Howard Wilkinson Calls for Review, Overhaul of Academy System he Designed

 Howard Wilkinson, pictured in 2000, says: ‘These are young people and many are not getting what they have been promised and a number naturally feel genuinely let down.’ Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian
Howard Wilkinson, pictured in 2000, says: ‘These are young people and many are not getting what they have been promised and a number naturally feel genuinely let down.’ Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian
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Howard Wilkinson Calls for Review, Overhaul of Academy System he Designed

 Howard Wilkinson, pictured in 2000, says: ‘These are young people and many are not getting what they have been promised and a number naturally feel genuinely let down.’ Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian
Howard Wilkinson, pictured in 2000, says: ‘These are young people and many are not getting what they have been promised and a number naturally feel genuinely let down.’ Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian

Howard Wilkinson, the architect of English football’s modern youth development programme, has called for the system to be reviewed and overhauled, accusing the top clubs of failing in their “moral responsibility” to give young players opportunities. Wilkinson, who as the Football Association’s technical director in 1997 designed the current system, in which 12,000 boys are being trained by clubs from the age of eight, said he recognises that the very high release rate causes mental health difficulties to some, which can endure for years.

“What is needed is a serious reasoned review and a commitment from the whole game to commit to the implementation of recommendations which are designed to give these boys a morally deserved crack of the whip,” Wilkinson said. “Change has to come from the top.”

Wilkinson was responding to the Guardian’s report that highlighted depression and other mental health problems suffered by young men in academies, and particularly after they are released. One 2012 academic study of scholars, the smaller elite groups taken on full-time into clubs’ academies aged 16 to 18, found that 99% did not progress to have professional football careers.

Premier League and Football League clubs recruit dozens of young boys locally and nationally, many running development centres even for five- and six-year-olds, yet first-team managers often have little commitment to playing them, clubs preferring instead to sign ready-made overseas stars. Wilkinson cited as exceptions Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton, whose youth development systems are run by the former senior FA coaches John McDermott and Les Reed respectively, and operate more of a policy than most clubs to field young English players.

“Current youth coaches in England are as good or better than anywhere in the world: they are highly qualified, overworked and underpaid, highly committed experts,” said Wilkinson, who published his blueprint for the system, the FA’s Charter for Quality, 20 years ago this month.

“The facilities of academies are second to none; the ingredients are fantastic. One huge problem is the lack of opportunity. If you send your child to a school, you expect the school to give them every opportunity to develop their talent. It is their moral responsibility. For me, football also has that same responsibility. Lack of opportunity is a very serious problem, which can affect the boy long term and is already affecting the senior England team.”

Referring to the hundreds of boys released every year, Wilkinson said: “These are young people and many are not getting what they have been promised and a number naturally feel genuinely let down. They are adolescents, some can and do become depressed.

“There clearly isn’t the commitment to playing the players. The fault just isn’t taking too many boys in; it’s clubs not really committing to giving them the opportunity.”

Wilkinson’s charter, which gave professional clubs unprecedented involvement with children from very young ages, aimed to improve the quality of youth coaching, facilities and development, and prevent boys being overplayed by their schools and clubs. A year earlier an England team whose players had come through the old schools system, and mostly started senior careers at lower-division and non-league clubs, reached the semi-final of the 1996 European Championship. No full England team since the academy system was introduced have reached a similar stage of any international tournament and Wilkinson argues that the current manager, Gareth Southgate, lacks sufficient players for a strong squad.

“Research shows that to have a successful national team, a country needs a group of around 50 players with high‑level, including latter-round Champions League, experience, capable of playing in the team. England does not have that number of players who have been given the opportunity to go on and develop.”

In 2012 the Premier League drove through a series of improvements to Wilkinson’s blueprint, the Elite Player Performance Plan, and has persistently rejected arguments that its clubs’ reliance on overseas stars has undermined the England team. The former FA chairman Greg Dyke held a review into the issue, vowing to investigate whether the lack of opportunities for English players is partly because of top clubs being owned by overseas investors who have too little commitment to the national team. His review ultimately failed even to mention that proposition and its recommendation for a new lower division in which Premier League clubs could play B teams was widely ridiculed and later dropped.

