‘IF THEY’VE GOT THE TALENT, THE FACT THEY’RE YOUNG WON’T GO AGAINST THEM’
AN international break gave Stoke City’s hierarchy a chance to give supporters a glimpse of life behind the scenes and share their thoughts and vision for the future. In the second part of our transcript of a meet the board evening, the subjects covered everything from youth development to recruitment.
What are plans for young players like Christian Norton, Kieran Coates, D’margio Wrightphillips and Adam Porter for game time? Michael O’neill:
“The 23s have done extremely well, which has been good to see. I think they’re a good group at a good age, a better age profile than the 23s were when I came into the club.
“I think Nathan Collins and Harry (Souttar) and the likes have all benefited from playing with the older players. I definitely think that (James) Chester has helped the young centre-backs and there’s no doubt that (Steven) Fletcher helped Tyrese (Campbell) as well. John Obi (Mikel) is a help to all the young players in the squad.
“What we can’t do is load more young players in on top of the young players we have.
“At this minute in time, most of the 23s have not gone on loan yet – and if you look at those players, you see the benefit of a loan for Harry for example, 18 months at Fleetwood; Tyrese had a loan at Shrewsbury; Nathan didn’t go through that process and has been able to step up; Joe Bursik had a loan at Doncaster.
“I think the 23s at this minute in time are not at that point we should put that pressure on them to think that they’re first team players.
“One or two might be able to make that step, like Nathan has, but the more normal pathway might be to have a loan. That might be a step up and loan.
“I know that the lads in the Academy - I had a chat with Gareth Owen today - that’s the way they’re thinking about it. That first loan might be, for example, to National League or National League North and then to step up from there into league football.
“They are still very young to come in and play in the Championship. There aren’t many teenagers playing in the Championship on a regular basis.”
How pleasing is it to see players making progress from the Academy? John Coates:
“Clearly very pleasing. Bringing players through from the Academy has all sorts of benefits. I think there’s that connection that supporters always feel with players who have come through the Academy process. It’s always stronger.
“They enjoy seeing those players progress, which is excellent.
“Producing players is always beneficial to a club like Stoke and seeing those players come through then benefits the whole of the Academy. Those younger players in the Academy are then seeing a clear pathway for them. It gives them confidence about their future at the club.”
Tony Scholes: “Everyone feels a great satisfaction, a great pride, when a young lad makes his debut, especially a young lad who has been with the club for a number of years.
“This season with the likes of Tyrese, Nathan – we’ve named them all a few times – they haven’t just arrived this year, they’ve been with the club for four or five years. It takes time, they need time.
“Also, importantly, to Michael’s absolute credit, they need the opportunity. What Michael has shown is that if they’ve got the talent, they’ve got the ability then the fact they’re young won’t go against them.”
Has playing without crowds made it easier to play young players?
Michael O’neill: “I think it’s been easier to be honest. I think when you’re coming into the environment we’re playing in at the minute, you can guide young players a bit more from the touchline. They don’t have the anticipation of the crowd, which I suppose is make or break for any young player.
“I’ve seen that this is a great stadium to play in, a great arena, but like any stadium if the team is not playing well it can be a challenging environment as well.
“It’s important that these players have had a chance to bed in.
“There’s nothing that can prepare you for going out there to play. Under-23 football prepares you to a certain point, a loan to League One will prepare you to a certain point but to go out and to play in front of 20 to 30 thousand people is a different experience.
“Hopefully those players have embedded into the Championship and be ready for that experience when fans come back. We want that to happen as soon as possible because the atmosphere will help the team as well.
“I think we’ve probably suffered a bit in games because we haven’t had the support that we get to push us through the last 10 to 15 minutes of a game. That’s the difference between three points and a point at times.”
What impact is Alex Aldridge having as head of recruitment?
John Coates: “We sat down with Michael and we wanted to develop our recruitment processes and recruitment team. That involved quite a large investment in staff, structure, data, software etc.
“We feel we’ve made a lot of progress and that structure will help us with what we all want to do, which is to recruit well in the future.”
Michael O’neill: “When we decided we needed to look at that part of the club, I feel the data approach is very important – and you hear a lot in football about how people recruit – but the data is