TAA might be a good egg after all

It's really tough for these lads that don't make it.

To make it as a footballer you have to be 100% committed probably means you need to neglect your boyhood mates to a degree then you make your football mates and then when you're dropped by an academy all those lads probably forget you.

There was a lad who was at City who committed suicide recently.

There's a club near me who play at level 5 or 6 who take a lot of kids who are let go at 16 from local academies and give them a team to play for while they look for new clubs and because they do this they attract plenty of scouts.

To be honest the generation of players coming through at the moment seem to be a lot more socially aware than the previous generation maybe were and I think that's a good thing using the voice and influence they have to try and make positive change.
 
They just had a phone in R5, it's awful.

Clubs hoovering up loads of players to stop other clubs getting them. Then just dropping them. The age they get picked is while GCSE's are on, so they get get neglected. And teh way they get told is awful. And while they are at these clubs they cant play school, county football etc. 1% get picked. So out of that 300 a club grabs, 3 make it.

Think TAA is trying to get clubs to give these kids a plan B, include training in other things.
 
I think things have improved since Trent even came through trying to make sure players remain in education some even try to move the players into certain schools to help with the training/education balance. Clubs are restricted by what they can offer to players City I think put their academy kids into private school and under new rules they've been told if they offer this to kids then they must cover all fees up to

Essentially it comes down to parents they need to make sure their kids have got a plan B so that if they don't quite make it in football that they've either got options to continue education beyond GCSE or a trade to go into.

One thing that really needs to be made clear to kids once they get into proper academy football at 11 years old where the squads get smaller is that the chance of success is very small and they must keep things outside of football going.
 
didn't sound like it had changed, this is parents calling in today, about their kids now.

I think you're making it sound easier than is, blaming parents, these kids are told to commit 100% if they want to make it.

You can probably listen again if you're interested, Nicky Cambell on R5, think it was hour 2. It was vey intersting.
 
I don't really think there's a perfect solution to this sport has always been cut throat and ruthless it's an aggressive competition year after year to make sure you don't get dropped by your club. It isn't just football that faces these issues all sports when you get to the elite end of things put huge pressure on kids to try and get the best of their talent.

Problem with phone ins like that is you'll likely only hear the horror stories, were there any parents ringing in to say how well their kid has been looked after?
 
Yeah, the clubs look after them while they might be useful, to an extent.

There needs to be a plan B was what was said,

BTW, TAA was on the breakfast show before it. Talking about it and his experience
 

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