"I believe there is a real problem at Cardiff's academy."

[Tuerto]

Thanks for that. As you say, those who haven't experienced what you have cannot really comment on it with much authority, but I must say that what you describe sounds nothing like an environment where teenagers, or possibly younger kids than that these days, would prosper - for every one who developed to their full potential with a football upbringing like that, there has to plenty more that didn't surely?

Judging by what you say in your first paragraph, the sort of thing you talk about in your second paragraph was going on early in your six year association with the club - can you confirm that this was the case?

It wasn't so prevalent as a schoolboy, we would train three times a week, although you were monitored and if standards were dropping then you'd be told to leave, so there was still that competitiveness. I saw kids who were more reserved fold, it could be intense and for me it wasn't enjoyable. You were encouraged to be vocal, 'Talk'' Encourage' etc the lads who had the biggest gobs seemed to thrive as the coaches were old school and saw this kind of behaviour as a form of leadership, confidence etc. The quiet lads fell by the wayside.

It changed dramatically when i was at the club full time, in an environment that was all about testosterone, a certain amount of aggression and jostling for power, whether that was in training or just doing your jobs. Everything was about being strong, weakness wasn't an option, you would have been slaughtered. I can remember training at Treforest and me and a few other lads were whipping in crosses for the strikers under the instruction of our coach, my first cross was taken by the keeper, Striker told me to '****ing sort it out' second cross i over-hit, My coach told me to ****off and do laps of the pitch for the remainder of the session, i actually remember feeling like it was my fault, he then slaughtered me when i got back in after training.

The problem is that a lot of these coaches have absolutely no training with kids and their development, they come from a background where winning is everything, they are so competitive, they become institutionalised, involved with football clubs from a very young age, they don't know anything else. To them, we had everything to prove, we had to show them what we had to offer and if it wasn't up to scratch then you'd be ****ed off. I'm not saying that it's like that now, but i'm pretty sure that the culture still exists.

[the other bob wilson]

It wasn't so prevalent as a schoolboy, we would train three times a week, although you were monitored and if standards were dropping then you'd be told to leave, so there was still that competitiveness. I saw kids who were more reserved fold, it could be intense and for me it wasn't enjoyable. You were encouraged to be vocal, 'Talk'' Encourage' etc the lads who had the biggest gobs seemed to thrive as the coaches were old school and saw this kind of behaviour as a form of leadership, confidence etc. The quiet lads fell by the wayside.

It changed dramatically when i was at the club full time, in an environment that was all about testosterone, a certain amount of aggression and jostling for power, whether that was in training or just doing your jobs. Everything was about being strong, weakness wasn't an option, you would have been slaughtered. I can remember training at Treforest and me and a few other lads were whipping in crosses for the strikers under the instruction of our coach, my first cross was taken by the keeper, Striker told me to '****ing sort it out' second cross i over-hit, My coach told me to ****off and do laps of the pitch for the remainder of the session, i actually remember feeling like it was my fault, he then slaughtered me when i got back in after training.

The problem is that a lot of these coaches have absolutely no training with kids and their development, they come from a background where winning is everything, they are so competitive, they become institutionalised, involved with football clubs from a very young age, they don't know anything else. To them, we had everything to prove, we had to show them what we had to offer and if it wasn't up to scratch then you'd be ****ed off. I'm not saying that it's like that now, but i'm pretty sure that the culture still exists.

I hear constantly that with professional footballers it's always someone else's fault and what you say about the time you were asked to knock those crosses in shows how such an attitude can become ingrained. I get that it is an environment where the adage "only the strong survive" can apply, but, surely, a lot of the aggression and backstabbing mentality becomes counter productive when you consider that we are talking about a team game?

You don't surprise me with what you say about the kids with the biggest gobs thriving, but, at the far lower levels I played at, I was always someone who thought quality beat quantity every time when it came to that department. I can see that "Testosterone" as you call it, should be a factor in the whole procedure of whether a promisng kid makes the jump to first team footballer, but, from what you say and what I've heard from a few others in the know, it seems to be greatly overvalued to me.