Contract award at 18 is a false dawn for many who are there to make up the numbers and get no benefit from it
Cauley Woodrow, Benik Afobe, Emmanuel Frimpong, Nathan Aké, Matthew Pennington, Nathan Delfouneso, Saido Berahino, Dominic Ball, Connor Wickham, Jérémy Hélan and John Lundstram. What connects these 11 men? Answer: they were registered as under-21 players for Premier League teams at the start of the 2012-13 season. Indeed, they were part of an 836-strong group of under-21 players from the 20 clubs that year.
The 2012-13 season coincided with the end of my PhD study, a piece of research that included a sample of 303 players aged 16-18 from 21 clubs across England’s top four divisions. Over the next decade or so, I have been researching the career trajectories of professional football players, and it has led to profound insights.
Continue reading…Contract award at 18 is a false dawn for many who are there to make up the numbers and get no benefit from itSearch for talent has left market overheated and failingCauley Woodrow, Benik Afobe, Emmanuel Frimpong, Nathan Aké, Matthew Pennington, Nathan Delfouneso, Saido Berahino, Dominic Ball, Connor Wickham, Jérémy Hélan and John Lundstram. What connects these 11 men? Answer: they were registered as under-21 players for Premier League teams at the start of the 2012-13 season. Indeed, they were part of an 836-strong group of under-21 players from the 20 clubs that year.The 2012-13 season coincided with the end of my PhD study, a piece of research that included a sample of 303 players aged 16-18 from 21 clubs across England’s top four divisions. Over the next decade or so, I have been researching the career trajectories of professional football players, and it has led to profound insights. Continue reading…
