Tosh Farrell Soccer Magazine June 2020 | Page 18

All clubs want success and work within different models to achieve that success. Do you ever see academies successfully filling the role of supplying the core to the first team with predominantly English players, in the way Manchester united did with likes of Neville’s, Beckham, Scholes, Butt etc. Again for all the wrong reasons due to COVID 19 situation this could be the opportunity academies need. We don’t know how travel will be affected during these times and what sort of restrictions or regulations are put in place. It is an interesting situation. If you had asked me this question under normal circumstances, my response would probably be, I doubt it, simply because of recruitment. Recruitment is now global and academy players are competing against young players from all over the world, so it makes it so much harder for them. That said it is refreshing to see the young players coming through at Chelsea due to the transfer ban. This has forced them to dip nto their academy and just before the season shut down, one of their academy players Billy Gilmour made his debut and did brilliantly well. He is a young player, with a slight build and you have to ask yourself would he have got the opportunity to play if the transfer ban was not in place. I am sure that a number of academies up and down the country have players who can make that step, but you need a patient board, patient supporters and a manager who is prepared to put young players into the team. Unfortunately time and patience is not something you get at most football clubs. A question to ask is, if Sir Alex Ferguson was not given the time he was given, what would have happened to Manchester United? At Everton David (Moyes) gave a number of young players their debuts, Rooney, Hibbert, Osman, Rodwell, Barkley, Coleman to name a few of many. Our circumstances at Everton were different because we had no money, so we had to look at the academy for players. That said David would only play them if he felt they could cope.