Each year a large amount of the children from our teams receive invites to train with pro clubs, we feel this illustrates our club coaching philosophy is working and is helping children to reach the highest standard but we would like to educate parents on a few points and experiences we have had before you start training with a professional club

If your child receives an invite to a pro club to attend a development centre please try and protect your child from any hype that goes with this invite.

A development centre  or Talent ID centre is a session a pro club provides for any advanced footballers in their age. It is not a contract offer and time for you to sell up and move to the Hollywood hills so please keep yours and your child's feet grounded.

Children continue to play for their junior clubs while attending development sessions and only stop if they receive a contract offer from U9s

Pro club development centres are a fantastic opportunity for your child to receive good quality coaching with top standard players but it can be detrimental to your child's psychological development if it is not managed correctly.

Parents are asked to keep an eye out for the following things listed below and try your best to manage it to ensure your child keeps developing their talent.

1- Burnout!!!

We have seen so many of our most talented players burnt out by as early as 9 year old because of over training. Too many parents will take their child to every pro club session they can get them in thinking it will give them a better chance of getting in an academy. Children then spend half of their early years finishing school, sitting in a car for an hour to get to a session, training then sitting in a car to travel back home for an hour. Doing this too many times a week will become a chore to them and will just burn them out.

Choose 1 pro club session and stick to it, you can always go back to other clubs for trials etc at a later date if things don't work out in your chosen club.

Over training means your child ends up giving less effort in each session, they can also become bored of repetition and will ultimately burn out faster than other children who are training less so more training isn't always better in this case. Give them time to be a kid still!!!!

They will develop more in their own garden watching and practising skills off the coerver app or you tube clips than they would sitting in a car for 2 hours to get too and from training.

2 - Pressure!!!!

Please don't put unnecessary pressure on your child and overly promote their achievements. We understand you will be extremely proud that your child has been recognised and rightly so but please remember it is long and bumpy road for them with a lot that can go wrong so the bigger you build them up the bigger the fall if they were to be released. We have seen many of our highly talented players fall out of love with the game and stop playing football altogether by 9 years old because of the pressure that parents have put on them to perform. Keep football as their social activity that they enjoy doing and not a performance pressure pot that they feel anxious to attend!!!!!

3 - Children / parents bad attitudes after receiving an invite

Another reason we see our talented footballers falling behind others after dominating at the younger ages is poor attitudes by both parents and players after they have received invites to professional clubs. Many children stop trying as hard and giving 100% as they think they have already made it.

Children need to remember their is over 40,000 other players in their year group in the north east all wanting a space in an academy with around only 50 spaces available across the 4 pro clubs with the percentage going on to make it as 0.005% so talent will only take them so far.

Always remind your child of the saying below

"Hard work beats talent if talent doesn't work hard"

Many children's attendance at their grass roots clubs training will drop after an invite and parents think their child has a right to play on match days still because they now train with a "pro club". Please remember your child's club will have contributed a lot to help them get recognised by a pro club so don't start to loose respect for their team mates and manager!!! We constantly see many less talented children not involved with pro clubs in the early years then go onto become the better players in the later ages as they have worked harder to develop their skill level with the right attitudes.

We can try to manage the things listed above but their is so many other things that can also affect children's development such as injuries, growth spurts through their teens which makes them loose co-ordination and balance, normal psychological problems through teens etc so please remember it is a long bumpy road for them with a lot that can go wrong so they must always be prepared and educated of the possibility of being released and continue to put as much effort as possible into their school education!!!

PLEASE REMEMBER - Statistics state that out of all the boys who enter an academy at the age of 9, only around 0.05% make a living from the game as Adults

The most damning statistic of all is only 180 of the 1.5 million players who are playing organised youth football in England will become pro

Children have to work extremely hard and have the right attitude to become that 0.05% that make it. Parents must also have the right attitude and remember that 99.95% dont make a living from the game and the children need to be protected and prepared  in life if they dont!!

Apologies if this section has came across as though we are preaching on how to be good parents as I know majority of parents will deal with academies really well but it is so easy to get caught up in all the hype and get carried away so we feel it is our duty with the level of interest our players get from pro clubs to try and offer a bit of advice to help educate parents to not get too carried away!!