LOCAL CLUBS HAVE A DUTY
With great power comes great responsiblity. Who would guess I’d quote Spider-Man!? A key part of our Clarets10 Vision is to provide a pathway for our youth through to our first team, and with this comes incredible responsibility.
We have read many times of the disappointment faced by academy players who get released by their clubs and don’t know what to do; football has been their life and all they know – what next? There are phenomenally successful academy programmes at many NonLeague clubs and it’s always great to hear the stories of players progressing to league clubs and beyond. But what about the rest, what will they do? We have a responsibility to develop them as human beings, workers of the future and great citizens in our communities.
And we do have the power to do that, so we need to be responsible and ensure we deliver for them. When we started out establishing our academy in 2018, we talked to many education providers about how we could work with them to meet the education needs of our potential players and best prepare them for life outside of football. For us, a great education is critical for them later in life, so we wanted to ensure the best. When one provider uttered the words: “I see every player as a crock of gold,” we sort of knew they were not the people to provide education for us. Does this really prepare our player for life after football?
Yes, a great qualification but surely not appropriate for all 40 in our academy; we need to tailor things to the needs of the individual. Their education and development have to come first; not football. BTEC in Sports Science
is the only option.
Standards
We have been incredibly fortunate with our education provider, Moulsham School, which has very high academic standards able to meet the needs of a lot of our potential players. But we need a blend so we work with other providers too to best match to the needs of the individual and are also talk to businesses about using apprenticeships as another education provider. I believe it is really important that we match the needs of the pupil to the development offer alongside their football.
Beyond education we have a responsibility to develop them for the real world, the world of work, getting along with others and being great citizens.
I have found it incredibly disappointing at some matches where I have witnessed players swearing at each other, having a go at the officials, swearing at managers and throwing tantrums. I am not sure how people act where you work, but do they swear at their manager and at fellow
colleagues? What happens when they challenge authority? Do they throw tantrums and keep their job?
It has been great to see the latest England team conduct themselves with professionalism and respect in recent times. Should our academy players not conduct themselves in the same way and is it not our responsibility to ensure that they do and become role models themselves? We are incredibly lucky at Chelmsford City to have two outstanding football players leading our academy in Mickey Spillane, ex-Norwich City, and Elliott Ward, ex-West Ham, and the example I have seen them set for our players has been exemplary.
I recall in Covid times we had an issue with players potentially not being able to play a match due to Covid and a lack of flexibility from the opposition which really riled me. I will always be grateful to Elliott who took it calmly and told me not to get wound up and let us do our talking on the pitch. We won in the last minute – the player claims it was a shot; everyone else
reckoned it was a cross!
Model citizens
It’s great being surrounded by ex-professional football players who have been there and done it, it enables us to evaluate situations and adapt them to real life. When that
player doesn’t make the team how they react is equally important; do they come back stronger and fight for their place or do they give up? Life for everyone is full of ups and downs and it is how we deal with these that defines us.
Our job, through our academies, is to ensure that we provide the support to the players going through those ups and downs, prepare them for their future careers. Hopefully this will be in football but, if not, educate them to the best we can to give them the best chance of success and help shape them as model citizens.
We are proud they represent us as a club and proud of themselves for what they achieve both individually and
as a team.