‘FROM U9S TO U23S WE HAVE SEEN DESIRE TO WORK HARD FOR THE BADGE’
STOKE City youth teamers could try their hand at acting and virtual reality as part of their development.
Inspectors believe that Stoke’s academy is up there with the best in the country in terms of coaching and facilities. Junior sides across the age groups have reached latter stages of competitions over the last few months, as well as players getting in or around the first team.
But director Gareth Owen says no one will ever think they’ve cracked it – and staff and coaches have been working on ways to keep improving.
He said: “It’s been a hugely successful season on the pitch and off it, where we have managed lingering effects of covid and lockdown rules and how they affected players.
“From the under-nines to the under-23s we have seen teamwork and a desire to do well, working hard for the badge and to improve.
“It’s been testament to the players, their families and the fantastic staff we have who’ve committed time and extra time to help develop players.
“When I got the job I sat down with the owners and Tony Scholes and we drew up targets for what success looked like over a five-year plan, increasing season on season.
“We have exceeded those targets for the third year running and they will increase again next year and we have to use that as a base for how we can get better.
“In life and in football, if you think you’ve cracked it you’ll soon come a cropper.
“So we look how can we get better? It is important to do more of the same. That’s the day in, day out practices, the gym sessions, pushing the bar and challenging players more. We plan to get into more tournaments and increase competition, with more games across age groups, including at under-23s level.
“A first team player can play 50 games in a season and the academy system doesn’t do that. We are trying to get them more first team ready and bridge that gap.
“We are also trying to get players experiencing different situations and multi-sports.
“We might have players acting in front of cameras more, taking them out of a comfort zone. That’s about responding to cues and body language.
“There is a great virtual reality facility in Stafford where you can ask them to deal with problems and challenges they wouldn’t face in real life.
“It’s all about learning other skills that they can bring back to football and developing them as people.”
That is all behind the scenes for most people, however, and the academy will be judged by most people on the number and quality of players who end up in the first team.
Harry Souttar, Tyrese Campbell, Joe Bursik and Nathan Collins, who all joined the club in their mid-teens, have broken into the senior squad recently, while D’margio Wright-phillips spent a year with the under-23s before he burst into the frame in January.
Tom Sparrow and Emre Tezgel have made their debuts too while Jack Griffiths, Tommy Simkin, David Okagbue and Sparrow have all gone away on end of season international duty.
Matty Baker has been playing for Wales under-19s as well, Sol Sidibe for England under 15s.
Tezgel’s progress has been getting supporters excited. The 16-year-old, from Forsbrook, became Stoke’s youngest-ever player in January when he broke Peter Bullock’s longstanding record.
He has scored goals prolifically for club and country and has already had a taste of the under-23s.
In fact, he led the line in the Premier League 2 play-off final at Wolves late last month hours after sitting a GCSE exam at Painsley, getting back to take another in the morning.
There have been reports in Turkey about interest from Fenerbahce but, for starters, clubs are not allowed to sign players under the age of 18 from other countries under Fifa rules.
That is lowered to 16 for countries in the EU but that doesn’t affect Stoke anymore.
Instead, Michael O’neill will invite the striker over for pre-season training with the seniors and he will start life as a full-time footballer at Clayton Wood.
Owen said: “We’ve had the youngest player ever to play for Stoke City this year and that’s something no one expects to be taken away for a very long time. It was great to see Tom make his debut at the end of the season too.
“There has to be a steady stream of players and now we’ve got Connor Taylor coming back after a fantastic season on loan at Bristol Rovers. He’s got to impress the manager and staff and show he’s worthy of a place in their plans. All the 23s have spent time training with the first team this season.
“Loans, training time and matches are all important and we’re grateful to the manager for opportunities. We can control environment but can’t always control opportunities. Then players have to meet us half way and show they can take the chance too.”
Tezgel is in a talented group of under-16s. Christy Grogan,
Josh Bickerton, Will Smith, Nathan Low have all been with the 18s already, as well as being eased into Kevin Russell’s planning for the 23s.
“We’ve got a group coming up that people will have already seen flashes of in the 18s,” said Owen. “Emre can finally join us on a full-time basis, Nathan has been scoring goals regularly for the 18s playing up a level, Christy has already captained the 18s.
“Most of these boys have been with us from under-nines and 10s while Ben Houston joined us later from Derby County. It’s a group we’ve been excited about and we’re excited about where we can get them.
“Josh Bickerton has already played for the 23s and they’ll join Tommy Simkin, Tom Curl and Jack Griffiths knocking on the door of the 23s more regularly.
“We’ve got small squads so we’ll look to increase them too and the manager has already spoken about players he’s excited about bringing in this summer. We’ll need that if we are going to play more games, particularly if we also have players going out on loan.
“At the same time you have to be careful that the 23s programme doesn’t become too big and you get players who become 23s players, which can lead to staleness and lack of development.
“We want players to be hungry and be here for the right reasons. As Kev said recently, they have to treat every training session and every game like a cup final.”