The Elite Manager
Part one of Sky Sports News' documentary: Chasing the Dream
0.06%.
It's a number so small, it's hard to comprehend.
But that is the chance of a young boy becoming a professional footballer in this country.
Only six in every 10,000 make the grade.
Armed with those facts, we embarked on what became the largest, most comprehensive investigation ever conducted by Sky Sports News.
What started off as a plan for a 15-minute mini-documentary, quickly snowballed. The more we spoke to people involved with academy football in England, the more stories we discovered.
With each story came several questions. Whenever we answered one question, it seemed to lead to another that needed addressing.
What we ended up with was three-and-a-half hours of fascinating content, and a seven-part documentary series, looking at every aspect of youth football in this country: the good, the bad, and the seemingly impossible.
Because that was our starting point. Is the ambition to become a professional footballer an almost impossible dream? It is widely known that only a tiny minority of young boys ever make a career out of the game. And yet that doesn’t stop so many from trying.
Millions of young boys who are “Chasing the Dream.” Watch on Sky Sports from November 24.
"What would have happened if I would have given them the minutes that maybe they deserved?"
Pep Guardiola, Manchester City boss
"You have a responsibility to give them the right guidance, to be strong with them."
Sir Alex Ferguson, former Manchester United manager
"The goal of the club is not to grow up the young. It's to win games."
Carlo Ancelotti, Real Madrid boss
Pep's Palmer problem
Pep Guardiola says he often wonders what impact Cole Palmer would have had at Manchester City had he given the youngster more opportunities to play in his first team.
Palmer joined the City Academy at the age of 16, but he made only three Premier League starts under Guardiola before being sold to Chelsea on deadline day in 2023.
He was still only 21.
Palmer went on, in his first season at Stamford Bridge, to win the PFA Young Player of the Year, and the England Player of the Year titles.
In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports News for Chasing the Dream, Guardiola talks about how difficult it is to give young players enough game time at an elite club like City, where the expectation is to win multiple major trophies every season.
He says he doesn’t have the leeway to take a chance on a young player like Palmer, if he feels they’re not already the finished article.
“It's difficult because I always had the feeling, the young players that we loan or we sell or didn't get the minutes, like Cole Palmer,” Guardiola explains.
“It's unbelievable and he deserves all this success in this season in Chelsea. (But) it's about the many players that we loan, what would have happened if I would have given them the minutes that maybe they deserved?
“Surrounded by David Silva, Vincent Kompany, all the big, big players that were there?
"They would have played good, absolutely. But in the moments in that level, you know that you have to win all the titles.
"You don't have too much time to say ‘OK, let's see, let's see.’ Like, the impact has to be straight away.”
“It is a jungle! Natural skill is not enough.”
In the documentary, Guardiola recalls his own experiences at La Masia, Barcelona’s world-renowned youth academy, and how that shaped him not just into an elite European footballer, but how it also set the standards for him to become the best manager of his generation.
Guardiola: The club is more important than you
“I was made aware of the game, aware of how you had to behave in a group of people, respect the managers and the institution.
"Everything - the club is more important than you.
"Accept that you are not good enough, you don't know how to play. Learn.”
The Class of 92 philosophy
Sir Alex Ferguson, in a rare TV interview, tells us exclusively what his philosophy was with the youngsters who made up the ‘Class of ‘92’, and that making sure they realised what a “privilege” it was to play for Manchester United.
“I think your responsibility is to guide them in the same direction as I went myself,” says Sir Alex.
“And they should have a sacrifice too. They want to be a top footballer. It's a privilege in many ways because a lot of these players were very lucky to get opportunities that were presented to them by playing for a club like Aberdeen and later on Manchester United.
"Making them aware of that is a job you should really pay attention to. Make sure that they feel that responsibility.”
He recalls that, in the early 1990’s, United were falling well behind their City rivals in capturing the best local talent from the Greater Manchester area.
“[Man] City were getting all the best players at the time,” he says.
“They'd won the Youth Cup. So we had to put a stop to that, you know what I mean?
"We increased the scouting and we worked really hard at that. And particularly in Manchester, we got the Neville's and the Scholes and the Butts.
“David Beckham was the only one (who wasn’t local). He came from down south.
"But when you get a gem like Giggs or Scholes, it's staring you in the face.”
Snatching Giggs from City
The story of how Sir Alex snapped up Ryan Giggs from under the noses of City, sums up his approach.
“We had a steward called Harold Wood who came to me and said the young boy (Giggs) was training at City and he's a United fan.
He said ‘You've got to get hold him’. So we got him down to the ground right away.
And they played a practice match against Viv Anderson. And Viv was screaming, ‘Can I kick him? Can I tackle him?’ And I said ‘Don't dare touch him, he's only 14!’”
But he says it was always the character of any young player which caught his eye.
“Paul Scholes was an incredible young player," he added. "You get diamonds like that. The Neville's - hard-working, always great sacrifice to be footballers. Nicky Butt, determined young lad, always going to make it.
“You have a responsibility too, to give them the right guidance, to be strong with them, in terms of the path that you're taking them through.”
Ferguson was always very aware of what that path would be, if a young player became a success at Old Trafford.
“Play for Manchester United, play in front of 75,000, play in the Cup final, play for their country. These are all the stepping stones that you're guiding them for.”
Making it in Madrid
Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has won major trophies in Spain, England, Italy, Germany and France.
He told us young players today have much more responsibility and pressure than any of their predecessors.
“I think that the player compared to me,” he explained. “The player now, if I have to compare myself with the players that are 20-years-old that come to Real Madrid, I think that they have much more responsibility."
His philosophy, in nurturing Europe’s best youth players, is simple.
Communicate. Empathise. Adjust your training style to suit them.
“Try to talk to them, because at the end of the day, they are kids. Try to not push a lot of pressure on them, because they already have a lot of pressure.
"Fortunately, in Real Madrid, the luck of this club, we have veteran players without ego. And so this is important for the young to grow up in a good way."
Ancelotti continued: “I think that you have to be able to adapt to the changes.
“To the changes of the generation, to the changes of the society. My generation is different from the generation of the players now, and I have to adapt.
"I don't want that they adapt to me, because I want to respect the people, you have to adapt, to know, to work on the different characteristics, different culture also, different language.”
But he agrees with Guardiola, in saying that there is no time or opportunity to experiment with youth at elite clubs.
“The top club, we don't have time and space to grow up the young. This doesn't mean that the young cannot play. The young can play, and he plays if he's good enough. It doesn't matter the age.
“I cannot give to you minutes here in the top club, because the goal of the club is not to grow up the young. It's to win games.”
ANCELOTTI, FERGUSON AND GUARDIOLA WERE SPEAKING AS PART OF THE SKY SPORTS NEWS' DOCUMENTARY SERIES “CHASING THE DREAM” WHICH IS AVAILABLE TO WATCH ON ALL SKY SPORTS FOOTBALL CHANNELS, FROM NOVEMBER 24
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