![]() How could I turn around and say “no you can’t go anymore”. Despite phone calls and promises I never once saw any financial support to get him to the club for training having convinced us of this would be the case when getting him to sign. On reflection this theme of false promises began to increase and became a familiar pattern, but at the time we couldn’t see this. This was another example of how they built up hopes, only for parents to manage it when it didn’t happen. He was not as disappointed as a 15 yr old with massive ambition / hopes and dreams. The then very well thought of academy manager told my son and us that he was very disappointed he was not given a fair chance or even asked for trial. I was unhappy about this as it built hopes up of probable trials which didn’t materialise as he was ill with tonsillitis in the match the representative from England attended and was not asked for trials. At 15years old there was even a suggestion by staff that he might be selected for England Schoolboys. On one occasion they even got paranoid and suspicious that another club had approached us to get him to leave the club. The coaches were always on the phone to us especially when they got the impression he was unhappy with something. Our son started very well at West Ham and from the age of 9years old he began to “play up” age groups every season. Make no mistake it was a massive commitment. My Monthly fuel bill was in excess of £400 a month and we often got home after 11pm on school nights. ![]() I worked for myself and had to make massive sacrifices to get my son to training and games at the least four times a week. We didn’t think anymore and assumed by their proposals that this was standard practice. “Don’t worry” the Club said, we can register him to a local address and support you with any travel costs as this is perfectly fine. Where we lived it was impossible for us to be within 1 hour of a premier league academy, a process seemingly penalising boys from rural areas. The FA clearly stated in their rules that any player under 13 years of age wouldn’t be able to do this journey of over an hour. There was however one small problem for us as we lived over 75 miles from the training ground. Given the way they welcomed him and the history of the club it swayed our decision. Having thought long and hard over what decision to make he decided to join West Ham United. ![]() ![]() With the new football season just underway I wanted to highlight a side of football only a few see and even less talk about.ġ0 years ago our 9yr old son was approached by a number of professional football clubs to join their academy programme.Īt the time it was all very exciting for him. I cant sit back and bite my tongue any longer. ![]()
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