Were Brentford and Huddersfield Town right to close their academies?

It came as a shock to many in May 2016, when Brentford FC announced the “closure” of their academy, scrapping all teams from U8 to U21 level instead to restructure it to a concentrated “development squad”, with players sourced from either other English academies or elsewhere in Europe, utilising the connections of directors of football Rasmus Ankersen and Phil Giles.

The players they began to recruit from the UK were those on the periphery of the U18 and U21 sides in Category One and Two football. The likes of Joe Hardy (Manchester City) and Emmanuel Onariase (West Ham United) either struggled for game-time or had their pathway blocked by other players, whilst Ilias Chatzitheodoridis (Arsenal) and Dimi Kyriatzis (Fulham) were let go by their original clubs. They had kept a core of their own players, with the likes of Ellery Balcombe, Chris Mepham, Zain Westbrooke and Kyjuon Marsh-Brown were all integral players of their inaugural season as “Brentford B”.

But was that really the right move? In recent months they’ve made some strong additions – such as Charlton defender and England youth international Ezri Konsa, the highly-rated Arsenal youngster Josh Dasilva, former Chelsea full-back Cole Dasilva (no relation) and young Oxford defender Canice Carroll, who had made 16 league appearances for the League 1 side prior to his move to West London. Ankersen’s link with FC Midtjylland was also used to bring in players like Nikolaj Kirk, just one of the foreign (mainly Scandinavian) contingent that composes the rest of the side. And before them, Walsall’s Rico Henry, himself another England youth international was purchased for just £1.5m in August 2016.

What about the players Brentford already had? Notable names who left were Josh Bohui (now at Manchester United) and Ian Carlo Poveda (Manchester City). Trio Nikola Tavares, Tyrick Mitchell and Giovanni McGregor ended up at Crystal Palace, Southampton brought in Taymar Fleary (as well as George Hunt, now doing well at Coventry City, and Shaun-Chris Joash), and Fulham obtained Showkat Tahir. Others, like Kingsley Eshun and Samuel Kifwasima-Mayuma spent time with QPR, Juan Pablo Gonzalez Velasco at Tottenham and defender Zach Birse recently was on trial with Colchester United after a frustrating spell at Norwich City (largely due to an injury problem) before time in Sweden with Ostersund.

Josh Bohui (L) is now part of Manchester United’s U23 side

There was also Adebambo Akinjogbin, who dropped back into non-league football before a short spell with Chelsea, and Chris Forino-Joseph, who spent two years in education before being signed by Colchester United this summer. The list goes on: the younger age groups had Levi Laing (Arsenal), Xavier Simons (Chelsea), Oliver O’Neill and Matthew Dibley-Dias (Fulham), Dermi Lusala, Timothee Lo-Totula & Eddie Carrington-Alberdi (Tottenham), Luke Mbete (Manchester City) and Goran Babic (Southampton). A large amount of these younger players have had involvement with England as well.

It wasn’t as if the players that comprised the original Brentford academy “weren’t good enough.” They just weren’t given time.

Had Brentford waited a few more years, rather than acting perhaps quite rashly, the likes of Poveda, Bohui, Mitchell and Tahir would be on the cusp of the first team? If not that, they would’ve been able to be sold on by a bigger club for a larger fee than the minimal compensation they received as a result of them departing so young (roughly a combined £60,000 for Poveda and Bohui). They featured in the same youth team as Balcombe, Mepham, David Titov and Reece Cole, who all remain at Brentford now.

Of the players brought in by the Bees, only the aforementioned Chatzitheodoridis, let go by Arsenal upon the end of his scholarship in 2016, Justin Shaibu, a young Danish forward purchased from HB Koge, ex-Celtic midfielder Theo Archibald and Irish-Nigerian winger Chiedozie Ogbene made league appearances for the club in 2017/18. Internal academy products Josh Clarke and Reece Cole also had involvement (plus Rico Henry, bought from Walsall albeit for the first team), and of course the young Welshman Chris Mepham with 21 league games played. Not a particularly bad return.

