Cats will benefit from strong foundation

Feb 13 2008 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

FA YOUTH CUP: A Premier League Academy just about pays for itself but sometimes clubs like Sunderland can hit the jackpot. Chief Sports Writer Luke Edwards reports

CONSIDERING he has spent the best part of £50m since he guided Sunderland back into the Premier League, it would be easy for those who toil day after day at the club’s training ground with the kids to become disillusioned with Roy Keane.

Like every Premier League manager, Keane knows the cost of failure and he knows the prices that unfortunately need to be paid to try and ensure that does not happen.

No Sunderland manager has ever been given as much money to spend – with mixed success – in the transfer market as the Irishman but, unlike some in his profession, Keane’s interest in Sunderland Football Club goes well beyond and below the first team.

Having seen the importance his mentor Brian Clough attached to the youth team at Nottingham Forest and having seen the impact home-grown players can have on the first team at Manchester United, Keane can often be seen on the sidelines at Sunderland Academy games and is a regular visitor to the Academy dressing room to talk to the club’s young hopefuls.

Sunderland’s manager knows his success will be judged entirely on what happens to Sunderland’s first team, but he also knows his first team has plenty to gain from a successful and productive Academy – particularly when the Academy director Ged McNamee believes the current crop of youngsters are the best he has seen in almost a decade.

“He does have a big interest,” said McNamee. “He wants to know who is doing well. He’s been to the other FA Youth Cup games and spoke to the lads. Sometimes some of them get to go and train with the first team and all of the lads are dying to do that. This is all part of the process of breaking though and going away with the reserves. It is part of the learning process, playing with players who have a lot of league experience under their belts. They’ll learn as much from them than any of the coaches.”

Despite effectively still being a rookie in managerial terms, Keane has been a fast learner and he knows there is nothing to lose when it comes to supporting the Academy, particularly when they normally pay for themselves. While only a very small percentage ever make the grade in the first team at Premier League clubs, some players are normally good enough to be sold on to other league clubs. And, every now and again, a gem will be unearthed, a home-grown player who becomes a first-team regular and who makes all the hard work and difficult goodbyes, season after season, seem worthwhile.

In recent years, Sunderland’s Academy coaches have seen Grant Leadbitter break into the first team and earn a call up into the England Under-21 squad in the process. With Keane committed to giving youngster a chance, it is a path McNamee believes others are capable of following in the next couple of years. He explained: “With academies the philosophy has got to be, if you’re producing kids, they have to be given an opportunity to play in the first team. The problem, however, is that with the pressures of the Premier League it is hard to push young players in. You could be fighting relegation or pushing for promotion and it is hard for youngsters to get an opportunity.

“Presently the gaffer has stated that, if they are doing well, he’ll have no problem putting them in and he’s proved that with the inclusion of Martyn Waghorn for the Boxing Day fixture (versus Manchester United). That was a big boost for the boys in the Academy because it proves to them that it can be done.

“Marty (Waghorn), Jordan Henderson, Jack Colback and Conor Hourihane have all been around the first team. It proves if you put the work in and put your performances in you can get there. It costs the average big academies about £1m a year. If you get players through playing for the first team on a regular basis you’re going to get your money back. It is vitally important, from my point of view, to have a good youth system.”

When England failed to qualify for Euro 2008 last year, the Academy system was once again criticised for failing to produce enough quality players eligible to play for the national side, but it is an accusation that rankles those who work within them.

McNamee said: “The Academies over the last few years have had a lot of bad Press. It always seems to be when the England senior team have a poor result. People seem to always say we’re not producing this and we’re not producing that. My argument would be that there are good English players coming through. Last season England Under-21s went out on penalties in the semi-finals of the European Championships, so there are players coming though.”

Of the 11 who start against Liverpool in the fifth round of the FA Youth Cup tonight, normally only one or two would still be at Sunderland in two years’ time, but McNamee believes this present squad have a better chance than most of attracting Keane’s interest.

He added: “Eight years ago we had a group of players and they’re all still playing league football. Ben Clark, Tommy Butler, George McCartney, Michael Proctor and Kevin Kyle. That was a good crop. But since then, this is the best crop we’ve had in my time here at the club.”

But, for both McNamee and his assistant, the former Black Cats captain Kevin Ball, the hardest part of the job will always be having to break the news to those who have not made the grade.

Ball added: “We are giving them an understanding of the game, but also life skills. It’s got to be about that.

“We are trying to push them in the right direction, but it’s down to the individual and how they want to improve.

“We want them to leave as a better footballer, but also a better, more rounded person. We want to produce players for Sunderland Football Club, but we’re doing the best we can for the kids. If they leave here, we want them to have the best possible chance of getting another club and if they don’t carry on in the game, we want them to have the best chance in life.”

With academies the philosophy has got to be, if you’re producing kids must be given an opportunity to play in the first team