Comments on: Are the Professional clubs getting scouting wrong with kids?

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 23:12:50 +0000

Sadly, Grass Roots is the problem in my opinion! At nearly every age group, teams in the top leagues are run by parents of sporting companies hell bent on winning. How to win, hold trials and bring in decent but big players and you win matches. Great, the parent coaches ego is stroked because he has a winning / competitive team by default, the parents of the player love it as their child is in a winning team and has more chance of being paraded infront of a scout. The simple matter is Grass Roots is tripping itself up in many ways and there are leagues bring full of teams like this because lets be honest dad coaches are not good enough to get a small team wit skillfull player beating those teams based on size, speed and physicality. Especially not with 1-2 hours a week training!

My son went for Under 10 Trial for a team that had 250 players turn up. They never even looked at him play, they syphoned off all the big physical players and cast aside the small technical (and very smart) players. My son didn’t get invited back for 2nd Day Trials. He wasn’t bothered as we got offered place elsewhere, with a Sports Company running the show. His new team played the “Dad Constructed” team, full of size and physicality and beat them 5-3, and my son scoring a hat-trick and setting up another. All of my son’s team mates were, quicker, smarter and could play better football!

I know Grass Roots relies on volunteers, dads and helpers, but this problem is entrenched in society and its running through Grass Roots clubs because at the very start of sport small players are written off vs winning ugly.

By: Eileen Hartley

Eileen Hartley — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 14:57:57 +0000

It’s time these big clubs got their act together and instead of having pound signs in front of their eyes they saw a human being instead I say let children be children how on earth could you explain to a five year old they wasn’t good enough it’s enough to destroy a child’s ambition in life for once let Sport be Sport 😔

By: Scott Woodall

Scott Woodall — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 08:39:18 +0000

I agree they are totally out of touch. It’s all done on statistics and profiling now. From talking to a professional coach, who has was at a top flight club. Money is invested into statistics, medical development and profiling. So if they look at youth player, it’s not done on their ability, but what their final outcome will be once they have been through puberty. That’s why they look at the parents disposition and the judgement goes on that. Ability and skills in their eyes can be taught, which is correct to a degree, but look at Messi and how he was overlooked, if they went on statistics with him. Then we would never have seen a legend in the game like him. So yes the scouting system and coaching system in the UK is still a bit disjointed. I think more and more youth players from the UK, are now venturing abroad with a different route into professional football. When you look across the continent, they seem to be more engaged with the scouting and development of youth players locally across all age groups. From visiting Barcelona CF and the La Masia academy, you see how they have it set up to development and nurture and thats not just the football as it’s has handball and basketball there, hence they are successful on all fronts. I think UK football needs to be more invested in grassroots development and adopt a more engaging approach and learn from the continent. The talent in the UK is being overlooked, but the MLS have started push overseas with their youth scouting especially in the UK and Europe. Offering scholarships to potential players and are going around the colleges and universities, looking to draft players in.

By: Dish

Dish — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 15:38:14 +0000

Absolute true story – I used to coach one of the best teams in the region at a certain age group, playing in one of best leagues. A scout turned up and asked for the details of a player who hadn’t even played….just based the decision on the fact that it was an lad of African origin playing at the top level. The same club had asked for details of similar lads the season before when, at best, the said lads had been average in the game. When I asked why the scout wanted the details of those players, the response was “profiling”…..so yeah, based on experience, it’s seems that the day of the small white lad is numbered!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 15:36:40 +0000

By: D

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 14:35:05 +0000

Clubs recruit a profile which is invariably based around physical attributes such as speed. If you’re quick and half decent that’s a great starting point. Actually being able to play football can be taught later.

As an example, my son is a decent u7 who has played a few times against two Category 1 & 2 sides where they have more than matched those sides (same age as well, he’s not gone there a year older like a lot of these teams do). In my boys team is a lad whose best attribute is he’s quick. His passing, ball control, movement etc is non-existent. Guess who the scouts ranked as highest in their team? Yep, him. Subsequently seen he’s been off to other Category 1 teams to train etc.

By: M j

M j — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 12:35:15 +0000

It’s totally wrong ! In most local clubs there’s not one single local player! Don’t the clubs realise that there is a lot of talent locally and if there is more local players the crowds would be bigger. Parents, family, friends would all be turning up to support them and local businesses would more likely get involved. When a division club is interested in a young player the first thing they want to know is how tall the parents are! They just look for kids that are going to be 6ft+ and can run 100m in around 10sec, the football they recon they can teach them!

By: Neil Harris

Neil Harris — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 11:07:17 +0000

Heard about one lad recently being pulled out of a training session at an academy and told he wasn’t wanted anymore. There doesn’t seem to be any care for the children and it’s as many have said just a conveyor belt. But parents are also to blame for pushing this endless dream of being a professional footballer and anything less and they have failed in life.

By: Geoff Gray

Geoff Gray — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 09:29:45 +0000

This whole system is basically “bums on seats.” Parents are generally complicit in the system as they are desperate for their child ( and by association themselves) to have the recognition. The clubs are generally ruthless with the system and hack and cull the squads with little regard to the ones that are dumped. It is usually the Parents, who are themselves devastated, who are left to pick up the pieces.

By: Jonny

Jonny — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 15:56:20 +0000

In reply to dazmacca.

I can relate to this – My son got spotted by a coach from a top club at the age of 5 earlier this year, playing in a u7 game. (he is youngest in his year, so was a u7 player but was still just 5 at the time of this) he ran rings around every other player on that pitch (and still does in most games). The coach asked to take some details so he can invite him down to train with them. When I confirmed he was at u7 age group, he wasn’t interested. He said he thought he was u6, and sadly he was ‘too small’ for u7 and wont cope with the bigger/stronger lads. Despite the fact he’d just watched him play in an u7 game and no one could even get the ball off him. My lad is in fact very small for his age and sadly after hearing this guys comments I can only think he will get overlooked as you have pointed out. Sad really.