the discussion on the rumors thread really interested me and i thought i would summarise for those unaware of what i think are some terrible plans.
the4thofficial.co.uk/.../the-truth-about-the-eppp-progression-or-destruction/
this article captures the main points. id like to add my own
1. our culture isnt like spain. much more likely for a family from betis, mallorca or ovideo to stay with that club rather than jump off to la maisla aged 14. some of the better crop were at relatively smaller teams until professional (juan mata, michu)
2. like it or lump it...the sole reason for these academies is not to produce professional footballers. it is the primary reason but not the only function, for every lad that makes it, 20 do not and i am aghast at the thought of top loading the category 1 clubs and watching the others fall by the wayside.
3. current system, where a crystal palace or a crewe can produce a player and sell him for enough (saha, powell) to support the academy for several years at least protects the smaller fish in the system.
4, its a mirror of most free v planned economy arguments one can make for nearly all industries. once you fail to protect elements of a market, do not expect it to serve society in the way a planned activity can. for me, this proposal is the worst in terms of market dynamics. it has closed barriers to entry and yet operates on a free market basis once entry is secured (i,e cat 1 status), this is a very unusual and poorly thought out model in terms of how any economist would see the structure.
5. rather than widen the talent pool, we will be left with a much narrower selection of boys. if you were a cat 2-4 club, would you bother? probably not.
crewe alexandra are a blueprint for others. why? because the lads see a chance of first team football and its a major selling point. how would their system operate under the new rules? well i think the famous crewe academy would full by the wayside.
you cant blame the boy who moves at 14.
you cant blame the parents who sanction it (although they would be be well served to take the long term view...almost impossible to do in practice if united come calling)
you cant blame the clubs who will simply do whatever they can to maximise their own individual positions
what i dont like is the idea that somehow this system is collective. it is not, it incentivises each capital participant (chelski, manure) to look only for themselves.
i am always amazed at how well switzerland does at youth level despite the small pool of talent it has to pick from, but then i look at the facilities and the structure. kids are treated as exactly that, children. sport is seen as a necessary force for good and decent behavior for the masses, as well as a profession for the select view. i think plans like the EPPP dont reflect the role of sport in the wider community and i think it is a system which encourages your russian oligarchs to further monopolise the game.
its a dangerous scheme, id be interested to hear if others with an interest in this level of football actually support this proposal.
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sorry i couldnt do the link above but this might work
If the story about Archie Edwards leaving for Man U is true then that's the second time this season, as a minimum Charlton will end up with about £200k per player. Increase that compensation and you can still justify the expense of identifying and nurturing talented kids even if you know that you'll lose one or two to other clubs.
And the right to free movement only subsides in those of worker status...i.e. not 11 year olds! Now of course that doesnt stop chelski offering a "job" to the dad so the kid gets into the uk as a result
Employing from outside the EU is a different matter, you need a work permit and in footballing terms this is only granted if a player has represented his country in at least 75% of its competitive 'A' team matches where he was available for selection in the the two years prior to the date of the application and the player's country must be at/above 70th place in the official FIFA world rankings averaged over the two years preceding the date of the application.
Also as Calydon says, the culture of football is different in other countries, as is the general "greed is good" attitude that pervades Britain.
Of course they don't always get it right, and for example, they would never snap up a Chris Solly because he's, ahem, too small, but would probably have signed Jenkinson at an earlier stage than they did.
That's the risk that players like Archie Edwards accept when they go to Man U.
He'll get top class coaching, but could equally find himself spending several years being loaned out to clubs in L1 and the CCC interspersed with a few months in United's reserve teams before being released at the age of 21 when they realise that he's a good player but not good enough to displace a player with several dozen international caps and CL/Europa League experience. The alternative is stay at Charlton, get a playing contract at 17 and be in/around the first team and getting some solid experience and then move on. The issue really is whether we are getting adequate compensation. I don't think so - especially when you consider that the new TV deal kicks in soon and teams with Cat 1 academies will have even more money to burn in attracting young players.
