It’s men against boys in a cup nobody loves, but is it in a cup all bad?
No fans, no glamour (and a date with The Beast)...welcome to this season’s bright idea
WEST HAM’S teenagers swapped glances and shuffled quietly within the tight confines of the tunnel as Wycombe kept them waiting.
The League Two team had already ignored the buzzer and a rap on the door from the butt of an assistant referee’s flag.
Still nothing. A few more seconds filtered by before referee Darren Deadman rolled his eyes, banged once more and yelled for Gareth Ainsworth to send his team out. The door burst open just as Love
Runs Out by OneRepublic exploded from two enormous floor speakers inside the home dressing room and shook the rabbit warren of plywood inside Adams Park.
Adebayo Akinfenwa, Wycombe’s captain, muscular centre forward and lower-league warrior, squeezed sideways through the door frame, loomed over the academy starlets and told them to move, they were lined up on the wrong side of the tunnel. The rest of the players filed out behind him, the music boomed on and West Ham’s kids were wise enough to move aside.
Wycombe boss Ainsworth did not play for John Beck at three different clubs and spend five years in the Wimbledon Crazy Gang without picking up a few tips on how to make the visitors feel uncomfortable.
It seemed to have an effect. The Hammers came under early pressure, were rattled by aerial attacks and set- pieces and Akinfenwa scored inside seven minutes.
West Ham lost 3-0 and yet Terry Westley, their head of player development, was satisfied that his players were gaining valuable experience from the Checkatrade Trophy.
The competition, known last season as the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, has been ridiculed for its one-year trial to invite Premier League and Championship clubs with top-rank academies to enter young teams alongside those from Leagues One and Two in a bid to close the void between youth football and the first team.
Five of the biggest clubs in the country declined the invitation and some lower-league managers reacted angrily to rules forcing them to play at least five first- team players, claiming it hindered progress of their own young players.
At MK Dons, Karl Robinson branded it ‘ rubbish’ and Bradford goalkeeper Colin Doyle was substituted after only three minutes to sidestep the rules against Bury.
Some supporters stayed away in protest at what they claimed was the start of a creep towards bringing B-teams into the league pyramid, a fear which has since been quashed by the EFL.
Ainsworth and his chairman Andrew Howard, however, like the new format because it generates money and West Ham can see benefits, even if they would prefer the ties not to coincide with international fixtures.
‘It’s a great start,’ said Westley. ‘The experiment is a good one. At least someone here is having a go.
‘We can’t all keep talking, saying there’s no way to bridge this gap. We’ve got to go for it.
‘We’ve got some terrific players. I saw a masterclass from Reece Oxford in the Under 23s against Leicester on Saturday.
‘What a talent he is — but he’s not playing football. He’s our fourth-choice centre half and he can’t get in the team. This would have been a great game for him but he’s away with England.
‘So let’s agree when the games should be played. Then we can mix first-team players in. It would have been nice for Manuel Lanzini to play but he’s away. We were missing eight who could’ve played.’
Westley, after a long record of producing talent such as Matthew Upson at Luton, Kieron Dyer at Ipswich, Tom Huddlestone at Derby, Scott Parker at Charlton and Nathan Redmond at Birmingham, agrees that drastic action is required to jolt English youth development from its doldrums.
‘If I could do one thing,’ said Westley, ‘I’d have the England Under 21s playing every week in the Championship, the best young players in the country training together every day and playing competitively at a good level.
‘They would have to play in a passing style and they would come back and forth between their clubs if they weren’t getting games. It has to be radical.’
In the Checkatrade Trophy his young players were exposed to a different style of football. There were six yellow cards for Wycombe and a few clattering tackles early on.
Alex Pike, a blond centre half with 66 on his back, came off with blood running down his neck after 45 minutes with Akinfenwa. ‘He is as strong as he looks,’ confirmed Pike, as he left Adams Park with ice strapped to various parts of his lower body. Westley was in the referee’s ear at half-time looking for more protection but still encouraged his youngsters to ‘relax’ and ‘show for the ball’. ‘They bashed us up in terms of power, setplays and long throws,’ he said. ‘It was men against boys. We couldn’t cope. It’s a different game in League Two. We have to play our way. Marcus Browne for us was the best player on the pitch by a country mile. ‘He’s 18 and he’s proven to me he will play higher than League Two because he’s running past people, he’s aggressive with the ball, making passes, getting shots off.’ West Ham
also encountered a different type of desire against players for whom a win bonus and a new contract can mean everything.
Scott Kashket, who scored Wycombe’s second, is on a shortterm deal until the end of the year. Nick Freeman, who scored the third, was signed from Histon and has a contract until June.
‘We might have the lowest budget in the EFL, definitely bottom three,’ said Ainsworth. ‘This is big for us with prize-money worth £10,000 a win. To win three games and qualify from the group would be huge.’
Wycombe lost money in the Johnstone’s Paint last season when they lost in the first round at Bristol Rovers. The view from Howard in the boardroom is that there was no profit to be made before the semi-finals in the old format.
Hence another revamp was vital for a competition which has undergone plenty of surgery since its inception in 1983.
The crowd was just over 1,000, including 160 from West Ham who offered their young team a taste of life in the first team by singing to their hosts: ‘You’re nothing special, we lose every week.’
Ainsworth and his coach Barry Richardson were unused substitutes, although out of necessity, rather than any attempt to take the competition lightly.
‘This is serious,’ said Ainsworth, 43. ‘My players are out there fighting. That money means a couple of extra overnight stays, which helps us prepare for league games.’
Yet he agrees with Westley that the Trophy can be a valuable step for footballers’ development.
‘This is an introduction,’ said Ainsworth. ‘You might think you’ve made it at a Premier League academy. But you can never think that.
‘My introduction was in the old Central League with Blackburn reserves, playing alongside Frank Stapleton and up against Paul Gascoigne and John Barnes.
‘ Billy Whitehurst at Sheffield United didn’t care who you were or how old you were. He would smash you to pieces: “This is what I do, son, do you want to compete and be on the same level?”
‘West Ham’s players will learn from this. Maybe one day when they’re in the Premier League they will look back and realise they furthered their careers by playing at Wycombe in October 2016.’