IdLiketoRogerMoore
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- Aug 19, 2016
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How funny! You've just described me! At U15 I was ranked 2nd in the UK for 100m and Man City took me into their Academy for that reason alone. Two years later they gave me up as a lost cause so I did what I did best and enjoyed the most and chased the summer round the world running in straight lines!!The bit about speed is very valid and it will get a kid into an ETC/development team, because the pro clubs (rightly or wrongly) assume that if a kid has physical attributes then they can coach the football into them. I have a kid in my team who is apparently in the top 5 sprinters in the country at his age and has just been given a scholarship for private school on this basis, but it's like watching Ollie Burke when it comes to playing football. His athletics also clashes with training so he (quite rightly) prioritises that and I'll never teach him how to be a footballer by him just turning up the odd session and then to matches, he just doesn't get it.
There's another lad who's not quite as fast but he's left footed and a bit better at football, he's been in the pig development squad all season, but he's not good enough to make the step up as he doesn't have the football intelligence that is necessary and he's another one who only turns up for training every other week due to other commitments.
Of the lads who've gone to EFL academies and are playing for them week in, week out, there's one kid who I had that I think has the potential to be a footballer when he's older. He signed for the pork as soon as he could at U9 and he's had a few years there now and is playing an age group above his natural age despite being a midget. His dad still says that when they go to Leicester, Man U, Liverpool, Newcastle etc. he is bang average compared to what they've got. If I put him in my team he could probably carry the other 8 lads through most games. There are levels all the way through football and kids just need to play at the level that they enjoy it. I'd never push my lad past what he enjoys, he plays in the top league both Saturdays and Sundays, with his mates and is a decent player, that's what he enjoys so it's what we'll keep doing with him.
I've tried saying to my lad, from all my experience it has to come from your soul. You need to love it. We've got two kids playing for us (one with blades academy one with pigs) and they love football. Every night they're either playing for someone or in the garden. No good parents forcing you. It has to come from them.