There is an athletic article out today about us and academy players, seems to be specifically about our incentive to bother when they can be plucked away.
Can anyone share it?
While West Bromwich Albion seethe quietly about Louie Barry’s circuitous 2,000-mile journey to move three miles away to Aston Villa, the next contract saga involving a Hawthorns youngster could be just around the corner.
Rico Richards, a 16-year-old striker named on the bench for the first time last weekend for the FA Cup win over Charlton Athletic, is the next teenager who could walk away from Albion for a pittance before signing a professional contract.
And if it is not Richards, it will be someone else. That is because the rules governing transfers for young players as they currently stand give clubs such as Albion no protection against cut-price exits and, crucially, little incentive to invest in developing young talent.
The anger within West Brom’s hierarchy surrounding Barry (pictured above) is easy to understand. The striker joined the club at the age of six and left at 16, having honed his game with the academy to such an extent he became one of the most prolific young goalscorers in the country at club and international level. That decade of development and nurturing will net Albion a maximum of £130,000 though — and this is if Barcelona eventually pay the compensation due. The cash has not yet been forthcoming.
Domestic rules prevented West Brom giving Barry a professional deal until his 17th birthday but international regulations allowed him to negotiate with overseas clubs in the meantime.
He spoke at length to Paris Saint-Germain before signing for Barcelona and now, after just six months in Spain, a homesick Barry is on his way back to the West Midlands to join Villa in a deal that will cost the Premier League club around £700,000 up front and could be worth as much as £3 million in the long run.
Villa — the club Barry’s family supports — had tried to land him several times during his decade at Albion but each time, he remained loyal. Now, they have got their (young) man for an initial figure much lower than they would have been ordered to pay by a tribunal had Barry joined directly from Albion last summer.
Those with links to the Barry camp insist none of the last six months was predetermined. They maintain the striker, who turns 17 this summer, resolved to leave after becoming disenchanted with Albion’s contract offers, made a move to Barcelona that was too tempting to resist, found himself unsettled, and jumped at the chance to join a club he has always supported and is a relative stone’s throw from his Sutton Coldfield home.
Albion, who had always predicted a swift return to England, are sceptical.
Either way, no one, from Barry, to his agents, to Barcelona, to Villa, have broken any rules. They have merely played the system and benefited as a result. Barry’s representatives will have earned nicely from the moves. And why not? They do not work for free. Barry will have accepted a healthy signing-on fee from Barcelona and used it to help his working-class family. And who can blame him? Barcelona will make a healthy profit for minimal risk while Villa get a player they have long coveted at a decent fee.
So everyone benefits from Barry’s moves — except the club that invested time, money and patience in his football education for 10 years.
The fact that this can happen completely within the rules suggests that those regulations need changing. It will not be easy. World governing body FIFA is in charge of the framework governing overseas transfers and, as an global organisation, has no interest in helping one nation. But for English football, the rules threaten to undo much of the positive work completed on youth development in recent years.
Speak to England manager Gareth Southgate or other senior figures within the national team set-up and they paint a bright picture of homegrown talent. There is little doubt English academies are producing better, more technically-sound players than they have done for several generations. Those outside the ‘big six’ clubs, however, will think long and hard about the wisdom of investing in youth development if players can leave for a pittance via brief stints overseas.
For Albion, a repeat is looming, with Richards’ situation poised to come to a head at the end of this season.
The 16-year-old is rated as better than Barry was at this stage of his development and has already attracted interest from huge clubs at home and abroad. Albion have offered him a professional deal which is available to sign when he turns 17 in September but The Athletic understands the parties are not yet close to an agreement on figures.
In any case, the club would struggle, even if it pushes the boat out, to match the kind of deals on offer at bigger, richer clubs. With the European route now becoming well-trodden, officials at The Hawthorns already fear the worst.
There are others in the system, too.
Several members of the team that beat Middlesbrough 4-1 in the fourth round of the FA Youth Cup on Tuesday are highly-rated within the club. They include centre-back Caleb Taylor, son of former Birmingham City defender Martin Taylor, forward Tom Fellows, who scored twice against Middlesbrough, and striker Jovan Malcolm, who has been a prolific goalscorer in his first year as a scholar.
The potential for anger at Albion and similar-sized clubs stretches well into the future unless some costly loopholes are closed.
