The Diary

15 April 2004: S-Day Minus Four - And Counting!

Getting nervous about Sunday, yet? Already I?m showing the first symptoms (well-recognised from the last time, believe you me!) and it?s not easy. Strange, though; as we were expected to be in the running right from the start, and have been all season, more or less, I?d always assumed that I?d be far more blas? about our impending elevation than I was two seasons before, when we were the First?s surprise packet ? but it ain?t necessarily so. Even though we?re nearly there, and have a pretty comforting margin for error this time round, I?m just as fearful, if not more, that we might just stuff it up. Daft, I know, but that?s the way it is with Baggies of my generation.

Not for nothing did I coin that fanzine motto of ours ? ?Semper Te Fallant? - around 15 years ago. ?They Always Let You Down? is the (very) literal translation, and so ingrained is my pessimism after witnessing so many years of underachievement, I still can?t quite believe we?re in this position. The latest I?ve heard is that the club are laying on around 50 coaches, which means around 2,000 Baggie-believers making the long, long trek up the M1 and A1. In practical terms, that will mean one whole lot of noise erupting from our end when our gladiators in stripes finally emerge from that tunnel for the fray. As Sunderland aren?t exactly backwards in coming forwards themselves where decibels in quantity are concerned, then the Boards?s decision to fight noise with noise is an eminently sensible one. Spare a thought, though, for the bloke organising that little lot, travel secretary Dave Holloway; not only does he have to be at the Throstle Club more or less at first light to see everything goes smoothly, he has to remain there until every single last one of those coaches gets back in after the game, which could mean a very late finish indeed, what with the 4 pm kick-off and all that jazz.

So what?s the latest scuttlebutt from up north, then? According to one of the Sunderland websites, Jeff Whitley is set to return to their line-up. The Northern Ireland international has had to sit out their last five games because of suspension, missing the FA Cup semi-final as well as the run-of-the-mill League stuff. Loanee Carl Robinson is set to battle it out with Paul Thirlwell for the other central midfield spot. According to the website I consulted, Robinson has provided a calming presence since joining from Portsmouth in the run-up to last month's transfer deadline, and they reckon the 27-year-old's experience could prove significant if and when the going starts to get tough. They also reckon Mick McCarthy will monitor the fitness of striker Tommy Smith this week as he?s currently getting over a virus; the hope is to have him available in time for our game..

Leaving behind the angst and torment of that crucial encounter for a while, some news about what we Dick Eds have been up to tonight. As promised, we took our editorial carcasses to the Kiddy SC meeting, and I have to say, what we?ve heard from Adrian Boothroyd, new Albion youth head honcho, impressed us no end. To be truthful, I didn?t know the bloke from Adam; all I knew about him was the fact he had a bloody impressive track record elsewhere, and, cynical soul that I am, I couldn?t quite work out how the hell we?d managed to lure him from a successful incumbency at Norwich to our quiet little backwater. As I?d felt for quite some time that a well-run and highly regarded youth set-up would play an integral part in making Albion a credible option for talented kids and their parents, I was more than a little interested in what Adrian had to say, so I did take copious notes; this is what I came up with. If I?m teaching granny to suck eggs, then I apologise in advance; what I?m trying to do is get a flavour of that meeting over to those whose finger is unable to reach the pulse, so bear with me.

The minute I clapped eyes on him for the first time, my first impression of Adrian was that of a young version of Steve Bull, right down to the closely-moulded crop-headed look and the slightly over-large chin. All that, however, was dispelled instantly the moment ?yer man? first opened his mouth to talk to his audience; clearly, there was a brain at work there far in advance of the one owned by the former Dingle. His background? The lad?s from Yorkshire, Bradford born and bred, and signed for Huddersfield at the age of 16, one of his fellow-trainees being a certain Kevin Donovan ? remember him? Three years he was there, then he moved on to Bristol Rovers for ?30 grand at the age of 19. Position? Primarily a right-back but he reckoned over his career he?d played in just about every position possible ? including between the sticks! From then on in, it was to Scotland he went, then back to England, via Mansfield and Peterborough.. He should have gone to Orient and not Posh; it so happened that when invited to play for them in a friendly versus the Welsh side, Barry Fry just happened to be in the crowd, he liked what he saw, and the rest, as they say, is history.

