Value of footsie players

[AJI]

Probably been discussed before but this is a different angle on it.

Question 'A'
If one had a million pounds and were a devoted footie fan and you wished to develop a youngster leaving school (purely as a gift or even as a vested interest investment) - would 1 million pounds be more than enough to ensure this youngster became a competative premiership player?
ie. given 1 million pounds worth of the top level training, fitness programs, development squads, education on tactics etc. etc.

Question 'B'
Would the probability of spreading your bets (for use of a better term) applied to developing 10 youngsters by spending £10 million to ensure only one of them made it as a valued premiership player be feasable, probable or unlikely?

[Luckyluciano]

One thing your missing is TIME, it takes lots of it to do both A & B

[AJI]

Luckyluciano said:

One thing your missing is TIME, it takes lots of it to do both A & B

Yes ok, factor in time. Lets say school leaver at 18 already 'decent' .ie. played school first team at a minimum, is also full fit no health probs etc.
Give him a 'training wage' of say £10,000 per year. And train him for say 4 years?
Ready at the age of 22...would that be a reasonable timescale?

[Devilstreak]

Most players are picked up a lot earlier than 18 normally though.

[Luckyluciano]

AJI said:

Yes ok, factor in time. Lets say school leaver at 18 already 'decent' .ie. played school first team at a minimum, is also full fit no health probs etc.
Give him a 'training wage' of say £10,000 per year. And train him for say 4 years?
Ready at the age of 22...would that be a reasonable timescale?

any of the kids that look good will already be part of the club at 14 - 15years old.
They will know withing two to three years if they will make it or not.
All clubs do this, some better than others.

[elster]

You want to be picking kids up from 10-12 bracket to get them in a reasonable squad for 14.

Not many players have been found after.

[AJI]

OK then, if the 'cut-off' age is about 14 then for one million pounds directed at this individual would it be possible to get him in to the premiership as a certainty? If not then for £10million spread over 10 fourteen year olds, would this guarentee at least one 'making it'?

And if this amounut of money and time has been dedicated to this/these individual(s) would they be above average in comparison to the current players? (Remember we are talking about £1million investment on each player).

Edited by AJI on Monday 31st January 19:13

[Luckyluciano]

AJI said:

OK then, if the 'cut-off' age is about 14 then for one million pounds directed at this individual would it be possible to get him in to the premiership as a certainty? If not then for £10million spread over 10 fourteen year olds, would this guarentee at least one 'making it'?

And if this amounut of money and time has been dedicated to this/these individual(s) would they be above average in comparison to the current players? (Remember we are talking about £1million investment on each player).

Edited by AJI on Monday 31st January 19:13

Simple answer is no not in the prem anyway.

[elster]

AJI said:

OK then, if the 'cut-off' age is about 14 then for one million pounds directed at this individual would it be possible to get him in to the premiership as a certainty? If not then for £10million spread over 10 fourteen year olds, would this guarentee at least one 'making it'?

And if this amounut of money and time has been dedicated to this/these individual(s) would they be above average in comparison to the current players? (Remember we are talking about £1million investment on each player).

Edited by AJI on Monday 31st January 19:13

It depends how good the scout was at spotting talent.

There is definitely not a guarantee a big "star" player.

[AJI]

Well, I was just wondering given a huge sum of money thrown at an individual whether it would be possible to develop almost anybody with a good fitness level in to a premiership standard player.

The replies so far seem to hint at the fact that the main/only factor that can determine this is 'talent'.
Is that a fair conclusion?

In this case it would follow that even if £50million were thrown at a youngster with 'prospects' that there will be no guarantee in him being an above average player in the premiership.



I'm not an expert in football but I do disagree to an extent that in most sports the main driving factor is money. If an individual has access to money and that money is spent over time on the correct aspects of progressing the individual's career then most times it ensures success over the individuals that do not have the money.
Talent is developed or fast tracked through the amount of time and the quality of time spent training etc.


This topic basically grew out of the usual pub chat. I was in the camp of any amount of money can be thrown at an individual to ensure they got where they wanted and some mates were of the camp that its all about talent. (Much like the replies so far).

Anyway, cheers. I guess I'm in the minority on this.

[Captain Flashman]

Luckyluciano said:

any of the kids that look good will already be part of the club at 14 - 15years old.
They will know withing two to three years if they will make it or not.
All clubs do this, some better than others.

most professionals started playing competitive football by the time they were 7 or 8 according to a survey done by the PFA a few years back. its reckoned that around 10,000 hours of training go into a professional footballer, mostly into bar fighting and how to buy the most ridiculous looking cars by my reckoning.

[jammy_basturd]

If it really was just about money and picking up average players and putting them through a 'best of breed' course on football, then the top clubs in the world wouldn't be wasting millions on scouting young players around the world. They would set up a multi-million pound academy and take the best school kids in a 10 mile radius.

To become a top footballer you mainly need talent. The rest is about practice, confidence and a minimum amount of brain power to be able to follow tactics.

[Stevenj214]

In the OP's scenario, I think it would be possible to turn any youngester with a bit of talent into a Professional Footballer but not necessarily a Premiership Footballer.