Being honest
Where our children actually go, and why we do not select eight-year-olds.
Parents of children who play football are surrounded by people selling a pathway. We are not one of them, and here is the evidence, published rather than mentioned.
One professional contract in fourteen years, and he would tell you himself that we were four of the eleven hours a week he was doing. The number that actually matters to us is the first one: two thirds of them were still playing football somewhere at eighteen.
Children born in January are not better at football. They are up to eleven months older than children born in December, which at nine years old is an enormous physical advantage and looks exactly like talent to somebody watching for an hour.
What we do about it
We make groups by size as often as by birthday, we tell coaches each child's birth month before a session rather than after it, and we do not select anybody for anything before thirteen. It does not fix the problem — nothing a football school does fixes it — but it stops us being part of it.
What we do not do
- We do not run trials under thirteenThere is nothing to select for. A trial at eight measures who grew first, and every child who is told they were not good enough at eight was told something untrue.
- We do not use the word talentNot in sessions, not to parents, not in a WhatsApp message. It is a description of the past pretending to be a prediction.
- We do not put you in touch with agentsNobody who represents players has any business with a fifteen-year-old at a football school, and if one contacts you through us I will tell you and it will be the last time they do.
- We will tell you kindly, if you askWhether your child is likely to play at a level that leads somewhere. Most parents do not ask and do not need to. The ones who do get an honest answer rather than a hopeful one, in private, and the fee does not change either way.
Writing
What to look for in a football school
Six questions worth asking, including the two that most schools are not expecting.
Why we do not run trials at eight
A trial at that age measures who grew first, and every child told they were not good enough was told something untrue.
The only number we actually care about
Two thirds of our children were still playing football somewhere at eighteen. That is the whole ambition.