Quote Originally Posted by mazadona10 View Post
I agree with this, I would much rather kids got to enjoy playing football locally and then when at a mature age got brought into clubs. For me something like a draft where sport is played for your school and then players can be drafted at 16. It would have to be a massive change but would like to see this instead of club football. Might also mean kids having to perform academically to get the chance to play.
It used to be 14 or 15 years of age, a young player would sign schoolboy forms, basically contracting themselves to the club until they were 16, where a decision would be made on whether or not they'd be given an apprenticeship until they were 18. I think that they could still play for their local club until they were 16, then join the professional environment, although i had to give up my local team at 14 and play for the youth team.

Picking players up at 9 has got to be a precarious situation, it must be a numbers game. I'm struggling to work out how a nine year old would be coached, based on brain development and physical development. How can a coach refine a nine year olds natural ability?