February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
This means less than 10 percent of the line-ups consisted of homegrown talent. A frightening figure made all the more so since this was traditionally the date in the calendar when teams with nothing to play for rewarded up-and-coming youngsters with a taste of the big-time.
If Irish fortunes weren’t so inextricably linked with the English set-up that sort of statistic – gleaned from a Four Four Two magazine article on the worth of football academies – would mean little to us. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that if English football sneezes, the Irish international team catches a cold. This information is of the utmost relevance to our own long-term prospects because, like it or not, we still rely on our friends across the water developing our best young teenagers into our stalwarts of tomorrow.
This is the case even though evidence has been produced showing that the attrition rate is enormous — nine out of ten kids fail to make it. We haven’t provided any viable alternative to the waves of Irish parents waving goodbye to their adolescent sons each year. This is why we have stories like Stephen Bradley, a 20 year-old Dubliner released two weeks ago by Dunfermline, his career fast becoming one more cautionary tale for every gifted Irish kid.
At 11, word went around about the wonder boy from Jobstown, and Chelsea were the first glamour club to fly Bradley to London. There followed a steady stream of suitors and, according to newspaper reports, West Ham offered the child with the loquacious left foot