While in the playing ranks, Adrian had been busy, getting coaching qualifications while still young, and everywhere he played, he made a point of working with that club?s kids to gain experience. The decision to move into coaching proper was made for him, in a manner of speaking; he broke his leg, and while convalescing, he began to coach youngsters full-time. His quest then took him to Norwich, and that?s where he came to the attention of our favourite football club; yer man was headhunted by Mark Ashton, presumably ?under orders? from Above.

The personal details done with, it was then time for a greater insight into what the job actually entailed, and a little information about what youth football in general. We began by looking at the function of Academies. According to Adrian, these are really glorified Centres Of Excellence, the fundamental difference being youngsters affiliated to an academy get to play their peers contracted to Premiership clubs, something which can only have knock-on benefits for standards at the club concerned. One priority for sides with academy status is to recruit coaching staff with good qualifications; additionally, unless you possess an indoor facility, you simply won?t be granted that status, end of story. Again, it?s all geared towards having the best possible facilities, to provide the best possible environment for talent to fulfil its promise.

Was the idea of an academy to bring players through to the first team, or to sell them on and help finances that way? Adrian threw the question back at us; would we, as supporters, want to see an out-and-out mercenary play for us each week, or a kid who had come up through the ranks, and, quite possibly, a supporter of the club from a very early age? Lloyd Dyer provided a excellent example of this philosophy in action. So Adrian?s theory went, players like that would give you more, because that was their club, end of story. He then went on to say that he?d come to our club to get good people around him, and wanted to get to the stage where young players couldn?t wait to get into the first team. Yes, the job would be a big one, but he knew what the situation was when he first took it on. Support from the top was crucial; if he didn?t get it, to be quite blunt about it, he?d had it, but there was no problem on that score at Albion, because he?d had that support. Adrian said that although it was early days, he was already trying to change things, but some didn?t like change; the ?honeymoon period? was over.

We then moved on to the various means some clubs had of attracting promising kids. When this was achieved by flashing money in quantity, they were creating ?a monster?, therefore they tended to get what they wanted to get. That sort of thing was a constant problem for smaller clubs trying to compete for the signature of promising kids. He didn?t necessarily agree with what happened, sometimes, but you just had to go with it. You?d never compete with the Man Uniteds and so forth, but getting kids was important. Looking at the wider picture, any good youth policy was only as good as what you were willing to pay.

Our current crop? There were a few in there who, with the right coaching, could be something. Division One at present; in the Premiership, the standards were a lot higher. At Norwich, he got 20 players through to the required standard in 4 years; with ours, it might be 2-3 years before we saw any reward, and in the case of the older ones, 5 years. The key was raising standards; getting good players at the 12 year-old level, and making sure the 15-16 year-olds were pushed. If they were always playing around good players, then they?d be something different. At the moment, the problem was we?d got a very few gems at the pinnacle, with the majority on the baseline, and a rather low one. What Adrian wanted to do was to raise that standard. Was it worth it? Adrian cited the example of Lloyd Dyer; by bringing him through, we?d saved ourselves around ?3 million.

The subject of possible managerial reluctance to prioritise a decent youth policy and give it time to reap the harvest was then discussed. Adrian could see why some had that mindset; as he pointed out, he wanted to be at the club in three years time, but for various reasons, that might not necessarily be so for a manager. They tended to live for the ?here and now? and not the long term. Because of the nature of the beast, they needed to get results now. The situation wasn?t Gary Megson?s fault, or anyone else?s, for that matter. He approved of Nottingham Forest?s former manager, Paul Hart, and the club giving him a 5 year contract; the trouble was, they then had a new chairman come in, closely followed by a bad run of results, and the end result was they sacked him, despite the fact he got them to the play-offs last time round, and laid the foundations of a decent youth policy. Apparently, he managed to get 19 players through their system, but it took 7 years to do it. Norwich?s youth budget was in the order of ?300K; Forests was ?1.5M. The key was not to spend loads of money, but to do it carefully.

