“You’ll never win anything with kids”
So said football pundit Alan Hansen after a youthful-looking Manchester United were smacked 3-1 by Aston Villa on the opening day of the 1995/96 Premier League season. Later that same season, Hansen was forced to eat his words as Sir Alex Ferguson’s men not only won the English Premier League, but the 1996 FA Cup as well. Of course, not every club can boast a youth team with the likes of David Beckham and the Neville brothers in its ranks, but it did at least prove Hansen’s theory wrong. You can win some big trophies with young players in your side - but the question is, how best to bring them up to speed to that senior level?
For this blog, I thought I’d take a step back from the Glory’s recent resurgence and ask the question - given the different options out there, and our present youth infrastructure, what’s the best way to bring young players into the A-League?
Method One: The Wenger Effect
Arsène Wenger has been accused of a lot of things during his time as coach of Arsenal - not having enough English players in his teams, fielding undisciplined sides who collect cards like they’re going out of fashion, and devaluing the prestigious FA Cup by fielding second-string sides full of youth team players. However, as much as this draws the ire of fans and football pundits alike, this must be seen a valid way of blooding youngsters into a team; essentially throwing the youth side into the deep end of a senior competition.
While Wenger may occasionally field young teams in the earlier rounds of the FA Cup (and at other times in the later rounds, so they can be knocked out by Stoke City), it is primarily the League Cup which is Wenger’s sandbox, into which he can drop a team of inexperienced players and see how they cope with the rigours of professional competition. The idea is this - you play a young side, sprinkled with a couple of experienced players, and you see who is ready and who is not (or may never well be).
On the upside, this approach is quite often exciting for both fans and the neutral due to the new talent on display and the natural aggression of young players. Youngsters seem to have raw creativity and flair, confidence, and attacking instincts that can lead to some beautiful football being played at both a team and an individual level. Coaches can quickly learn who is ready for senior football, and it gives the older players some rest during what may be a very long season.
The downside of this approach is the fact that young teams can often collapse and lose games - sometimes by a considerable margin. You’ve got a lot of inexperienced kids, some of whom will still be developing physically, and if you put them up against a Kevin Muscat type they may be going home as dog food. What’s more, this approach could only realistically work in a secondary competition, or once your season is over - even Wenger wouldn’t play his precious kids if he was competing for the Premier League title. John Kosmina found this out the hard way - desperately throwing youngsters like Danning, Grant, Gan, and Payne into the first-team fold in a bid to show he was ‘thinking of the future’; like that would somehow save him from the impending axe.
In addition, not all of the youth side will be good enough to go onto your senior team - if they were, clubs like Arsenal and Manchester United would never have a need to purchase new players. As a result, you might find a key position like centre back being filled by some lad that, while talented, will never quite make it - and the opposition will soon prove that; crushing the kid’s confidence and any chances your team may have.
Method Two: If You’re Good Enough, You’ll Play
The preferred method of teams like Chelsea, Real Madrid, and (if you follow the local scene in WA) Perth SC is of course “buy the best young players off everyone else”. In all seriousness though, teams that seemingly neglect to play youngsters would just say that they’re taking a different approach to youth development. Their approach is simply that if a kid is good enough, he’ll get a gig. Otherwise, there’s someone better for that position in the senior side.
This method means that you will generally only have one young player in your side at any one time. On many occasions, you may only have someone on the bench - in other cases, you may have no youngsters in the squad at all. It also serves as an indication of your squads’ relative strengths and weaknesses - if your team is full of youngsters, you’ve either recruited incredibly poorly or you have a youth team full of Harry Kewell clones. Your call, tour guide Kosmina...
The advantage to this approach, especially in a competition like the A-League, is that you’re always putting out your strongest team. This is conducive to winning games, which in terms helps with winning trophies - at least, in the short term. It also means that if you do end up with youth players in your senior squad, they should be something pretty special - maybe someone you can cash in on overseas, or at the very least someone who can put a good decade’s worth of work in for your senior side.
Of course, this method also has its problems. Does any kid really have a chance of replacing the club captain or marquee player, no matter how badly they may be playing? What about the possibility of cliques or friendships in the senior squad preventing a player from being dropped for a younger lad? What’s more, it means that the vast majority of youngsters will never experience a senior game of football unless they’re signed for their senior side - and if you haven’t had a chance to prove yourself at that level, how can a coach know what he’s getting?
