Midlands Football Development

[Zouch Villa]

Interesting piece on the BBC website that shows where each of the England squad grew up.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-44495550

I know it isn’t a direct reflection on Midlands football, it does beg the question why we are so underrepresented as a region, and perhaps reinforce the view that we are falling short in our scouting and development of local talent.

Or am I reading too much into this?

[curiousorange]

Some of the people I work with have kids who have played at various age levels within the Worcestershire leagues. They reckon that hardly any Midlands clubs, Villa included, can be bothered their arse to travel thirty five miles down the motorway and see some pretty outstanding talent. Whether that's true or not I don't know, but it does seem that unless you're playing more or less right next to recognised hotbeds of development, nobody's interested.

[Mister E]

Some of the people I work with have kids who have played at various age levels within the Worcestershire leagues. They reckon that hardly any Midlands clubs, Villa included, can be bothered their arse to travel thirty five miles down the motorway and see some pretty outstanding talent. Whether that's true or not I don't know, but it does seem that unless you're playing more or less right next to recognised hotbeds of development, nobody's interested.

Which, if true, is a disgrace.
Middlesbrough, as an example, have at least two development squads in Harrogate (c.60 miles away) and are probably well represented elsewhere in the larger region.

[wozwebs]

My lads team (Kidderminster Lions U9’s) have had scouts from Blues, Wolves, Villa and Albion watch them last season so not entirely true. They have also watched City Juniors of Worcester a fair few times as they have a great side. 4 of our team are at the WBA Player Development Academy including my lad who’s doing well and moving up to Talent ID in August. Don’t worry, I make sure he takes his Villa drinks bottle every week!