Dario Gradi, at Crewe, was virtually sack-proof (he?s also a director) so had the necessary leeway to get the youth side as he?d wanted it. When he went there, they had virtually nothing going for them, and were on their uppers, but he persevered with their kids, quite a few of whom were rejects from mush bigger clubs, and that was how he got their success. It was all down to expectations; Norwich, for example, raised about ?9.7M over 9 years via their youth policy. His maxim, as preached by former Albion and Norwich secretary Gordon Bennett, was that for every pound spent on youth, clubs would get five quid back.

Thoughts on our new lad, Romaine, who was paraded before an appreciative Hawthorns crowd last weekend? A great talent, disciplined for a 12 year-old. He?s from Aston, and has been with us for 4 years. Adrian said he didn?t want to put too much on him in the way of publicity at the moment because bigger clubs would get wind of what we had, and he wanted the lad to stay at the club. There were scouts out there who might offer his mum, a single parent, various juicy inducements to get his signature, and the less publicity the better. This didn?t rule out getting lads to sign contracts on the pitch pre-match, as used to be the case in years gone by, that was something he would like to do again, as it spelt out to the kid concerned how much the club valued him as a person. Contracts are legally-binding at that age, though; should the lad be prised away, there was a 2.5K penalty clause for every year spent with the original club.

So, where were the next batch of kids coming from, would the standard be improved, and were we going to struggle finding them? Sadly, next year, there would be 17 under 16?s, but we?d only taken one. Adrian didn?t think that batch were good enough, that one lad apart. By ?getting lucky?, Adrian said he?d managed to recruit players from Man United, Sunderland, Norwich and Newcastle. The ultimate aim, he said, was to get 80 or 90 per cent home-produced. The appointment of Steve Hopcroft, former Blues youth coach, augured well for the future. He was quite adamant that the people he?d got around him, now, were most definitely there to do a job and were not there for ornamental purposes. Steve, Adrian said, was very persistent, persuasive, and, above all, talented; he?d gone out of his way to get him to the club. The other priority was to get the local recruitment right, and only then, look at the more distant recruitment, but all the while, keeping a weather eye on promising kids further afield. At the moment, the scouting structure was 15 local scouts, 4 regional ones, and four national. The whole set-up functioned like a web. It was also important to keep other sources of talent, like local boys clubs, happy as well. Sure, we took their best players, but we were now trying to give something back, but that was something we couldn?t improve overnight.

Because of current lack of resources, all we could do at the moment was sell potential players a dream. Things would get better, but it was important to keep that momentum going. Getting a reputation was most important, as football was, quite literally, a village, and word would quickly get around. Adrian was a great believer in giving lads plenty of feedback about their performance and promise. Why? Because then they would know precisely where they stood; that was the honest way of doing things. Sometimes you had to be tough; when telling youngsters they wouldn?t be taken on, he hoped they would take the positives from the experience, but sometimes, that didn?t happen. The key was to be fair and honest with people when assessing their capabilities. Players were given an evaluation, but it was always stressed that was only one opinion. There were plenty of examples out there of players who had gone on to make it after being released, and Adrian tried to stress this as a ?positive?. So, who made the final decisions on pro contracts? It was ultimately the manager?s decision on who got the nod, but the recommendations of the coaching staff carried a hell of a lot of weight. One sobering thought; 98% of those who came into the game at the age of 16 were out of it by the time they reached 21.

Coaching used to be all about ?command and control? but that was changing, now, and the modern emphasis was for players to learn to think for themselves. It was more of a two-way process these days; some players adapted better than others, because everyone learned differently. These days, when players got to first-team level, they needed to use their brains and initiative; if they weren?t able to do so, then that was no good to anyone.