Chris Mepham is now a first team regular for the Bees plus a Welsh international

Now in 2018/19, Mepham is a first team regular, with the number 6 shirt his own. He’s also a Welsh international, already touted to be a mainstay in the national team for years to come – which just shows how far an academy player may go if you put your trust in them. Clarke and Ogbene have had involvement in the League Cup only, and a new addition, Finnish striker Marcus Forss who had previously spent time with West Brom, has featured in the league after scoring in the League Cup against Southend United. It’s not been a disaster per se, but that’s what it looks like on the outside.

What about the impact the academy closure had on young players in the local area, let alone the original players, parents and staff involved with the academy. One of the reasons cited for their closure was the competition faced when recruiting young players which was a fair enough point. There was heavy competition in West London – the main culprit being Chelsea, followed by other local rivals Fulham and QPR, not forgetting the likes of Arsenal and Tottenham whose influence began to seep into an already highly-concentrated area. But how do you explain that Brentford had all those players over their rivals? Of course, they may not be the elite standard that Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal produce, but some have been seen good enough for the first team and judging by where those who were released ended up, they had the potential to be?

It’s a poor argument really.

Perhaps the primary reason for their closure was the financial performance of owner Matthew Benham’s business SmartOdds affecting the running of the club. Financially for a Championship club it could be fairly understandable, but I don’t see the excuse for another team that followed suit in a similar way – Huddersfield Town.

Having been promoted to the Premier League for the 2017/18 season, again it was a bit of a shock to see a Premier League club “close” their academy, dropping themselves down from Category 2 to Category 4 and having an U17, U19 and “elite development” side in place. The majority of players sourced for the new U17s were either from other clubs, such as Manchester United’s left back Sam Sharrock-Peplow, one of the strongest performers this season, or from academies such as XYZ Academy or Mass Elite Academy based in London. Goalkeeper Giosue Bellagambi, defender Mohammed Diaby and midfielder Jaheim Headley have all been impressive players so far this season. As have the likes of Darnell Mintus and Remi Thompson, alongside the rest of their fellow colleagues who were kept on by the club, who have all been regulars for the U17s after being kept on. But was it the right move to “start fresh” so soon?

Jaheim Headley has been impressive for Huddersfield Town’s “U17” side this season

The U17 results are to say, less than impressive. Obviously it’s not about results it’s about developing players but having attended a handful of these matches this season it can feel like confidence is dropping with the players. This is not a direct challenge on them or the coaching staff by the way, but it still feels quite unsettled. Funnily enough the “final” U16 group was a successful one, winning a couple of tournaments throughout their time at the Terriers, and thankfully, all were able to find new clubs.

U16 players brought in: George Alfieri (Barnet), Taylor Annakin (Barnsley), Giosue Bellagambi (Lambeth Tigers/Mass Elite Academy), Mohammed Diaby (Lambeth Tigers/Mass Elite Academy), Kian Harratt (Barnsley), Jaheim Headley (Millwall/Mass Elite Academy), Andrew Ijiwole (Southampton/XYZ Academy), Nassim Kherbouche (Mass Elite Academy), Mustapha Olagunju (XYZ Academy), Sam Sharrock-Peplow (Manchester United).

U16 players kept on: Josh Austerfield, Tom Bamford, Tom Bell, Seth Meeson, Darnell Mintus, Remi Thompson.

U16 players released: Arash Ahmadi (Norwich City), Anthonius Berkeley (Norwich City), Finn Cousin-Dawson (Bradford City), Luke Jackson (Sheffield Wednesday), Jake Kelly (Sheffield United), Sam Kelly (Sheffield United), Cedric Ondoa (Bury), Tom Sams (Leicester City), Connor Shanks (Bradford City), Ethan Vaughan (Norwich City).