Wilkinson said a thorough review is needed. “It seems the FA and leagues are choosing to ignore the facts; do people care about a strong England team? People [at the FA and leagues] should care; their success has come off the back of the English game, its history and heritage. Germany has shown that World Cups and Champions League success can be achieved through looking after their own.”

The Guardian Sport



Arensman Wins Tour de France 19th Stage as Pogacar Retains Yellow Jersey

INEOS Grenadiers team's Dutch rider Thymen Arensman celebrates on the podium after winning the 19th stage of the 112th edition of the Tour de France cycling race, 93.1 km between Albertville and La Plagne, in the French Alps, on July 25, 2025. (AFP)
INEOS Grenadiers team's Dutch rider Thymen Arensman celebrates on the podium after winning the 19th stage of the 112th edition of the Tour de France cycling race, 93.1 km between Albertville and La Plagne, in the French Alps, on July 25, 2025. (AFP)
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Arensman Wins Tour de France 19th Stage as Pogacar Retains Yellow Jersey

INEOS Grenadiers team's Dutch rider Thymen Arensman celebrates on the podium after winning the 19th stage of the 112th edition of the Tour de France cycling race, 93.1 km between Albertville and La Plagne, in the French Alps, on July 25, 2025. (AFP)
INEOS Grenadiers team's Dutch rider Thymen Arensman celebrates on the podium after winning the 19th stage of the 112th edition of the Tour de France cycling race, 93.1 km between Albertville and La Plagne, in the French Alps, on July 25, 2025. (AFP)

Thymen Arensman claimed his second victory in this year's Tour de France when he benefited from the top guns' waiting game to prevail in the 19th stage, the last mountain trek of the race on Friday.

The Ineos Grenadiers rider, whose team have been facing doping questions related to their glorious days as Team Sky, went solo in the final climb to La Plagne before crossing the line two seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar, who were second and third respectively.

Slovenian Pogacar retained the overall leader's yellow jersey and leads Vingegaard by 4:24 going into the final two stages and is widely expected to win a fourth title if he avoids a major incident.

German Florian Lipowitz took fourth place on the shortened stage to cement his third place overall, stretching his advantage over fourth-placed Oscar Onley of Britain by 41 seconds to 1:03.

It would have taken a colossal coup from Vingegaard to topple Pogacar on the final mountain test in the Alps, but the Visma-Lease a Bike rider only tried within the last 100 meters to take two seconds off of the Slovenian's lead, with Pogacar emerging as the puppet master of the peloton.

A leading trio featuring France's Lenny Martinez and Valentin Paret Peintre as well as former Tour runner-up Primoz Roglic, reached the Col du Pre with a small gap of a chasing group after a brutal 12.2-km ascent at 7.7%.

The peloton, controlled by Pogacar's UAE Emirates-XRG, trailed by less than a minute.

With two kilometers left in the climb up to the Cormet de Roselend (5.9km at 6.9%), Paret Peintre and Roglic shook off Martinez, but only briefly as the Bahrain-Victorious rider clawed his way back.

Roglic went solo in the descent into Bourg Saint Maurice, dropping Martinez and Paret Peintre, who were quickly caught by the bunch.

Roglic was then swallowed two kilometers before the final climb and spat out immediately.

Austrian Felix Gall, gunning for a top five finish in Paris, accelerated 14.5km from the finish with Arensman, Pogacar and Vingegaard reacting.

Pogacar made his own move 14km from the top with Vingegaard and Arensman the only riders able to get into his slipstream.

Pogacar eventually let Arensman go and seemed content with setting a decent tempo to keep the Dutchman within reach, but the Slovenian eventually did not make the effort to go for a fifth stage win this year.