‘South London and Proud’ read billboards throughout Croydon and South London. The faces of Sean Scannell, Nathaniel Clyne and others adorned them. Palace were proud of their academy, and rightly so.
Those days are long gone, the club has evolved and those billboards are no longer needed, we are flying high in the Premier League and things are going well.
With progression, comes change. The club’s evolution has been rapid, and unexpected. With that, however, has been the increasing shift away from the academy and onto the first team. Palace must not lose sight of how well that system has served them in the past, for they will regret it in the future if they do.
It is over a thousand days since Kyle de Silva became the last academy player to make a league debut and Palace are at risk of losing touch with clubs such as Charlton Athletic and Millwall, not to mention slipping further behind other London academies.
This risk is exacerbated with the U18s forced to play their matches at Goals in Beckenham due to the training ground being too small and inadequate to house the academy. Compare this to Chelsea, who have roughly thirty pitches, including two which match the first team surface exactly, Charlton, whose partnership with Greenwich University will allow them to access excellent facilities, and Queens Park Rangers who share state-of-the-art facilities with Imperial College University.
Palace’s academy recruitment budget has been increased, Gary Issott tells me, but until they find a permanent home for the academy with facilities suitable for a team looking to chase a European place in the next five years, rather than a League Two side, they will lose out on the best young players. They will lose their best players to clubs who will snare them away with the promise of riches, and who could blame the parents or the kids?
Germany has never been a particularly renowned hunting ground for English players to ply their trade, and so Mandela Egbo’s decision to depart South London for north Germany raises alarm bells over chances for young players to progress into the first team. It is a brave move for the 17 year old, and one which may pay off, but it does little to convince youngsters that their future is best served at Palace.
A further issue which is compounded by the lack of a permanent home for the academy is the highly sought after Category 1 status. The EPPP rules dictate that there are a host of complicated hoops to jump through in order to obtain it, but once there, clubs are rewarded significantly. Funding is higher, youngsters are able to test themselves against the elite clubs, including Manchester City and Chelsea, on a regular basis, with some matches televised, and they can cherry pick the best youngsters from an earlier age or buy them from any club they wish.
Instead, playing at Goals, the reputation for a burgeoning academy that at one point was the talk of England with John Bostock, Nathaniel Clyne, Victor Moses and Lee Hills all highly rated and coming through, risks being damaged significantly.
No longer can they rely on the claim that youngsters will see a clear pathway to the first team. The manager may take a closer interest than Neil Warnock and Tony Pulis before him, but the focus has undeniably shifted, and the academy is on the back-burner.
There is, however, no doubt that youth development remains important to the club. Steve Browett regularly attends U21 matches, and often speaks positively about the role the academy has to play.
It is important to appreciate that blooding youngsters in the Premier League is no easy task, with Southampton the exception, and a superb exception at that. The argument of playing when they are ‘ready’ holds no weight, as a player is only ready when they have experienced that environment, made those mistakes, and learnt from them. Nonetheless, they must be of sufficient quality to make that step up.
Saints have the advantage of a wealthy backer, and the money from sales of previous academy products. They also benefited from Portsmouth’s demise to snap up the best players in the area. There are elements of fortune, but a serious focus on youth development is ultimately what has seen their academy burgeon into perhaps the most productive in the country.
Since Kyle de Silva made his league debut for Palace in 2012, the number of players given debuts from Southampton’s academy is in double figures. De Silva remains the last academy player to graduate to the first team and make a league debut for Palace.
That is partly about the quality of players coming through, but also has its roots in the recruitment, the funding, the facilities, opportunities and the opposition. Palace have fallen behind. Ten managers in five years has hardly provided stability.
There are some green shoots of recovery beginning to break through. The budget has been increased and other sites for a permanent base are being sought out. The emergence of Sullay KaiKai in pre-season this year, who has caught the eye, gives hope to those in the lower age groups.
Until Palace start offering better opportunities to their young players, be it through better training facilities, more coaching, better recruitment, or loan moves, they risk the academy becoming a vacuum, and they risk cutting off one of their supply lines to safeguard the future.
Among all this, there are a few who, if all goes well, could blossom most of all and sow the seeds of recovery further. While 15 year old Kian Flanagan’s future is up in the air amid interest from Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal, it will be sorted this summer, and should he reject their advances, Palace have a confident, talented teenager on their hands.
But he remains just that, a teenager, raw and rough around the edges. Aaron Bissaka’s rise under the radar into a talented winger, and KaiKai’s improvement also offer hope.
It is far too early to pin hopes on anyone, but to hold onto Flanagan would be a statement of intent for Palace, and show that they are beginning to move in the right direction with the academy once again.
Joining Palace’s academy still offers great hope, and a superb opportunity for young players to make it as professionals, but investment must continue at a faster pace if it is to return to its former glory. Perhaps this will change with the stability brought by Alan Pardew, but they cannot rest on their laurels.