This approach also exposes the same flaws that affected the Australian cricket team. If you have an ageing side, at some point a lot of players are going to retire or become unable to compete at the desired level, be it EPL or Football West First Division. If you do have a retirement en masse, you face a choice between re-stocking your squad with players from another city/country and then juggling the salary cap between them, or promoting some kids - who may no longer be kids by this stage - to the senior side. Quite often, as proved by Australian off-spinner Jason Krejza, these ‘kids’ can debut to some pretty disastrous results - and why shouldn’t they? They’ve never been exposed to this level before, and it certainly takes some getting used to.
Method Three: Future-Proofing
Given the above two extremes, it’s unsurprising to know that my own personal preference lies in another option altogether. Of course, from week to week coaches should be putting their best team out on the park - be the players old or young, local or international. To not do so in a close / salary-capped / ‘equally-shit’ (thanks Branko!) competition like the A-League would be bordering on the absurd.
That said, it’s also a requirement of the A-League to have three under-20 players in your senior squad. As such, you’d expect the majority of A-League coaches to pick the best three players from their youth team and throw them into the senior mix by giving them these contracts. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen. Take the case of Perth Glory for example - Promoted to the senior squad this year were three youth team players aged 20 years or younger in the form of Brent Griffiths, Howard Fondyke, and Anthony Skorich, as well as two talented youngsters no longer eligible for the youth league; Andrija Jukic and Scott Neville.
Of these players, 21 year old Neville has had the most luck with coach David Mitchell, getting consistent game time and starting no less than sixteen matches for the club, coming on as a sub in a further five. Next up is young midfield ace Andrija Jukic, who has suddenly, inexplicably, found favour in Mitchell’s eyes, and this helps balance out his stats somewhat. Fourteen games played doesn’t sound so bad - but when you realise that he’s only started one of them, and that his last two games have contributed over 90 minutes to his season tally of 377, you begin to see that he hasn’t always been at the forefront of Mitchell’s thoughts.
In the meantime, what of the other three youngsters on the Glory’s senior books? How many minutes have they played combined? Zero. Nada. Absolutely squat.
Herein lies the rub - I think David Mitchell has nearly got it right with his youth policy. In theory, giving one or two young guys like Neville and Jukic regular game time over the whole season gives a bit of youthful endeavour to an otherwise ageing team. In addition, youth players like Ludovic Boi and Tommy Amphlett have been given short stints in the senior side when cover has been needed. But while the theory is sound, the execution has been all wrong.
Neville has been given game time when low on form or confidence, which has lead to mistakes and thus losses. Jukic and Boi have been on fire in the youth league, only to be ignored and then pulled up to the senior side once their hot streak has ended. All three have been played out of position - defender Neville as a right winger, and midfielders Jukic and Boi as out and out strikers. They key is to give these young guys experience and confidence - but how much confidence can you have when playing in a position that’s not your natural role?
Meanwhile, more senior players like Adriano Pellegrino, Jamie Coyne, Tando Velaphi, Mile Sterjovski, Wayne Srhoj, and Scott Bulloch have all had periods during the season where they were playing poorly. During these periods, the Glory’s performance suffered as a result of Mitchell not dropping these guys to the bench or to the stands. It is here that the young blood of Jukic or Fondyke could have provided a spark that Wayne Srhoj was so desperately missing; or where Ludovic Boi could have giving the Glory a whole new option down the right hand flank. Hell, even Anthony Skorich or Million Butshiire could have been given a chance ahead of NSW loanee Matthew Mayora. If they played badly, there was still a good eight or nine experienced players around to take up the slack - something they were used to doing while Pellegrino/Coyne/Srhoj/whoever was playing badly anyway.
Giving youth players experience does not mean bringing them on with five minutes to go with a match already decided. It must surely mean throwing kids onto the big stage while a game is there to be won, and seeing what they can do. By all means, drop them the next week if they can’t cut it. But the key is to see if they can. Five minutes a game can’t tell you that.
For god’s sake, if someone is carrying an injury or playing with no confidence, don’t persist with them - whether you’re their best friend, an ex-Socceroo, or a former EPL superstar. Give them a rest and go with your next best option - and with a squad the size of an A-League side, that quite often may mean reaching for the youth.
So come on A-League managers - I’m not asking you to do a Wenger and field your whole National Youth League side. But get out of this ‘senior players are undroppable’ mindset, stop playing people out of position in the hope that they’ll ‘fill a gap’, and above all else - give the kids a chance.