A document was also published online outlining where (at the time, 2017/18) U13-U16 players had signed. The statistics show that most of those players named were signed by local rivals such as Barnsley (12 – the bulk of those being half of the U15 group (7) named), Bradford City (8) and Sheffield United (7). “Big clubs” like Manchester United (6) and Everton (2) took advantage of the fallout as well, with others going far and wide to locations ranging from Norwich, Stoke and Leicester in Category 1, to Burnley, Hull and Leeds in Category 2, to Oldham, Bury and Rochdale in Category 3. A total of 54 players named on that document found a new club, including the 10 U16 players not kept on.

Defender Rocco Fregapane signed for Man United

Amongst those names included the highly rated defender Rocco Fregapane, who in the space of two years went from grassroots football to England youth international and signing for Manchester United. Midfielder Charlie Weston, now an U15, signed for Blackburn Rovers and was recently invited to an England U15 camp. Weston also had strong interest from big clubs such as Chelsea but turned them down to make the move to Lancashire. Kareem Hassan-Smith (now U16) is becoming a regular in Barnsley’s U18 sides, and other now-U16s who made the switch to South Yorkshire with him, such as Nazuri Dailey, Newton Sila-Conde and Harry Widdop have also made their U18 debut in recent weeks.

Again, it shows that the talent was there. They may not have gone to as more high-profile locations like those who were at Brentford did, but for over 50 players to find new professional clubs in the space of a few months says something. There are no doubt other names who were not mentioned that have signed for teams this season as well. There will also be other players who were younger than the U13-U16 range who have found teams.

With Huddersfield, the 2018/19 season is only their first under this new model. But like Brentford, they have taken a similar step in terms of recruitment, picking up players who have been let go or are struggling for game time at bigger clubs. Right back Demeaco Duhaney, formerly of Manchester City is an England U20 international and was named in the first team squad in a handful of Carabao Cup fixtures plus in a Champions League match against Shakhtar Donetsk and striker Kit Elliott, who was with Chelsea up until U16 level before signing for Crystal Palace and is now a key part of Huddersfield’s U19 side after joining towards the end of 2017/18 are two of the high profile names that were recruited.

Other players that have been brought in include former Manchester United pair Jake Barrett (a Huddersfield local himself) and Harry Spratt, ex-Reading and US youth international goalkeeper Gabriel Rosario and no doubt in a couple of months time they will start to handpick those who have been told they’re not getting a scholarship at their club to come and form next season’s U17 side.

Demeaco Duhaney was named in a Champions League squad by Manchester City

It’s quite a clever initiative, save for the fact it ultimately freezes out those in the local area (unless they look to grassroots players in Huddersfield as well, which remains to be seen). Coaches Danny Whitehead (U17s) and Mark Hudson (U19s) were both players at the club themselves and are fairly new to coaching as well, so they have the opportunity to be developed as coaches, although in a fairly unorthodox system.

Again, as it’s the first season under this direction for Huddersfield, it remains to be seen how it will pan out for them. They’re struggling in the Premier League this season, and if relegation follows then it will be a good move for the academy. EFL rules require Championship clubs to have at least one academy-produced player in the squad, and players such as Demeaco Duhaney will no doubt be ready for Championship football. It will be a better pathway for those players if the club were in the second tier, with all the additional fixtures requiring more squad rotation, therefore creating more opportunities for youngsters – similar to what we have seen so far with Brentford.

It’s not hard to picture other Category 2, perhaps Category 3 academies following suit. Those in lower leagues may find the cost of running academies very high and if the initial output isn’t that great, then why would they bother continuing? They cite EPPP rules allowing young players to be signed for nearly nothing by bigger clubs (and for the record, I do not agree with these rules at all), but closing their academy down and allowing them all to go anyway…doesn’t that defeat the object a bit? They’ll end up losing more by shutting down their operations rather than going on and losing just a handful along the way.

But right now, people ask more questions regarding EPPP than ever. For smaller clubs, is it worth it to run an academy? We can only watch these two clubs closely for the next few years, and who knows, maybe their way of running things will prove the entire English academy football system wrong.

I’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who helped with this article – in particular KLife, Grant and @chelseayouth. Without your help I wouldn’t have been able to put this piece together!

Kai.