A south coast model for developing world class talent

How Southampton have laid the foundations for developing world class players

In this analysis of youth development in England we have seen the impact that a misguided philosophy had on the culture of the nation and the future impact that changes in the academy system will have on clubs and players for decades to come.  All in order to replicate the success of Spain and of Barcelona’s La Masia.

It is important to stress that Spain did not develop these world class players overnight; it has taken 20 years of serious investment in quality coaching that has developed these technical, quick players. A mix of Cryuff at Barcelona and a Spanish FA who had the foresight to see changes needed to be made. England has been left behind nations like Spain, Holland and France in terms of developing class players for the future. And in the last few years we have seen the emergence of a new look Germany, developing players capable of suiting the modern game.

I have argued that it is the German modelthat we need to adopt and implement in this country. The new Elite Player Performance Plan’s are looking to improve talent in this country by revolutionising the academy system. Yet there are flaws to this approach, especially when the emphasis appears to give the richest and biggest clubs the best young players. Is this really the right place for these players to go?

This article will look at one of the best producers of youth players in the country, who have develoed players recognised as potential world class players. It is not one of the Premier League big boys, but a club whose recent history has been beset by financial problems and a battle to survive. 

 World class developers

Last summer people wondered why Arsenal chose to spend £15 million on a 17 year old who had played only League 1 football with Southamtpon. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was touted as the next big thing, yet people wondered  if he was good enough for the Premier League. As we know from this season, he most certainly is and he appears to have the necessary abilities to be a world class player.

Chamberlain was not a one off though, recently the academy at Southampton has produced some excellent players who have moved on to play top level football. Recent products of the club's youth system include the England internationals Theo Walcott and defender Wayne Bridge, Wales left-winger Gareth Bale, and Northern Ireland defender Chris Baird. Nathan Dyer, Andrew Surman and Matt Mills have also come through the academy and those who have watched Southampton in the past two years will know all too well Adam Lallana, the most recent product of the academy.

Southampton’s academy has already provided home-grown talent now worth £100 million-plus to Premier League clubs and so it must be asked, what is their secret?

The club has always had a philosophy of giving youth a chance and raising its own talent, from Mick Channon to Danny and Rod Wallace, Matt Le Tissier and Alan Shearer. They are now creating players ready for the modern game.

A bit of history

Southampton were among the first clubs to adopt an academy system at the end of the 1990s, when they still were a Premier League club. Relegation in 2005 and the resulting steep drop in income made it more important than ever to keep the home-reared talent flowing.

Southampton are a phenomenon when it comes to youth-team scouting and development outside the top flight.  

Much of the academy's success can be put down to Rupert Lowe's first spell as chairman. The philosophy that was put in place in the late 1990s was European in concept and owed much to Lowe's admiration for everything Arsène Wenger was achieving at Arsenal.

Lowe states that "We had a strategy – a no brainer – to develop homegrown players in the academy, people like Adam Lallana, Andrew Surman, Nathan Dyer, and to buy in 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds. Rupert gave us the green light to buy Walcott for £1,000 from Swindon, Leon Best and David McGoldrick from Notts County, Mike Williamson from Torquay, Dexter Blackstock from Oxford.

Southampton have been able to appeal to young players because of the structure they have in their academy. When young players see the production line and potential that Southampton offers, then once people come and see the coaching and support mechanisms they have in place, it doesn't matter who they are competing against, whether it’s Arsenal, United or Chelsea. Parents see what they are doing and believe it is the right place for their sons.

Rupert Lowe put in place a “model that aimed at providing a proper structure to turn out clever players. The first part was to get the best boys in, which we did, hoovering up the best kids out there. "We screened them not for football ability – that is not necessarily the key at that age – but for intelligence and athleticism. You can teach them the rest. If they're not clever and not athletic, you'll find it hard to push water uphill.

In previous articles I have argued that academies are recruiting the wrong players, scouts are interested more on physicality than on the mental attributes. This has resulted in players in the system who are simply not smart enough to be a top level player. Southampton’s philosophy of recruitment is in line with my own views, if a player has inteliigence along with athleticism then you are on to a winner.

Scouting requirements

At Southampton they insisted on finding kids possessing intelligence and athleticism. As well as another key, but often overlooked aspect of youth development, attitude.

When you listen to Walcott, Bale and Chamberlain there is a sense of humility to them, they do not appear cocky, arrogant or self obsessed. Considering they are regarded with such acclaim they seem very balanced and well rounded. This is no coincidence, the academy seek this and develop these types of people.

In an article on Walcott his Dad explains that he really admires Walcott’s attitude. “The way he handled the World Cup situation, at 17, I don't think many people could do that. His view on life, his respect for other players, and how he conducts himself – I think that is all very important. He's had to be like that since he was 16, and that is quite something. And he's never changed. I'm not sure I would have been like that. It's a unique gift that will take him a long way in life.”

Gareth Bale, regarded as one of the best left wingers in world football is summed up as being "grounded"." He just loves playing football - he's not motivated by money, he's not motivated by fame, he's just motivated by football and he loves it.”

Stuart Pearce has spoken of Chamberlain as being “very level headed”. For such a young player, being regarded as one of England’s hottest prospects and moving to Arsenal for £15 million, there is a lot of temptation for him to feel arrogant about it all. 

It appears that Southampton have done more than scout and develop excellent footballers, they have also developed good people. This is an attribute that is not often spoken of or regarded highly, yet when people look at Messi it is his balanced personality which has allowed him to become so great.

Lowe believes that by the time he left, Southampton had the whole sweep necessary to produce not only players of quality but players who are also decent people. They made sure their diets and education were right, that their entire lives were stable.

