To sign or not to sign...

The academy season is nearly upon us and most parents have already signed their child's new contract (generally within 2 seconds of being handed it) and those that have not will no doubt be getting the cold shoulder from the club and will have it signed before the season starts because it is their child's future after all.
I remember when my eldest son was playing grassroots football and beginning to make a name amongst scouts, he was invited up to trials at several clubs and like most people signed the first contract that he was offered. The contract was apparently for 12 months and was supposedly for the protection of the player. Again I will say apparently. The more time spent in academy football the more it becomes apparent that the contract has no benefit for players and their families and only serves the football clubs.
A 12 month contract should mean just that 12 months and then it is up to both parties to decide if they wish to renew.  However that is not what it is at all. At the end of the 12 months the club is free to drop a player, and they frequently do, without a second thought. The player on the other hand can choose not to sign and after months of nonsense and negotiations will be given a form which entitles them to find another club. It sounds fair enough, however, if the player finds another club, that club has to pay compensation to the players previous academy and I know of several occasions where the academy has placed a ridiculous price tag on players (often as young as 10) so that no team will take them on and then the player, who just wants to play football returns with his tail between his legs and the academy welcomes him back with open arms.
Most fans of football will agree there is often a lack of common sense and integrity in the game and I think this is one of those situations. A contract between a club and a child, if it needs to exist at all, should be there to protect the child first and foremost and the investment of the club should come a very distant second.

Don't blame the players, blame the game...

The question of money continues to rear its ugly head during this transfer window and seemingly some clubs have more money than sense.

However in answer to the question of whether the players are worth these massive fees - YES. Put simply if that is how much a club offers for a player then yes they are worth it, the valuation of players is relative on the amount clubs are prepared to pay in the current market.

Of course the money in football is obscene and in the current financial climate is a smack in the face to the working class roots of the game, but if someone offered me £100 million to kick a football I would take it and I would love to hear from someone who would turn it down if they were given the opportunity.

The Beautiful Game?

The beautiful game or so they say. Has anyone ever watched a football match and come away thinking it was anything but beautiful? Games where players where more likely to have banged on their chests King Kong style than to have attempted to pass the ball to a team mate. Players behaving like animals, puffing out their chests and strutting around like they have a television under each arm, whilst being encouraged to "Get stuck in" and "get rid of the ball".  And this is a match between children, not a Sunday league pub team.
Many people have their theories on what is wrong with English football and why we don't produce elegant footballers. Get your self down to your local park and you might begin to understand where we are going wrong. There is nothing wrong with children  being competitive and wanting to win but the focus needs to be on getting the ball on the floor and playing football not just hitting it 50 feet in the air. Until we learn to be patient with young players, allow them to make mistakes and praise them for their technique instead of encouraging them to rely on their physical attributes to win, then we will continue to fall behind countries like Spain.

Depression in football

I watched a documentary last night about depression in football and found it really sad and quite frightening.
 As a mum of an academy footballer I am aware of the pressures placed on footballers from a very young age and can see how easy it would be for a footballer to slip into depression. Yes, you may argue, what have they got to be depressed about, they have money and the world at their feet, but I don't think it is as simple as that. From a young age talented footballers are forced to evaluate their worth based on how well they have performed. They are compared to their peers - ranked according to how tall they are, fast they are and how high they can jump, regardless of the countless research into adolescent growth patterns. They are signed to clubs from a young age and then when they are unhappy they are told they can leave as long as another club can pay the compensation, which they then set at a stupid amount. These children are a commodity in a huge industry and their self esteem and happiness means nothing.
And yes at the end of all of that a few, a small handful of children may  make it. And then the real fun begins. Forced week in week out to prove their self worth in front of millions of fickle fans and press just waiting to knock them off their pedestal. Yes some footballers get paid a lot of money for what they do. But for how long a football career is very short lived and they then have to readjust to life without football when it is all they have ever done, every night, every weekend since they were 7 or 8. You may have little sympathy for footballers but it's time the FA did more to raise awareness of depression amongst footballers and made it less of a taboo subject or we may have many more Gary Speeds on our hands.