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by dandeclaret » Thu Feb 25, 2021 10:12 am
Wouldn't normnally do this, but it's been a good few years now, so here's my perspective.... and that's all it is, my view. I left partly because of the changes JB was implementing, and partly because of the EPPP rules.
The latter meant that Category 1 and 2 (I think at the time) clubs could come in unannounced and look at players. I wasn't spending every Saturday and Sunday morning travelling from Leeds to scout anywhere from Bradford through to Liverpool, but most commonly in Manchester, followed by most Sunday afternoons at Gawthorpe helping with a games programme for pre academy ages (6-8), or watching an older junior age group (13-17) anywhere between Leeds and Stoke areas, as well as Wednesday night helping run a Development Centre in Halifax, and Friday night helping with the Elite Pre Academy centre at Gawthorpe, just for Blackburn, Liverpool, Everton, Man City, Man Utd etc to come and see the talent we'd been able to identify and the coaches had been able to develop all laid out in front of them.
Back to the former, what did JB do that was so bad. Firstly, from my perspective, he made it harder to recruit the best players. He (and I don't know why - the club may have been struggling for cash - although this was after the Coyle prem season, so definitely not as bad as they were when this started) decided that the club was no longer going to target the wider areas that scouting at young ages was operating in. With this, development centres in Manchester, Halifax, Rossendale, Skipton and Liverpool were all closed. These were development centres that helped to show how Burnley FC were going to do things differently. The big clubs can be like factories, huge community teams in schools, affiliated clubs, large teams of scouts (There were 3 Burnley scouts at a tournament in Manchester once, and that was a lot for us at the time, and we watched over 20 Everton scouts walk in) and lots of coaches of clubs who are fans recommending players - 1 cruyff turn and into the system you go. We couldn't do that with the resources we had, but we didn't want to do that either. We wanted to watch a player a number of times to be certain that there was enough there to work with, both technically and through attitude. This meant that when we spoke to parents and managers we could give a much deeper insight into what we liked, what we felt could be developed, which meant that the support team around the player often felt more involved. These development centres were a first step for the like of Callum Styles, Lewis Richardson, Sam Unwin, Oliver Younger and plenty of others, and gave access to players that we were unlikely to win, but built an affinity with in case the big clubs made a mistake and released players, then you can be in quickly (Like Bury did when there was a mistake made with Callum). There also seemed to be a demand to find the next Jay, and therefore narrow the viewing to Burnley and surroundng areas. Unfortunately, Burnley isn't a hot bed for producing professional footballers. The facilities, at the time, were miles behind Manchester, Liverpool, Bradford, Leeds, Huddersfield and Halifax. Leagues were mainly played on muddy, long grassed pitches, compared to all of these areas that had shared 3g/4g venues with competitive league structures and a higher level of coaching, often funded by the big clubs and proliferating in clubs running like mini academies, affiliated with Man City and Man United and following their coaching plan. Local leagues weren't that interested in this, at the time, from my experience, and didn't want to lose players to pro clubs, because it diminished their chance of winning, whereas clubs in other areas saw it as something to be proud of. Check out Reddish Vulcans, or Fletcher Moss as a prime example of this (Michael Johnson and Phil Foden from Reddish, and a long list of players mainly at Man Utd - I think Marcus Rashford the latest from a list that includes Wellbeck, Lingaard, Danny Welbeck).
As mentioned above, I also think there was a lack of appreciation from JB of the importance of having those relationships for when players bounced out of clubs. A growing spell, a 6 week spell of under performing, and the big factory clubs would release players. It was drilled into us by the lad who led the scouts, do everything right, treat people right, stay in touch with them - and it worked, when players bounced they came back to us. There were numerous examples of this. Sam Unwin who is playing well for the U23's now was offered a contract at U9 but chose, understandably Manchester United, but when he bounced back to Burnley. This point never seemed to be appreciated, and was just put down to "You can't compete with the big clubs, so just focus on the pitches where Burnley fans play" - in my view, it was short sighted, naive and made it impossible to find the right calibre of player.
Couple of final points, cos this has rambled on long enough now.
1) Under Blake, the Club narrowly, very narrowly passed a Level 3 academy asssessment on review. The changes he made to structures, policies, processes and people took the club to the verge of losing Centre Of Excellence status and funding.
2) In my view, he couldn't manage people and his changes, with no explanation, made people make the decision to leave. I think there are 9 of the scouts that are now working at other Category 1 academies, in senior roles - think head of pre academy recruitment for Liverpool in Manchester amongst others. Most of those are Burnley fans. The club never appreciated the efforts, mainly unpaid, mainly not taking expenses, of a group of 12 - 15 scouts who put so much effort into the club, to build networkd, grow development centres and find talented players
3) Finally, the point that no players have been produced since Jay is factually correct. However, as mentioned above, youth development takes time. Tyrhys Dolan, who is playing fairly regularly for Blackburn in the Championship at the age of 19 was sold by JB at the age of 14 to Manchester City. Then you've got Lewis Richardson at 18 captaining Burnley's Under 23 side and with high hopes, with him being the first England Schoolbopy the club have had for decades. Then you'd have Callum Styles at 20 being touted as one of the best talents in the Championship and targeted by Premier League Clubs, Above him at 21, you'd have had Oliver Younger who has been very unlucky with injuries that limited his development. Of course, that's not seen as producing players, but it suggests that the conveyor belt was just starting to turn a bit..... and all of those players mentioned above were with Burnley by their Under 9 season. If our Youth development had 2 players out playing regularly in the championship, whether those players made it as a premier league player for Burnley, or demanded a few million in transfer fees, that would surely be seen as success? Calum Styles has as many goals and assists fromn left back, and fewer games, as Jude Bellingham had for Birmingham in an attacking role, prior to his £25m move.
As I said, that's just my view - that's what my perception was, and what I saw. But it's all in the past now, and I just enjoy seeing players go on and make careers for themselves. Oh and for Awayfromburnley - Callum was definitely released, he didn't choose to go. He went to Bury, because of the coaches and scouts he had worked with at Burnley. There were Prem Clubs who were too slow to find out.
Last edited by
dandeclaret on Thu Feb 25, 2021 10:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
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