Paul Merson has used a column in the Daily Star to attack both Sunderland and Newcastle’s youth system’s. In the article Merson is quoted as saying;
“They’ve got no kids coming through, and that needs to change. It’s the same at Newcastle, they’ve got nobody. That’s a big part of the country.
They need to start bringing young players through and giving them a chance. It’s no good bringing in a manager just to keep them up. They need to think long term.”
At first glance this is a fair but not exactly revelationary point. Despite boasting one of the most impressive training facilities in the country, very few youngsters have made the grade. With the exception of Jordan Henderson and Jack Colback Sunderland have failed to bring through a regular first team player in recent years.
However, Merson is quite wrong to say there are no good young players on Sunderland’s books.
For a start, I highly doubt that Mr Merson has attended a Sunderland under 21 or youth team match recently. Even a quick glance at the Under 21’s Premier League table would show that Sunderland currently sit top.
They have achieved this by playing an attractive brand of possession-based, positive football, featuring some standout players. Duncan Watmore has particularly impressed.
When he arrived at the club Watmore was incredibly raw and although he had ability he was clearly naive in his decision making.
Now, he makes intelligent runs off the ball, opening up space for teammates to run into, makes excellent direct runs with the ball at his feet and has scored prolifically at Under 21 level, as well as gaining praise for his maturity on and off the pitch. This has earned him call-ups to England under 20 and under 21 squads.
Under 21 teammate Jordan Pickford is also highly thought of at the Stadium of Light. On loan at Preston, he has kept a number of clean sheets and in the Lancashire Evening Post, Goalkeeper Coach Allan Kelly describes him as “a bedrock of the team.” This first team experience at a high level will prove invaluable and is widely thought of as being Sunderland’s future number one.
Although Watmore caught most of the early season limelight after scoring against Norwich and Exeter, another academy graduate Lynden Gooch revitalized the team with his injection of pace and power in the League Cup 2nd round tie.
Gooch has also continually shone at under 21 level and possess ability combined with physicality which will stand him in good stead should he be loaned out or given another chance in the first team.
Alongside the above players, Tom Beadling and George Honeyman have enjoyed first team action, albeit Honeyman’s was a cameo at Bradford and Beadling only featured in per-season. So with such talent in the squad it seems grossly inaccurate for Paul Merson to claim that Sunderland have “no good young players.”
Sunderland have also historically had problems recruiting young talent due to their location. In 2008, Roy Keane summed up the flaw in the “90-minute rule” very well when he said;
“If you look at our academy, we are restricted in terms of our location. You can only bring in kids from a certain area. It’s a certain radius and a lot of our radius is in the water. We have to look at whether there’s any good fish out there.”
This is perfectly true, even Middlesbrough, have large parts of Yorkshire to the south as well as the whole of the north east to attract young players from. Whereas Sunderland have the north sea and rural Northumberland within their 90-minute radius.
Another point to consider is the problem Sunderland have when attracting players. This season Chelsea have a staggering 33 players out on loan the majority having rarely featured for the first team and have little prospect of making the step up anytime soon.
Such is the competitiveness of top flight football the traditional top four clubs will sign young players simply to prevent their rivals from signing them. In the past youngsters not quite good enough for the likes of Manchester City, Chelsea etc may have signed for Sunderland but now big clubs will sign players even if they have no long-term plan to integrate them into the starting eleven.
On the other side of the coin, the structure of the English game is even weighted against clubs developing their own talent. It is now perfectly possible for a player to reach his early twenties without playing a minute of competitive football.
There is a school of thinking in the modern game for players to remain at their clubs and be coached to the highest possible standard as opposed to being loaned out to lower league clubs and picking up “bad habits”.
Of course, there is a logic to this, after all
the style of football at lower league clubs can be poor and be detrimental to a players development. The other side of the argument is that players don’t play in “meaningful fixtures”. The Under 21 Premier League is a good standard, however, it sadly lacks a competitive edge.
Gone were the days where an apprentice fresh out of school lined up alongside a number of first team regulars fighting back from fitness or suspension. The rule stipulating only three players over the age of 21 may feature at one time prohibits it. This leads to players playing against lads they’ve played against all through the youth system, and to a certain extent are naive to the pressure of battling for vital points in relegation scraps or a promotion push.
This leaves many players lost in the system, as a manager is cautious about selecting a player with no experience of playing in high-tempo, high-pressure environments. This, combined with constant relegation battles has hindered Sunderland’s progress in bringing through youngsters.
We have not been afforded the luxury Swansea and Southampton had by establishing a youth policy whilst in the lower leagues where blooding youngsters is considerably easier, especially in the winning environments they were in.
Therefore, whilst Merson was perhaps right to site Sunderland’s need for change in attitudes with regards to youth development, it was quite a lazy statement with little basis in fact and didn’t take into account the wider debate on youth development.
