IS THE FUTURE BRIGHT?
Most players on show in tonight's FA Youth Cup final will not grace Premiership but may benefit smaller clubs
By Glenn Moore
There will be proud parents, interested scouts and avaricious agents aplenty at the Riverside tonight, but most of those watching Middlesbrough and Manchester United in the first leg of the FA Youth Cup final will simply be curious. Are they about to see the next Wayne Rooney? Is this to be their club's golden generation?
It will not be easy to judge, for the result is no guide. A decade ago the Manchester United side which went on to be the most capped former youth team in history lost to one from Leeds whose members failed to play a senior international between them.
To judge from subsequent finals less than half the youngsters at the Riverside will do so with, at best, a handful securing the fast cars-and-swimming pool lifestyle of the Premiership.
Such a fate looks to be increasingly common.The irony is that Premiership clubs are investing more money in their youth teams than ever, £1-2m a year, yet the beneficiaries are as likely to be a Nationwide League club.
Ray Lewington, the manager of Vernazza's Watford..
"The top clubs are discarding better players because they are buying in from abroad. Most of the time they are better than the ones we are bringing through. When I was manager at Brentford Ron Noades [the chairman] told me he didn't see any reason for smaller clubs to have a youth set-up because the fall-out was so great from the senior clubs."
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