EFL Youth Development Week: Sunderland's bold standard and search for 'utopia'

Sunderland's promotion to the Premier League this summer was impressive on a number of levels.

A head coach in Regis Le Bris, in his first season in English football, laying waste to the theory of needing significant time to adapt working within the cut and thrust of the Championship.

A club who had only returned to the second tier in 2022, without parachute payments to boost spending on transfer fees and wages.

But all underpinned by an incredibly youthful squad - their average starting age of 23 years and 316 days was the youngest in the division - with academy graduates forming a consistent core.

Goalkeeper Anthony Patterson and midfielders Chris Rigg and Dan Neil all made 40+ appearances in the league, while forward Tommy Watson delivered the winning goal in the play-off final, with Brighton & Hove Albion having previously agreed a £10m deal to sign him.

The quartet have helped set a template for which the English Football League (EFL) hopes other clubs can follow, or the very least take notice of as a proof of concept.

"There was a lot of clubs getting into the play-offs and getting promoted that were the epitome of youth development," said the EFL's head of youth development Darren Wassall, speaking at the end of the EFL's Youth Development Week.

"You have to expel the myth that if you play experienced players, you're guaranteed promotion or win a trophy. Now, more than ever, developing your own players should be a crucial part of your strategy."

Wassall was appointed in 2023 having previously served as academy manager at Derby – shaping, amongst others, Liam Delap's early journey, the now-established careers of Leeds defender Jayden Bogle, Jason Knight and Max Bird, now both of Bristol City, and Crystal Palace midfielder Will Hughes.

His remit is a complex one but essentially to head a group of 12 regional managers who assist clubs in adhering to the guidelines and criteria set out in the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) around the general management of academies.

It's all part of an overarching desire to grow a culture of investing in youth development, not just at the early stages, but all the way through to senior level.

Last season, Bristol City achieved their first play-off finish since 2008 with Bath schoolmates Max O'Leary and Zak Vyner playing every minute of every match, as part of a squad in-part funded by previous sales of academy graduates Lloyd Kelly, Antoine Semenyo and Alex Scott to Bournemouth.

Admittedly, originally via Arsenal, but Sydie Peck progressed through the Sheffield United academy from 17 to form the bedrock of their midfield which also would have had Ollie Arblaster by his side if not for injury. Andre Brooks and Femi Seriki were also heavily involved for the Blades.

This term, Cardiff City's rebuild and revival in League One has been driven by Rubin Colwill, Ronan Kpakio and Dylan Lawlor – all products of the club's academy.

At present, the average across the league is one academy player per game across 46 matches on every gameweek. The hope for Wassall is that number can be doubled - "utopia, from a youth development point of view".

"There are clubs that are really doing it well and there are other clubs that we think can improve," added Wassall.

"Our big challenge is to try to get the message out to everybody - what's the point of investing in youth development, if you're not going to use it?

"It's easier said than done, and we know that if it was that easy everybody would be playing five or six academy graduates every week - but we just know it's possible."

While in theory the concept of having a constant stream of homegrown talent, giving clubs a sense of local identity is an easy sell, in practice, given the demands on EFL managers – the average shelf life in the Championship is marginally over a year – it is decidedly more complicated.

How and why should a manager under constant pressure and in need of immediate results have the necessary patience and suffer the inconsistencies of youth?

Sunderland may be the example for others to follow, but they are one of 29 clubs in the top four divisions of the English game whose academies have been graded 'Cat 1' - a measure of the work undertaken but also something which requires significant investment in staff and facilities.

Running an academy is expensive – total annual expenditure across the EFL's three divisions is around £150m - amid the backdrop of clubs throughout the pyramid dealing with substantial losses.

Time is money and both commodities are largely in short supply across the EFL.

"There's no real correlation between experience and success, or youth and not being successful," Wassall said. "We know that if people are brave enough to play young players that the rewards are massive.

"It's just encouraging more chair people and owners and CEOs and managers to take that plunge."

The EPPP was introduced in 2012 in the wake of England's continued failings in international tournaments, and not just at senior level.

It is a long-term strategy to essentially modernise and standardise methods in how academies are run; the most obvious part of it being the grading of club institutions from Category 1-4.

Of the 72 clubs from Championship down to League Two, 11 are graded 'Cat 1', 18 'Cat 2', 34 'Cat 3' and four 'Cat 4', while five clubs - Accrington Stanley, Tranmere Rovers, Crawley Town, Barrow and Harrogate Town - do not have formal academies.

The EPPP was not without opposition given the scepticism around various Premier League clubs' intentions, but Wassall believes it has been a "watershed" moment.

"The space is a lot more regulated and governed, which it needed to be," Wassall added.

"On and off pitch, it's never been in a better place: the coaching, performance support plus individual and team analysis.

"As a player, you know there's no stone left unturned. In terms of your own individual development, if you want to improve, then you've got all the opportunities around you."

But beyond the opportunity to unearth a Rigg or Semenyo to have a very definite impact on the pitch, it makes increasing business sense in the age of Profit and Sustainability (PSR).

Spending money on youth facilities does allow for some discount in PSR calculations, but also when the opportunity arises to sell a club-developed player, it represents pure profit on the balance sheet.

"It's probably the biggest asset value in your club," Wassall said. "You see all the successful academies that developed players and got them into their first team, the amount of profit made on sales is amazing.

"It also saves money long-term on wages because apprentices and first-year pros simply don't cost as much as the players that you transfer in.

"Once you get the culture, vision and the environment right, then you can develop a pathway that is really lucrative, not just to your own academy, but to the whole game as well.

"It's developing a return on investment but also giving that community feel of, 'that's one of our own'. It's cliché, but it's true and it brings people together, and it inspires.

"When Will Hughes made his debut for Derby at 17 all the other players within the academy were inspired to go, 'do you know what? I was training with him two weeks ago and I could do that'."

It is not just first-team ready players, either, as Brighton and Aston Villa are two Premier League clubs who have been particularly aggressive in supplementing existing academy talent with those acquired from the EFL.

England Under-18 international Bradley Burrows made his debut for Villa in August against Crystal Palace, four years after they paid Bristol Rovers a six-figure fee to sign him as a 13-year-old.

The Premier League forever looms large because while 19 of the 23 players in the European Championship-winning England Under-21 squad had previously played in the EFL, many were via loans from Premier League sides.

Top-flight clubs continue to use that market in the lower tiers as a finishing school, something which can, in turn, block the pathway of homegrown talent from within.

"It just shows you the value of the EFL in nurturing the talent," Wassall said. "Those clubs see immense value in sending their players to the senior teams of the Championship, League One and League Two.

"I think it's healthy for the game. It works for both leagues and it needs to be recognised how important the EFL is within the pyramid system."

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