Technical development

With the type of player in place, the academy put a major stress on the technical development of the players. When we watch Spain we see how great their technical skills are. Again, I believe that we don’t put enough emphasis on technical skill development in this country and this has resulted in us developing playerslacking the necessary skills of top level football.

Southampton went out and hired Georges Prost, a French technical skills coach. Lowe believed that this type of coach was necessary for developing players for the senior team. A lot of his work and ultimate success can be put down to Georges's attention to detail; he taught the players, up to under-18s, technique. 

Possessing technical excellence is so imperative to a game that requires an exquisite touch in tight areas and with limited time. With excellent decision making along with a high technical level a player can deal with many situations in a game with poise and composure. When we watch Xavi, Silva and Iniesta we see players confident with the ball, even under high pressure. Do we develop enough of these players?  

Just to emphasise the importance of technical development it is important to look at the current youth cup winners, Manchester United. In 2001 Alex Ferguson wanted to improve the technical skills of the youth players. He chose to bring in Rene Meulensteen, an expert technical skills coach who was given the remit to overhaul United’s academy system. He was instructed to improve the technical foundation of players and improve their skills, dribbling and confidence to beat players 1v1.  

Meulensteen changed United’s coaching syllabus, concentrating on the technical side of the game, specifically the coaching of “tricks and moves”, which Meulensteen believes defines the difference between a good player and great player. With first-hand experience of working with famed Dutch coach Wiel Coerver, Rene's methods quickly began to take effect, with the Reds' youngsters displaying marked improvement in their skills. With an insistence of the young players playing only 4v4 small sided games, the players at United have being given the touches, skills and tools required for top level football.

Imagine if every academy, if every coach that works with players in this country incorporated the use and implementation of technical skills. It's not rocket science. If you can't get that through to the players when they're young, you can't make them into players. The key for academies is to get the rightkids; those with good attitudes, intelligence and athleticism. An emphasis on developing the core skills and providing a strong foundation for the future is imperative for the future of players in this country.

Southampton's investment

The cost of running the academy, at around £2.3m a year, is seen not as speculating to accumulate but as economically prudent. Saints have already made returns of several times their outlay over the past decade and in the future they want to keep players of the calibre of Bale, Walcott and Chamberlain, not see them go for big money to other teams.

 Les Reed, head of football development at Southampton is ambitious and positive about the future. ‘We’ve got an ambition to be not just a Premier League club but a competitive Premier League club,’ says Reed. ‘If we want half our team to come from the academy, which we do, the recruitment needs to be the best, and the development plan for each individual needs to be excellent, as do the facilities, the sports science and the technical quality of the coaching.’ Aiming to match Barcelona is a big ambition but you need to strive for that to be successful,’ says Reed.

Southampton have invested majorly in their facilities for the academy. Investment in an indoor sports hall, a wonderful gym, banks of computers for the lads to use, in depth player and the purchase of a local hotel, Darwin Lodge, for £250,000, where the boys lodged were all regarded as necessities in order to give their players the best possible education.

With the current rules a club can only recruit players from a 90 minute travel radius. As half of Southampton's catchment area is effectively in the sea they needed to be clever in how they could extend their net as such. There was clever use of the Bath satellite academy which enabled them to extend the club's ability to recruit at a young age. This is where Gareth Bale was spotted at the age of nine. It is these ideas and implementation which has enabled Southampton to recruit these top players.

By recruiting and developing players so well, the standard of players in the teams is higher, thus improving the competition for the players. The new EPPP has this belief; that putting the better players together will improve the level and quality of the players. Malcom Elias who was head of recruitment at Southampton believes it was “those individual battles [which] drove the standard up all the time. If the boys weren't at their peak, they were exposed. They drove each other on.”

Vision for future

Unfortunately for Southampton, an inability to combine the focus placed on the youth set-up with the maintenance of a Premier League side resulted in relegation from the top flight in 2005. The youth team reached the FA Youth Cup final in 2005, the year the first team slipped out of the top flight, leaving the club's prized assets vulnerable to the vultures. 

It has been a long haul trying to rescue the club, a new stadium placing financial pressures on the club. However, they now sit top of the Championship and it appears that the club, under Nigel Atkins has steadied the ship and come through the storm. 

The future appears bright, with Adam Lallana impressing this season, Reed believes that “we have the equivalent of Manchester United’s Scholes, Beckham and Co already within our system,’ he says. Southampton’s ‘golden’ generation of 16- and 17-year-olds includes James Ward-Prowse, a creative midfielder who made his first-team debut last month, and Luke Shaw, an England Under-17 attacking full back. Then there are strikers Jake Sinclair and Harrison Reed, known as Saints’ ‘young Scholes.

 With a continued empahsis on youth development Reed is trying to emulate the German model of youth development. The philosophy of player-development at Bayern Munich,’ says Reed, ‘is “two each year for the first team, two for the league, and two for the rest of German football”. And you find similar aims across the top Bundesliga clubs.’

Ambitions at Southampton are high, yet their success is clear to see. They developed a philosophy and have implemented it to produce excellence. It is a shame though that more teams have not have similar visions and quality.

  

The club's chairman, Nicola Cortese, says "the strong foundation" provided by the youth set-up will be key to the club's return to the Premier League. With the new EPPP rules coming in next season it is imperative that Southampton attain Category 1 status. They are one of the most prepared for it and with their history of creating players capable of being top players then the EPPP decision makers must make sure that Southampton are given the freedom to continue their great work.

What the FA, Football League and Premier League should be doing do is using Southampton as a model for others to follow. Too much freedom is given to clubs to develop their academies bespoke. Southampton have shown others the way to develop players; imagine if more clubs were developing Walcott’s and Chamberlain's, what a future we would see. More needs to be done to make sure this is the case.

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