The Financial Fair Play system might also be mitigating against teams like Charlton here - the top clubs are going to have to learn to live within their means (or at least drastically reduce their losses). While they'll still want to attract the most talented players and pay them accordingly they'll have to balance the books by some other method - and training up young talent can save a lot of money elsewhere if it means avoiding multi-million transfer fees. Alternatively if the likes of Archie Edwards don't make it at Man U, but still have a value they can be trained up and sold off to add some value to the balance sheet.
In other words what is EPPP?
The Elite Player Performance Plan - youth development scheme.
I find it utterly depressing as I am proud of our clubs academy history but reality says that if we turnover £8M then spending £1M on something which will show no return is a waste of cash.
Let those top few Prem clubs spend their cash on their academies bringing in hundreds of Europeans, close all the rest in the country and watch as the FA suddenly change their mind on the whole thing.
Good thinking - and we'll lose Azeez, Fox, Cousins, Piggott and all the other talented young players to boot who'll simply sign up for any one of a stream of clubs who'll be beating a path to their front doors. And we can say goodbye to the next-gen of youth players after them who won't even set foot inside the club. Just because we lose a few talented players doesn't mean that the entire system is worthless.
You have to have freedom of labour within any market - the issue here is whether under the system of compensation there is an adequate risk/reward ratio for the clubs who identify, nuture and then lose talented kids. Under the current rules I think not - increase the compenation making Cat 1 clubs pay a minimum of £400k or £500k and teams like Charlton will still benefit.
a) if all league teams closed their academies leaving just the Prem few the FA would soon make the system fairer as they would realise that not all good players come through CAT1 academies and
b) I have not seen the youth play and hear very good things about Piggot, Fox, Azeez et al however if we closed the academy, saved £1M a year then we could probably get similar players for nowt and afford their wages when they dropped out of the running in the Prem league.
Maybe too simple and unworkable but I genuinly think that the smaller clubs will start to close academies and this will slowly work its way up as it always does.
Point B - £1m a year will buy you only maybe a couple of players - remember to factor in agents commission, signing-on in fees, wages and those players are in the open market and have no loyalty to the club and have not been trained the way the club wants them to play etc. Much better to have a few youth teamers stepping up and every few years we get a Scott Parker etc.
I know it'd take the likes of Jonjo etc making debuts at such a young age but i feel it'd be beneficial so if we want something like spain where the whole of the youth is trained in the same way it's going to be the only way to do it.
I feel the EPPP is beneficial to the big clubs obviously but i feel it could do more for every other club, we need to get a system in place where our youth all play the same style before we can acheieve the goal of the EPPP plan to develop talent.
And are youth players any more 'loyal' than other players. Johnny Robinson, Derek Hales, Mark Kinsella, Colin Walsh, Dean Kiely, Bob Bolder, Steve Gritt, Alan Curbishley, Chris Powell etc all seemed pretty committed to the club.
Football League Academies are such a lucrative business that many clubs have become reliant on the sale of their young starlets, or indeed the compensation awarded, to post profits at the end of each year. The removal of these cash incentives many say will cause a lot of problems for Football League clubs, forcing some to close down their academies completely.
As good as saying it is run as a profitable business arm of the club overall, rather than what it was originally intended for, that is to produce a steady stream of young footballing talent for the respective club.
IMHO this does not apply to the Charlton Academy which has a rich history in producing 1st team players and I think still adheres to this policy.
The EPPP is a well meaning blueprint for the future of British football, but I believe it is hugely flawed in the qualification / categorising process. I can understand the concept of minimum operating costs/coaching staff which in turn should provide adequate funding, better facilities and a better ratio of players to coaches thus ensuring Best Practice scenario for player development and there has to be a benchmark for this currently Category 1 £2.4m operating budget and min of 18 coaching staff plus required facilities, however, as BFR rightly points out, the remuneration for players poached from Cat 2 academies by Cat 1 academies is far too low and effectively disenfranchises the cat 2 academies from the EPPP.
