Will we see a decline in the number of great West Ham academy graduates in the next few years…

In the past few years, there have been many rules that UEFA has been planning to impose regarding ‘Financial Fair-Play’ to try and stop the richest of clubs dominating club football through their ability to buy a limitless amount of top quality players. Clubs such as Manchester City have enjoyed great success over the past few seasons due to the purchasing power they have acquired from their Abu Dhabi based owners. Since they took hold of the blue side of Manchester on the 1st of September 2008, City has spent around £500m on some of the world’s best players. The main aim of UEFA’s financial fair play scheme is to limit the amount that clubs such as Manchester City can spend on players and to reduce the inflationary affect that recent spending has created. One of the other main aims of UEFA’s financial fair-play scheme is to encourage clubs to invest in long-term youth development and infrastructure. What sort of affect could this have on West Ham?

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Over the last four years, the world has witnessed a team which has pushed the boundaries of modern football, has united the world in awe and wonderment, has rediscovered a style of football which had disappeared since the playing career of Cruyff and has led to the belief that all this can be achieved through a distinct philosophy of football and a youth infrastructure which teaches this philosophy as soon as the young players step through the doors at ‘La Masia’. I am of course taking about FC Barcelona, who have dominated world football over the past few years and have managed to do this while having a squad which almost entirely consists of players who have come through the youth system at the Catalan club, who are all (apart from Lionel Messi) Spanish. When Barça met Manchester United in the Champions League final back in 2011, the Catalan giants had 7 players who came through their famous youth academy in their starting line-up, with another 4 on the bench. United only had Ryan Giggs who had come through their youth academy in the starting line-up and Scholes and Darren Fletcher on the bench. The little Spanish maestros shone at Wembley, with their ringleader Lionel Messi (who turned down a chance to play for Spain alongside the likes of

Xavi and Iniesta to instead play for his home country Argentina) fabulous throughout. The style that Barcelona play their football under Pep Guardiola has been lauded over by many teams throughout the world and it has left a footprint for other teams to follow in search for their own glory. But not only has their style of football been credited, but the fact that they have achieved so much with so many home-grown talent and especially players who have come through their own youth system is outstanding. It has inspired many teams to follow in their footsteps and as a footballing nation we have looked at ourselves and our teams which we support and there is a sense of disappointment that most teams in the Premier League especially are made up of foreign talent that has been brought in from the continent and from South America at great expense.

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One thing which is very special about being a West Ham fan is the pride in which we take in our youth system and the importance we see in the production of good quality British players, many who go onto to play for England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Over the past 15 years, world class players such as Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Frank Lampard and Jermain Defoe

have all come through the ranks at Upton Park and have represented England on football’s biggest stage. There is a sense of pride when you see an England team almost entirely made up from former West Ham players who have been nurtured at the Academy of Football. There is pride but also sorrow for the thought of what might have been had those players stayed. Two graduates in Michael Carrick and Rio Ferdinand both played in the Champions League Final against Barcelona at Wembley in 2011, which shows the capability that this club has of producing great talent.

However, the new UEFA financial fair-play rules could make producing such great players who will go on to represent England more difficult, considering the amount of competition from other British clubs who have invested heavily in youth development and other clubs who will invest in the near future. Not only have Manchester City been immensely active in the transfer market, but they have recently announced proposed plans to build a brand-new training academy, with a 7,000-seat youth stadium, quite like the Barcelona B team’s Mini Estadi stadium. It begs the question that with many big English clubs deciding to improve their youth development with both the UEFA ruling and the pressure from the media to produce more home-grown talent being the driving force behind this decision, will there be a decline in the number of highly talented youth products at West Ham?

With the ruling that you will only be able to spend what you take in throughout the calendar year, we could see more teams looking to produce their talent rather than buy. However, whether the UEFA ruling will have much of an affect remains to be seen, as the revenue generated by some of the clubs in England is phenomenal, which means that the biggest clubs may not be affected by the new ruling, which will create an even bigger divide between the top clubs in the country and the rest.

However, I fully believe that although many clubs are starting to invest heavily in youth development, West Ham will still always be able to produce great players. The owners have already

promised that they will invest in youth development following the new FA regulations. Whether it is to do with the area of East London being particularly potent for young footballing talent, or whether the youth coaching staff are of the highest quality, West Ham has, and always will, produce great players. In my opinion, it’s both of these things. Also, with the spending capacity of clubs set to fall, we may decide that the future Ferdinand, Carrick, Cole and Lampard will not be sold and the club will fully base the team around academy graduates, as it will be too expensive to find replacements.

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So will this new UEFA financial fair-play ruling benefit the Hammers? In some ways, yes. Any renovation of youth development is a long-term strategy. With youth development, there is unfortunately, never really an immediate response to the money invested. However, the long-term benefits, in my view, are unrivalled. If you look at the youth academy at Barcelona, the players which have come through the academy and are now playing in the first team are some of the best players in the world and more and more talented players are coming through La Masia at an alarming rate.

The benefit for West Ham is that they already have a successful youth academy already in place, whereas over the next few years many clubs will be building and renovating. Moreover if all clubs

are restricted in the transfer window, the strain placed on youth players to step up to the first team will be even greater, which sounds like it suits the Hammers perfectly.

Will this new UEFA ruling benefit the Hammers? Or will the big spending clubs still be able to spend big because their income is so high? Tweet me @TollyCoburn