Mason Greenwood

He won player of the tournament at the 2015 MIC cup which would have been u13 level I believe (although he may have been playing above his age group as he often has, he was playing for the u18s even before his 16th birthday for example) And he had been involved in various youth events around Europe for United for atleast 3 or 4 years before that so we signed him up before he was 10 at the very least

 

It’s a difficult balance. One of the reasons English youth development started to fall behind was proper development wasn’t really starting early enough compared to other countries as there was a greater focus on 'letting kids be kids'.

If you look at the class of 92 you have Giggs whose was playing for two local youth sides of Deans FC and Salford boys with the odd training session mostly during school holidays at both city and United. He was also playing Rugby. He didn’t properly join united until he was 15.

The you have Beckham. Played for local youth side Ridgeway rovers and then Brimsdown rovers while attending Spurs school of excellence during holidays. It wasn’t until he was 14 he joined United.

Phil Neville went focusing on a Football as he was splitting his time between playing Football and Cricket. Same with as Scholes. Along with Gary and Butt they didn’t join united until they were 14.

Now they are perhaps one of the best group of youngsters to come through any English teams system but if they came through now even if given a chance in the first team they would be so far behind much of the rest of the world. Not getting high level professional coaching until they are 14 would have held them back. As would splitting time between multiple sports being played at a high level. It’s better now where they may be allowed to play for a local youth club (as Rashford was for example) but they are getting regular professional training at the pro club from a much younger age so they can develop and where they make a decision to focus on one sports sooner.

It’s something other sports have realised as well, a big problem in British Tennis was the same thing that most players weren’t taking the sport seriously until they got into their teens and they were hence behind the curve. We are seeing a real upswing in British Tennis because of that now where we have just ended the last year with a one Male in the top 20, another in the top100 and 3 in the top200 (and none of those are called Murray) and in the women’s 1 in the top 40, 2 others in the top 100 and 5 others in the top200. Most will fall by the wayside but if you want a few to come through in any sport in every age group they have to start having proper coaching young

 

That was the case with my nephew. I still think it is appalling. I have no problem with the kids receiving lots of coaching, but that attitude sets young footballers apart. The other thing is that some child footballers seem to neglect their academic studies on the basis that they will be ‘rich’ footballers, their parents ‘sometimes’ also being sucked into the dream! When they are discarded, they can be in a poor place.

 

The problem is some coaching can be detrimental which is what the clubs are worried about. When I was at school alongside playing football at a competitive level I also played tennis to a decent level. The level of tennis coaching at School in PE was awful to a point the couple of us who played to a high enough level that the couple of us who received private coaching outside of School basically got banned by our coaches to 'take part' in PE tennis lessons. While everyone else was getting coaching off the pe teacher we were basically made to do our own lesson (which tbh was better as we would just either play singles or doubles sets against each other rather than running drills against people who could barely hit a ball over the net).

The other thing in Football is kids can get Envious. Even back in the 90's the best player in our school was already part of a top division club in junior school and by the time we reached secondary school he would have people kick lumps out of him in PE and for the school team opponents knew he was attached to a pro club and would als kick lumps out of him (and we didn’t have sendings off in PE or school matches) and it got to the point his club asked for him to be excused as it got that bad

 

On the last bit certainly at the top clubs they put real focus on ensuring they get a good education these days with. United for example have a deal with one of the best state schools in the area (Ashton-on-Mersey School) for their youth players to attend until the end of sixth form. Man City have a deal with a local private grammar school. Failure to reach certain levels at school see's players suspended from football activities (While it wasn’t the only reason for getting suspended from football activities it was one of the reasons Ravel Morrision spent so much time suspended by the club). So there is certainly a change at the higher levels in ensuring young players have some education to fall back on

 

I understand where you are coming from.
In respect of football, then the modern game has altered quite a lot since the 1990’s and fouls which people could ‘get away with’, have largely gone, although there are still some badly timed challenges, perhaps more due to the much faster pace of the game, rather than someone trying to deliberately bully others. If kids are wanting to ‘get at’ each other, they often do it on the way to or from school. Jealousy for whatever reason is prevalent in society at large.

 

Came across an interesting piece.

I thought this was rather telling, “Hundreds of these boys are released each year, as the clubs narrow their focus on who might have a faint chance of making a career in professional football and becoming a valuable financial asset. Despite the huge numbers housed in this system, currently 12,000 boys, the chinks of first-team opportunities have diminished every year since 1997. In each transfer window, most Premier League clubs overlook their young graduates and instead spend multimillions of pounds on fully formed overseas stars”.

The article makes rather depressing reading!

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/oct/06/football-biggest-issue-boys-rejected-academies