I've resisted posting on this matter for a few weeks, but after seeing some further comments on the post-Dagenham match thread, I've felt compelled to put down my thoughts on the Academy and the production of players at Southend United at the moment. Rather than respond and take that thread off topic, I've decided to start a new thread.
To begin with, for those that don't know me, I've been providing coverage of the club's Academy, either officially or unofficially, for almost 20 years now. If you've read something on the official website or in the matchday programme about the U18s or the U23s in the past 12 years or so, there's a good chance I've either written it, providing some data behind it or it's informed by something I've written before. I say that not because I want any credit for it, but so that you know that it's coming from someone who has volunteered their time to publicise the work the Academy has done and has spoken to many of the protagonists there over a couple of decades. You may judge, because of that, that I'm too close to those protagonists, but I have a real fear that there are rumours circulating that are uninformed.
Firstly, there's a belief we're missing out seeing the best of our Academy talent. I was disappointed, to that end, in Glenn Speller perpetuating that on BBC Essex recently after his interview with Stan Collymore. It's true that some players have left the Academy at 12, 13 or 14, and that they have generated revenue for the club.
Look at Isaac Hayden and Glen Kamara (who both joined Arsenal and are now at Newcastle United and Rangers respectively) or Finley Burns and George Murray-Jones (both at Manchester City). But my counter-argument to that is that we should not stand in the way of those players going on to further their careers. There's a human element to those moves; those players are getting the opportunity to sign for top, top football clubs in this country. Yes, we'd love to see them play for Southend United, but they might only get one chance to join an Arsenal or a Manchester City; City in particular can offer a dedicated schooling to further their education and assist parents in getting jobs in the local area so they can relocate. We can't compete with that.
And because we have shown that we will not stand in the way of young players joining those top Academies if they get the chance, you encourage those players to sign for Southend United rather than a Colchester United (Cat 2 Academy) or a Leyton Orient (like us a Cat 3 Academy). There's a dual aspect to the player joining us; they can make it at Southend United, or they can make it at another, bigger club.
It also means we get players coming in the opposite direction. Daniel Bentley was released by Arsenal, and he was recommended to come to Southend for his scholarship. Luke Chambers, slightly before him, followed the same path without breaking into our first team. Stuart O'Keefe joined us at 16 from Ipswich Town, Elvis Bwomono arrived here at 14 after being released by Queens Park Rangers, Tom Clifford had been at Tottenham Hotspur as a 9-year-old and then came here when he didn't make it there. With the exception of Bentley (from Wickford), these weren't local players, they were spread around East Anglia and London.
Whilst on the subject of recruitment, I mentioned in the summer that our Academy recruitment has not been a problem. We are not missing out on players. Aside from players joining us from higher Academies (and you can include Rob Howard's return, Isaac Hutchinson, Harry Kyprianou, Richard Taylor as post-scholarship arrivals), we've also attracted players from local non-league clubs.
For example, Charlie Kelman came from AFC Hornchurch, Kenny Coker from Billericay Town, Charlie Sayers from Bowers & Pitsea, Miles Mitchell-Nelson from Ryan in east London and Eren Kinali from Intersports. Kelman and Coker have generated revenue for the club; Sayers might well do in the future. That's exactly the model some are proposing following (Brentford, Peterborough United) in place already.
If we want to attract players to the Academy, the best thing we can do is get back into the EFL as quickly as possible, because remaining in the National League is the biggest threat. This season we receive 100% Academy funding, but that's reduced to 50% next season and nothing the season afterwards. Ron Martin has committed, as far as I'm aware, to funding for two seasons, but thereafter the Academy is under real threat. Ron can continue to fund an EFL license, I believe, after that, but the club would not be entitled to any compensation for players that join another Academy. Even Stan will struggle to sell that to an up-and-coming player and his parents in the local area.
Would we have liked to have seen Kelman, Coker, Hutchinson or Nathan Bishop play for the first-team more often? Absolutely we would have. But Kelman, Hutchinson and Bishop were all moved on when the football club needed to raise money, because we were under an embargo. Coker was allowed to leave for the best Academy in East Anglia in Norwich City. Looking back in time, Stuart O'Keefe has gone on to have a successful career in the EFL (and even appeared in the Premier League); he left in the summer of 2010 because he was being paid late and at times didn't even have enough money to fill his car with petrol. That's not the fault of the Academy, it's the fault of the football club and the ownership.
We have had players that have gone on to play regularly for the first team (Bentley, Jack Payne, Bwomono, Clifford, Terrell Egbri). In fact,
in data released by the EFL in April this year, we ranked second amongst Category 3 Academies for Academy production in the past three seasons, sixth amongst the same clubs in the past six seasons, fifth over nine seasons and eighth in twelve seasons. Even yesterday at Dagenham & Redbridge, we had Harry Seaden, Rob Howard, Terrell Egbri, Jack Bridge, Harry Phillips and Sayers on the pitch and Matt Rush on the bench. Some of that is due to injuries, but Phillips, Egbri and Bridge are regular features.
So, to conclude, I'm pretty fed up of reading that we're missing out on the best young players in the area, or that we could so anymore to see the best of them in the first-team environment. The evidence, and data, suggests that simply isn't true. I'm sure someone will know a player or two that's decided to go elsewhere that we've missed out on, and I'm sure that some mistakes have been made along the way, but as a general rule, the Academy and Ricky Duncan as its manager, is something we should be proud of.
It's an Academy that has produced over 50 players for the first-team in the past 16 years, with over 1250 first-team appearances. Not only that, but it's produced Mark Bonner (now first-team coach at Cambridge United), Luke Hobbs (assistant Academy manager at Arsenal), Dave Huzzey (Academy manager at Colchester) and David Johnson (Head of London recruitment at Tottenham Hotspur). It has a good reputation in the game (Kamara, Freddie Ladapo, Howard and Bridge have all returned to a greater or lesser extent).
Recently it seems like the Academy and Ricky Duncan have been included in criticism of the way the club has been run, and needs to be fixed. I just wanted to provide a different perspective.
