The importance of home grown players

Most of the given examples speak about teams which have at their core players who have come through the academy together. But historically, these tend to be freaks, random occurrences, as it is rare that so many top class talents emerge from a particular academy in a particular period, and stay at the club to see it to success. For example, think of a team like Ajax, which consistently produces excellent talents. It would be difficult for them to keep the team together, as a number of their young talents would move to clubs with bigger brand-names. Also, Ajax would be unable to pay these players the kind of wages they might receive at a club like Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, or any other big name. Take Dortmund for example. Their group of players has been falling apart, due to the fact their players move away, and are unable to stay content at the club. Over the last few seasons, important stars like Sahin, Kagawa, Barrios, and Gotze have left for greener pastures, while Lewandowski will move to Bayern at the end of the upcoming season. Not all players are home-grown, but I use Dortmund to illustrate the fact that it is difficult for a ‘smaller’ club to rise, like Celtic did in the past.

Dortmund are struggling to retain their star names

Even big clubs will always have trouble keeping their upcoming talented players satisfied. This is because a big club already has star players occupying places in the starting 11, which means that it will always take the young academy graduates longer to displace them at said big club, than it would for them at a ‘small club’, where they would get an automatic starting slot. Therefore, a number of these academy graduates move away. Think of Paul Pogba (didn’t go to a smaller club, but left due to lack of chances), or all the talented players to emerge from the Chelsea academy in recent times, only to ply their trade elsewhere.

The solution to this problem seems to be to recruit the best national talent. Italian teams have pioneered this method, and enjoyed tremendous success for many years. The current Juventus team boasts of full Italian internationals like Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini, Buffon, Pirlo, and Marchisio. It is a popular saying in Italy that the national team does well whenever Juventus do well. Even the two most recent great Milan teams have had a strong Italian core, though not all these players have been from their academy. The team that featured in 3 Champions League finals from 2003 to 2007 was built around Maldini, Nesta, Inzaghi, Pirlo, and Gattuso. The double European Cup winners of 1989 and 1990 boasted the likes of Maldini (again), Costacurta, Tassoti, Albertini, Baresi, and Ancelotti in their side. Bayern Munich today, have a large German contingent, not entirely from their own academy, with Gotze being the latest addition to this category.

The Alternate View

Despite all their advantages, the use of home grown/national players may not always be the solution for a club. It’s easy for teams like Barcelona and Ajax to field players like Messi, Iniesta, Bergkamp, and van der Vaart, but what if the produce isn’t quality?

Let’s assume that the aim of every football club is to win as many matches as possible. In order to do so, they need to have the best team. The best team is the team with the best players, holding factors like tactics and motivation constant (even if we allow for these variations, the winning team is often the one with better players). So it makes sense to buy in the event that foreign players are far better than the ones available from the academy, or nationally.

Consider the dilemma that United possibly face. They currently have Wayne Rooney, who is a national player, and quite possibly the best English exponent of the ‘Number 10? role. If we were to assume the innate superiority of home grown/ British players, United would stick to Rooney, rather than chase after any of Mata, Oscar, Gotze, Totti and so on. Assuming that these are undoubtedly better than Rooney, and can all be signed by United, wouldn’t United make a rational decision and sign any of these players up? And since they are better, it would lead to United winning a lot more matches too.

This leads us to conclude that in nations where the quality of domestic players is not so high, it makes much more sense to import. Of course, the only way to develop the quality of the domestic players is to promote them through the youth ranks, and give them chances, so this buying leads to a sort of vicious cycle.

So we see that the best way to move forward in the long run seems to be through the development and promotion of youth players. These players tend not to be affected by the trouble with transfers, and offer a route to sustainable success, the wet dream of every club owner today. The key seems to be to give them chances, and let them gain experience (it would be very easy for Guardiola to sign someone instead of giving Pedro a chance). Even international teams (Spain, Germany and now France) seem to benefit from the investment in youth. Historically, this leap of faith has generally been rewarded handsomely.