The Micky

Used with the kind permission of

(the site that everyone who detests the "world's biggest club" should visit),
where the column originally appeared.

Hello again, glad you could drop by.

Today I'm going to talk about the kids - after all, youth football is about them - or it should be. Things have changed a lot in youth football since I was a kid and even more over the last two years. Never before have professional clubs had access to such young lads. These days they can join a professional football academy when they are as young as eight! It is a wonderful opportunity for them to learn the professional approach to football, hopefully without taking the fun out of it and without missing out on growing up.

All kids want to be David Beckham or Alan Shearer but few realise just how much work they need to put in to get there. Professionals like Becks make it look easy but he has put in a lot of hard work over the years to be where he is today. It is important that the children remember that. Joining an academy is a great opportunity to progress through the ranks with a professional team but not all the children will make it to the top. Some kids show a lot of potential early on but don't work at it and there are others who look pretty ordinary in the beginning but work hard and become really good. What differentiates them is the dedication and enthusiasm they have and the work they are prepared to put in.

Kids all grow at different rates and go through some pretty difficult stages along the way. There are times when a kid will be a bit smaller than his team mates and may find himself sidelined for most of the season as a consequence. Coaches don't want the children to get hurt and so a smaller kid may have to sit out for a while until he grows a bit. The trick is to see it for what it is and not get despondent. You can still learn

a lot from the bench. Kids should look on it as all part of the education and for his good and the good of the team, not as a negative thing. Size becomes more irrelevant as the lad gets older. I think it's sometimes better to be smaller when they are young because the lads really have to work hard to prove themselves. They show a lot of potential.

Some children get very impatient if they don't get to play. They see it as the end. Sometimes a 12 year old will have to be released from the academy but that doesn't necessarily spell the end of his football career. If he carried on working hard at whatever it was he was lacking he could still pull it back - coaches have been known to be wrong! The trick is to learn from every knock and set back and try to turn it around.

A child's career in football rests pretty squarely in his own hands - he can only get out as much as he puts in. If he is enthusiastic, listens and learns then he has a good chance. But he has to work hard. And remember that not everyone gets into an academy but that doesn't mean that he can never play professional football. So my advice to any lad is practice with that ball as much as you can and work hard!!!

Micky