Scouts? There were two sorts, really; those who were proactive and attended every game they could, and there were those who did it for the kudos of being associated with a club. Adrian made it perfectly clear which sort he preferred. As far as current rules were concerned, kids aged between 12 and 16 could only play for a club within a 1.5 hours travelling distance radius; for those between the ages of 8-12, the distance reduced to one hour. This, of course, could be circumvented by the bigger clubs, who had no qualms whatsoever flying kids to training sessions if they thought it worth the investment. At Norwich, there was also a problem with their catchment area; as Adrian pointed out, ?When I was there, a third of ours was in the North Sea!?

Lacking a ?Pro Zone? type system at that level, another way of making young players think for themselves was to make them compile statistics on a game when on the sidelines due to injury, etc. This had two benefits; the first was to make them pay attention to what was going on out there, and the second was to make them aware of who had done their job and who hadn?t. There was going to be a revamp of the system at youth level next season; instead of the current three-year scholarship, it would revert to a two-year system once more. Adrian also declared himself to be a great believer in young players being taught social and media skills. The ability to cope with questions being thrown at them during post-match press conferences, etc. was most important, as a lad inexperienced in those sort of skills could be very quickly found out.

The problem was, at big clubs, literally everything was done for young players, and they grew up having little or no conception of how the real world operated. Adrian cited the example of a player who came to Norwich from a well-known club, but didn?t have a clue how to go about booking a dental appointment because that sort of thing was taken care of by his former club.

So, why did he leave a successful career at Norwich to come to our place? Because he?d felt he?d done as much as he could with them. Being the sort of person who liked to get things done yesterday, because of that, he sometimes upset people resistant to change. His philosophy was (and still is), if he didn?t get the support, then it was time to move on. Our board promised him Academy status; that was formally agreed, and Adrian was impressed by the fact this aim of the club had been stated in public. We were aiming to go as an Academy in 2005-06. We?d probably struggle to get the talent the first year, but as time went by, and word spread, things would improve. Everything hinged upon what we wanted to be in 5 ? 10 years time. A middle-ranking Premiership club, perhaps? Or, maybe, a side pushing for UEFA status. Better than that, possible Champions?League entry, even? And, the hardest part of the job? Easy; picking up the phone, and telling his wife he was going to be late. Apart from that, there was very little that rankled; the job was great, ?fantastic?! Job satisfaction? Easy - seeing a player you?d brought through from a little boy getting into the first team.

And that was about it. Time to draw the raffle, and thank Adrian for a most interesting soiree, so to speak. Well done, also, the Haden family, who are the prime movers at Kiddy branch; what with current difficulties getting guests for such functions these days, they really do perform miracles, sometimes. And, for The Fart (who asked a fair proportion of the questions that supplied the text for tonight?s effort, by the way!), a sobering thought; for whatever reason, there was a preponderance of elderly gentlemen in tonight?s audience, and for a while, it looked as though our co-editor?s record as the oldest Baggie in town was in serious danger of being bettered. Wrong! Being 62 and 65 respectively, they were mere Junior Baggies by comparison ? but it was a close-run thing!

And finally?. Thanks to Anc for pointing this one out to me tonight. On the unofficial Albion message-board tonight was the sad tale of a Baggie who was, at that very moment, spending the last few hours with his mother, dying of cancer and, as he says, ?Every breath seems like her last. She introduced me to the Baggies, and made sure I had every new shirt, and never missed a game. You know the score, fellas. Well she is mumbling, delirious and in great pain as we are at the end of this unequal struggle, yet her major concern is that Albion get promoted! I have had to promise her that we will do it. I swear that if I see one Albion player not pull his weight between now and the last match, I will not be accountable?.?

Anyone connected with the club reading that sad message, any chance of getting it to the players? I think they ought to know.

 - Glynis Wright

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