town, has seen teenagers benefit from a step into non-League, short- cutting the route to first-team football and quickening the development process, including his son.
Callum Chettle was released by Forest’s academy and joined ilkeston where he was playing Northern Premier League football at 16, before moving to Nuneaton and then to Peterborough, in League One.
Jamie Vardy’s return from rejection at sheffield Wednesday to the England team via stocksbridge Park steels is an extreme example, but there are others equally impressive. David Wetherall, the EFL’s head of youth development, expects about a third of those at this year’s trials — in Guildford, Loughborough and yesterday in Barnsley — to receive some expression of interest from another club, perhaps the offer of an extended trial.
Of the 260 who attended this year’s trials, 70 have received an expression of interest from professional clubs. About one in nine of the total who played will sign scholarship contracts.
‘it’s an opportunity to show what they can do,’ said Wetherall, a former Leeds and Bradford centre half. ‘ Admittedly, it’s a stressful day for the lads but hopefully someone will see something that fits with what they want, and that they can work on for a couple of years.
‘About 650 lads do get scholarships every year in EFL clubs. there are a number of reasons why they might not have been offered a scholarship. Clubs look for different qualities.’
Plenty who came to the exit trials were swapping their tales of misfortune, of injuries which struck at crucial times. Wetherall added: ‘ We have clubs from further down the pyramid with youth development programmes, maybe linked in with a college, and educational establishments who run football development programmes. there can be a number of positive outcomes.
‘Also, there are only a certain number of places available. Not all these lads will get the positive outcome they want but this may provide part of the process of acceptance. they have done everything they can and maybe it wasn’t quite meant to be.’
At Loughborough, the players arrived for registration and gathered in a hall, split into eight teams, were designated a coach and handed different coloured shirts.
One team wore the blue shirts donated to the EFL by Cardiff City when owner Vincent tan changed the colours to red. Wetherall started with a session for the goalkeepers just in case any of the 11 there found themselves in a good team, with little to do. Oxford were there scouting specifically for a goalkeeper. Leicester and Bournemouth were present from the Premier League. ‘ How do they sell themselves? it’s not easy,’ one scout said. ‘it’s much easier to blend into the background.’
the teams played three games of 30 minutes against different opponents. Among the parents gathered on the touchline was former Chelsea defender Frank sinclair, keeping an eye on his son tyrese, a striker who has been released by Blackburn Rovers.
there was a buzz of interest around Neville Nzembela, a centre forward who had already performed well in the trial at Guildford and was up front for the team given orange shirts.
Nzembela has been registered as a schoolboy at stevenage but has not signed a scholarship deal and discovered as he left that there was interest from at least one club in the Championship.
Riley O’sullivan, released by Coventry, had a call with a firm offer of a scholarship deal from a League two club within 20 minutes of the trial ending. Over the next two days, nine clubs declared an interest in signing the striker.
‘i was nervous,’ said O’sullivan. ‘You look around and see all the other players and the scouts but i knew this was my last chance. i left Coventry about six weeks ago. it hurt to be released but i went back to grass-roots football and enjoyed myself.
‘it meant i came to the trials with confidence. the experience has made me stronger.’
For some, at least, longcherished dreams are not abandoned on a damp field in Leicestershire.