This is an abstract from my own blog post which was originally written in Polish on 28 January 2018. I both translated and updated it on 16 August 2020.
There is no such thing as being marked. Your job is to get away from your marker.
Garratt; Mellor, Davis, Ray, Tootle; Colclough, Turton, Murphy, Moore; Clayton, Leitch-Smith.
Do you know any of the names above?
Ben Garratt; Kelvin Mellor, Harry Davis, George Ray, Matt Tootle; Ryan Colclough, Oliver Turton, Luke Murphy, Byron Moore; Max Clayton, AJ Leitch-Smith.
How about now?
On 27 April 2013, on the last day of the English League One season, these 11 players entered world football’s history books.
It was probably the first-ever documented case of a starting line-up of any club, in any country and in any game to be made up solely out of the same club academy’s youth products.
Crewe Alexandra made it to the backpages of British newspapers.
(And they then repeated the feat on the last day of the 2017/18 League Two season.)
“Some thought it was a publicity stunt”, remembered Aidan Callan, the Crew Alex Academy operations manager who spoke at the Football Academy convention back in January 2018. “But we beat Walsall who were competing for a play-off spot.”
This is not the end of this story, though.
Five seasons later every single one of those 11 players still played professional football. Two were still at Crewe. Five were playing in the same division (League One). One was playing a league above (Championship), one each were playing in the Scottish Premiership and in the Scottish Championship. Two were playing in the same division that Crewe were at the time (League Two).
Take a look again.
Garratt (Crewe); Mellor (Blackpool), Davis (St Mirren), Ray (Crewe), Tootle (Notts County); Colclough (Wigan Athletic), Turton (Blackpool), Murphy (Leeds United/Burton Albion), Moore (Bristol Rovers); Clayton (Blackpool), Leitch-Smith (Shrewsbury Town/Dundee).
To provide some context, as Michał Zachodny presented at the same event, only 46% of 19-year-olds who appeared in one of Europe’s top five leagues at the time, still played at the same level three years later.
But that’s still not everything.
As Callan showed, one of those 11 players was at Crewe from the under-6 age group. Another four joined as under-7s. Two were under-8s. One each were under-9 and under-10. Just one each were under-15 and under-16.
My Research: The English Route
TURN OR SHIELD
How is it possible that a club from a town located in the historical, post-industrial part of England that in the past produced players such as David Platt, Neil Lennon, Robbie Savage, Danny Murphy and Dean Ashton keeps bringing professional footballers through the ranks despite having never played in the top-flight of English football?
“We will show you a couple of simple things, but also some that in our view are specific to our academy”, said Lee Bell, the current Crew Alex under-18 coach who led a taster training session at the FA convention back in January 2018.
What was the specific aspect?
Above all, it was the focus on individual player development at all stages. From the under-6 age group right up to the under-18s.
During the session Bell kept his word by showing simple and well-known exercises. He paid attention, however, to essential details such as working on both sides of the body, shielding and turning with the ball.
In the main part of the session the pitch was divided into three parts, as you can see below.
The focus of the task game was put on the midfielders in the 1-v-1 situations. Their job – upon receiving the ball from the defenders – was to transfer it as quickly as possible to the striker: by immediately turning with the ball or – if that was not possible – by shielding it and getting away from their direct opponent. They were not allowed to pass the ball back to either of the defenders.
“There is no such thing as being marked”, Bell insited. “Your job is to get away from your marker.
“We, as a small club, need to put more effort into player development.”
In the picture: Crewe Alexandra first put out a starting line-up formed by club academy youth products only on the last day of the 2012/13 season (found on the club’s Facebook page)
BREAKTHROUGH 