From a purely financial perspective, if this plan is genuinely for the common good of British football throughout all the leagues, surely then it makes common sense financially, ethically and morally, for a higher category club to financially recompense a Cat 2 club with a larger fee for taking a player that the Cat 2 club has identified and nurtured, the higher fee would have to be used solely towards the academy funding, thereby ensuring the cat 2 club remains positive about the concept of EPPP and at the same time providing much needed funds to allow them to qualify for category 1 status in their own right.
Talent v Greed v Opportunity
Yes if you are fortunate enough to have a child in an academy, of course you want him to have the opportunity to play at the highest level -and maybe one halcyon day go on to represent their country- however, if we have learnt anything over the years - and we are still learning, or should be! - it is how and when a player develops, all to often we see brilliant young player 12/ 13 /14 who make a move to a "bigger, Better?" club only to find they fail for any number of reasons: wrong coaching style, peer pressure, personal pressure, or actually just not good enough for that level. This is where the player or their parents have to make a good judgement call, hopefully guided by the academy coaching staff who have invested their time and effort in the player, yes it might be great for XXXXXXX to go and join Chelsea, Man U, Man City etc but will they ever play 1st team football???
I know, I know this is the Catch 22 question and there ain't no easy answer...
Talent
talent will always gain the recognition it deserves sooner or later
Greed
unfortunately some will aspire for the wrong reasons and fail
Opportunity
others hopefully will recognise the environment they are in and identify the route to 1st team football
In the meantime, under the current EPPP financial structure, I fear many players will make the wrong decision if offered the chance to join a bigger club because of the current compensation from Cat 1 to Cat 2 and this has to be addressed ASAP.
Rant over!
And he could be a good signing - but he won't be cheap, what will his wages be? £4-5k a week? So £200-250k a year, add on signing on fees and that figure nudges up to around £500k. On that basis you get two such players for your £1m.
At 21 he has a future and a decent career ahead of him and he's young enough to be trained up and have several seasons of use before being sold on. That's one way to construct a team - but you are putting a lot of emphasis on your ability to attract players at that age and there'll be a lot of competition for him.
The essential problem is that the rules for this system were written by the Premier league clubs and presented to the other 72 clubs on a take it or leave it basis along with an sweetener of additional money up front. Given the lack of meaningful choice many clubs accepted the reality and voted for the deal - but not every CCC/L1 and L2 club has much of an academy and some clubs aren't even at Cat 4 status and operate on the basis of their own reserve team and what players they can buy/beg or borrow.
A decent level of compensation at least leaves everyone with something - the Cat 1 club get their player, the kid in question gets to have a Prem league club on his CV and teams like Charlton get a fairer amount of compensation to invest back into their system.
Invest £1m in academy theoretically should produce min of 2 players per season quite possibly 4/6 per season plus sell on of other players who go to other clubs
no brainer, academy every time
And most home grown players get released, with no transfer fee received. And then bought back by us 5 years later!
The academy only makes sense if you can keep the best players so that they become 1st team regulars, as that way they become a key part of your team and can bring in a decent fee. And the new rules make that harder
Like Harriott and Solly? Or the best part of a dozen players who could be coming through over the next season or so.
It seems a lot of the money to fund the acquisitions that CP made before the start of last year came from the sale of Carl Jenkinson. A season or so prior to that and Shelvey was sold for good money. These transfer fees kept the club going.
It might be that Solly gets shifted on this summer - and if he does go I'd expect his transfer fee to be around £3-3.5m mark (give or take a few hundred K) or to put it another way he will have paid for the academy and have some money to fund on-going expenses/team and squad rebuilding.
Closing the academy just because we lose one or two players before they get to the stage where we can cash in on them or they become first XI regulars really would be cutting your nose off to spite your face. To reiterate the current compenation system does not adequately reward the time/effort spent on developing players before we can sign them to a pro contract, but that's a fault with the operation of the system, not the system itself.
That's the potential reality of EPPP, it's the really good youngsters who will get picked off, the ones who bring in the decent fees. For example, would we have kept Scott Parker until he reached the 1st team? Indeed it's intentional, the FA want the best youngsters at the biggest (and best?) academies.