‘At this club we want our young players in the first team’
THE first thing Joey Barton was told as a trainee at Manchester City was that he would probably never make the first team. He wonders how that conversation would sound now, two decades on.
‘There were about 25 boys and they told us straight that maybe one would make it,’ Barton recalled. ‘There we were, full of dreams and it was suddenly, “Look lads, this isn’t Narnia. Many of you won’t make it here. But we will give you the foundations to earn a living somewhere”.
‘I was lucky. I did get through. I was at Everton until I was 14 and then City. Two academies producing players for their first team.
‘The lie of the land has changed now. If I was coming through now, would I make to the Premier League? Probably not. It is too hard for British boys. Historically we have produced incredible players — George Best, Stanley Matthews, Bobby Charlton. But if we carry on flooding the market with foreign youngsters, then what chance do our kids have?’
Barton’s lament is familiar but the issue is real. Academy coaches say the standard of young footballers coming through the system has never been higher yet the number of English players in the Premier League sits at 33 per cent and falling.
England manager Gareth Southgate calls the job of increasing the numbers an ‘ ethical challenge’ and that seems a pretty good way of putting it.
Barton is currently manager at Fleetwood Town in League one. Like every club in the EFL, Fleetwood are obliged to name at least one club-developed player on the matchday team sheet. Extending this principle further, Barton has selected two 16-year-olds — James Hill and Dylan Boyle — in cup competitions this season.
At Fleetwood, developing footballers is a business model. Recently, the club helped an eightyear-old move to Manchester City. If they can’t keep a player, they can certainly use the compensation.
‘I was an academy product so I believe I have a moral obligation to create pathways for boys,’ added Barton. ‘But what happens to English boys once they are at the top Premier League clubs? I have no control over that.’
Last week Sportsmail revealed the hunger of Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund to continue their recruitment of young players from the Premier League. Dortmund’s team contains homegrown players but is supplemented by 18-year-old Englishman Jadon Sancho, once of City.
At a recent academy game at Tottenham, meanwhile, a scout from Ajax made notes on every single player on show. Fleetwood academy head Ciaran Donnelly told Sportsmail: ‘ The investment in the academies over the last 10 years in England has changed the landscape. Technically and physically our young players are better than anybody else’s now. But there has to be something done to provide opportunities for these players higher up the ladder. ‘At this club we want our young players in the first team but we know what we are about. If an elite club comes in for one of ours — like City did — we will actively help the player go if we think it’s right. ‘I just hope there are opportunities for them to play there. We have spent money on academies in this country and it is working. ‘ It would be typically English not to capitalise on it now.’ AT Fleetwood’s own academy on the Lancashire coast, the recruitment and nurturing of young players is as important as it is to those in leagues above them. If Fleetwood — average attendance