Yes there is talent, but I'm afraid we fritter much of it away. That has to be why quite a lot of lower division EFL recruitment centres on non-league football. When you examine the backgrounds of these players who have been impressing with Dulwich Hamlet etc you find that a couple of years earlier they've been highly regarded at Palace, or Charlton, or somewhere ........ but eventually some bean-counter with a clapperboard called CUT.
Let's say a smallish club takes on twenty youngsters. They reach age 17 or so, maybe 4 will get short-term contracts and if the club is small - time like Chesterfield there will then be very little opportunity for even those 4 to make that leap into league football. Maybe one will make it to full-time pro as a career. Imagine if a university were offering similar life-chances - about 80% chance you come out with nothing at all, 5% you'll make it your life. There'd be a national outcry. Football trades on dreams and often struggles to deliver much development beyond the talent a boy brings to pitch naturally. The injury level is high; the wastage level is higher. Not many years ago Jacob Mellis was down to become the next big thing, guessing his attitude is slightly off, so he ends up wandering the Fleetwoods, Barnsleys and Mansfields. If a player lacks any of the elements to succeed he will almost always remain weak in that area FOREVER. And it happens all the time, Chesterfield had a player called Mark Randall, a perceptive and excellent passer of a ball, who could chip in with a goal. A No 10. But despite his years at Arsenal he arrived at Chesterfield, a bit uncommitted, every day wasn't a going day, sometimes if he felt like it, okay I'll put in a tackle this once ............... Lost boy, should have been an Arsenal star, but struggles in league two. Yet he was surrounded by experts, supposedly the best teachers in the world ........ but they were prepared to let him fail. We do it all the time; bat the ball back to the individual, hold up our hands and say if he doesn't want to grab the chance ........... And yeah the chance is there - but equally the coach could say son look this is what you need to do (if he can just avoid inviting him round his house for a bit of abuse ...)
For every failed student there is a failed teacher. And football is littered with failed students.
Let's say a smallish club takes on twenty youngsters. They reach age 17 or so, maybe 4 will get short-term contracts and if the club is small - time like Chesterfield there will then be very little opportunity for even those 4 to make that leap into league football. Maybe one will make it to full-time pro as a career. Imagine if a university were offering similar life-chances - about 80% chance you come out with nothing at all, 5% you'll make it your life. There'd be a national outcry. Football trades on dreams and often struggles to deliver much development beyond the talent a boy brings to pitch naturally. The injury level is high; the wastage level is higher. Not many years ago Jacob Mellis was down to become the next big thing, guessing his attitude is slightly off, so he ends up wandering the Fleetwoods, Barnsleys and Mansfields. If a player lacks any of the elements to succeed he will almost always remain weak in that area FOREVER. And it happens all the time, Chesterfield had a player called Mark Randall, a perceptive and excellent passer of a ball, who could chip in with a goal. A No 10. But despite his years at Arsenal he arrived at Chesterfield, a bit uncommitted, every day wasn't a going day, sometimes if he felt like it, okay I'll put in a tackle this once ............... Lost boy, should have been an Arsenal star, but struggles in league two. Yet he was surrounded by experts, supposedly the best teachers in the world ........ but they were prepared to let him fail. We do it all the time; bat the ball back to the individual, hold up our hands and say if he doesn't want to grab the chance ........... And yeah the chance is there - but equally the coach could say son look this is what you need to do (if he can just avoid inviting him round his house for a bit of abuse ...)
For every failed student there is a failed teacher. And football is littered with failed students.
