Having promoted young players in his previous roles at Östersund and Swansea City, new Brighton manager Graham Potter may look to the club’s talented academy players to bring new life to a squad that struggled to stay in the Premier League. However, Brighton under-23s boss Simon Rusk, recognises that most of the young players at the club will never grace the Premier League. His job is about far more than producing top-flight footballers.
“My ultimate role,” says Rusk, “is fine-tuning someone to be available for the first-team manager to select. My next role is for players who are just falling short of that: can I help that process for the club to sell someone? And if not, can they have a football career somewhere? And finally, can they walk out the door having still learned some life skills? We want them to look back and say it was still beneficial.”
Rusk oversaw the late blossoming of Solly March from sixth-form pupil to Premier League starter in less than two years, but Hughton was reluctant to promote too many youngsters. “I can’t blame him for not giving younger players an opportunity,” says Rusk. “To play a young player you’ve got to put three, four or five noses out of joint in the dressing room. So, unless it’s an absolute screaming talent, it’s a hard thing to do. You need to keep all your squad happy as you are going to war once or twice a week. It’s incredibly tough in the Premier League as there’s millions of pounds resting on every finishing position.”
March was given his chance when Brighton were in the Championship. Would he have been picked during a Premier League relegation battle? “Who knows? Maybe he would because he’s good enough, but it’s certainly a harder gap to bridge.”
Brighton’s Under-23s finished third in the Premier League 2 this season, but the young Seagulls won’t assume anything. “For some of our players, the perceived gap between 23s and getting in the first team has got a lot bigger and, with that, there is a naturally enhanced level of disillusion in one or two of them,” says Rusk.
“We don’t hold the motivating carrot of first-team football here. Our players realise that, so you’ve got to find the right level of honesty so people realise what their next step is and keep motivated, but at the same time not cutting off the dream. It might mean going out on loan, but you have to be mature enough as a player and be ready as a character to accept the reality of the situation.”
Players need character to step down the pyramid and they often have to adapt to a new style. “Category 1 Under-23 football is technically geared towards Premier League football, not necessarily League One or Two,” says Rusk, who spent much of his playing career in non-League. “I understand why a League Two manager would show up to watch a centre-half and leave saying: ‘I know this kid can play out from the back but I don’t know if he can head it.’ But how much heading does a Premier League centre-half have to do?”
Having spent a couple of decades playing and coaching, Rusk knows talent is not always enough for players to break through. “I don’t expect every Under-23s player to have a career in the game,” he says. “You could be in the game at 22 and find yourself out of it at 24 if you’re not careful. You have to deal with pressure and public criticism. The public only see the highs. Everyone has periods of dealing with adversity. The difference in professional sport is a lot of other people have an opinion on you. That starts at 23s level: games are on TV and club websites, fans talk about these players and it goes from internal opinions to external ones. It’s just another step of the filter system. How many people have an opinion on the performance of Joe Bloggs working in a bank? The spotlight is not for everyone. Football is not for everyone. It’s tough.”
The Guardian Sport
