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The Kids Might Be Alright

When Claudo Ranieri was appointed before the season start, a lot of Leicester fans were vocally less than impressed and many focused on his shortcomings with Greece to justify their concerns. Whilst I admit to having a reserved reaction to the appointment, the future looked instantly brighter for one area; our academy. Alongside the traits that saw Ranieri nicknamed ‘The Tinkerman’, the Italian is also well known for focusing on youth. Something I feel the Foxes could definitely benefit from.

It’s been a concern for several seasons now that there haven’t been any new players coming through from the youth system while we watch Southampton produce youngster after youngster and profit from them down the line. For a club and academy who boast the facilities and reputation that we have, the volume of those in the youth system who have actually broken into the first team has been poor over the last ten years.

From the current squad, only three players who have received match time so far this Premier League campaign were developed in our academy. Andy King, Jeff Schlupp and Joe Dodoo. The latter has only just broken into the squad within the last two months as well meaning that only two of our current key first team players are home-grown by ourselves.

Looking back to the last five years not many have either received or deserved a chance and again, outside of King, Schlupp and Moore (currently out on loan to Bristol City), you could count on one hand other academy graduates who have featured for the first team. Of those players, just one is still contracted to the club, 20 year old Harry Panayiotou who made a substitute appearance for us in the final game of the season against Leeds United in 2012. He scored on his debut but we’ve not seen him in the first team since. He is currently contracted until the end of this season and so far we’ve not seen signs that he’ll be here any longer than that.

While not generally ranked alongside the prestigious academies of big clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United and lately, Southampton, but Leicester’s academy has produced lots of quality over the years in the past. Think back to when the academy produced the likes of England internationals Gary Linekar, Peter Shilton and in more recent years, Emile Heskey. To find a time in the last decade where we’ve played a significant group of academy graduates across a season, you’d have to look to the 2006-07 season when we relegated to League One. Joe Mattock, Richard Stearman, Andy King, Ashley Chambers, Harry Worley and James Wesolowski all featured. Only one is still with us nearly ten years down the line, club legend in the making, Andy King.

Why has such a successful academy failed to deliver an abundance of first team players? We’ve always been praised for the facilities available and the performances from the youth teams in both league and cup competitions. In 2013 we were awarded the coveted title of being one of the Category One Status teams under the Elite Player Performance Plan. The scheme (often referred to as the EPPP) is run by the Premier League and its primary focus is to improve and increase both the quantity and quality of home-grown players. Interestingly one of the key performance outputs for you to have the Category One status is, in their words ‘Demonstrate regular graduation of players into the Premier League and the wider professional game’. While we don’t have an abundance of current or ex-academy players in the Premier League we do have a large number dotted around in the Football League, as well as regularly loaning out our youngsters.

For the average Leicester fan what we hear and read about the academy and young players is limited. Social media has helped the cause with the official Twitter and Facebook pages actively posting about them alongside the first team content, but a lot of what we hear is from those fans who attend or friends and family. We tend to hear players touted to be the next big star but rarely have we seen them make that transition. Instead, we’re more used to the club bringing in home-grown talent. We’ve never been a club who are short of the hitting the home-grown quota, but if clubs are to be encouraged to exceed the quota, I’m looking at clubs like you Manchester City, then surely the rules will have to change to have a quote for players nurtured not only in England but by the club themselves? We’d certainly fail to hit this quota.

Is there anybody to blame? The obvious choice is previous managers, but Pearson was never afraid of introducing youth or looking to British players. He rarely promoted somebody from within our own academy, though you could argue that perhaps the level of talent just wasn’t there. Players like George Taft, Elliott Chamberlain and Luke O’Neill had lots of talk behind them of promise and ability but for one reason or another it failed it to materialise and they quietly moved on.

If the Foxes are to emulate clubs such as Southampton and to a degree, Swansea, who have both established themselves in the Premier League and continued to produce an ever replenishing supply of up and coming young players, we need to increase the numbers of players who actually make it. While it can be an eventual curse if you look at how other Premier League clubs have raided Southampton over the last few seasons, it’s vital for progression.

The future certainly looks brighter though. Dodoo may have been the first of the academy prospects to get his chance in the first team starting the League Cup match at Bury and not only netting a debut goal but bagging himself a hat-trick, you can rest assured he won’t be the last. Although the ultimate goal for the season is to avoid relegation and establish ourselves, should we secure this objective earlier than expected, I’d like to see some of the young players get involved and start to play.

Left-back Ben Chilwell is regularly being touted by the club and the media and was even heavily linked with Arsenal during the summer transfer window. He may only be 18 years old, but is now captain for the under 21s and regularly plays for the England under 19s. He looks calm and composed on the ball and already has an air of leadership that has had many speculating that he’ll be a future captain for the Foxes. Ranieri has added fuel to this fire himself by speaking highly and openly of the youngster so we have to expect that’ll get some game time this season, potentially in the Cups.

Looking further down the ranks, one of the most promising youngsters on our books is also one of the youngest already being talked about. At just sixteen, Layton Ndukwu may have only completed his GCSEs in Spring but he’s already playing in tournaments for the England under 17s, featuring for the Foxes’ under 18s, has a contract with Nike and was also being scouted by Barcelona if you believe the rumours. Listed as a forward, he can play anywhere up top or on the wing and boasts pace aplenty alongside his ability to use both feet. He’s already scored a perfect hat-trick for the England under 17s. It’s too early to be talking about him starting in the Premier League just yet but he’s incredibly exciting and well rated at the club.

Although the preference would always be to promote the talent from within our own ranks, Ranieri has already given game time and focus in pre-season to two youngsters his predecessor signed. Jack Barmby and Tom Lawrence; both came highly recommended from Manchester United’s academy. Lawrence is now out on loan with Blackburn Rovers in the Championship after a successful spell with Rotherham United last season. A wise move as his game time would be limited after the arrival of Nathan Dyer.

Foxes fans should be comfortable putting their faith in Ranieri to address the issue of youth at the club. After all, he was responsible for adding an element of youth to Chelsea. Perhaps forgotten about due to how established he is these days but John Terry owes an element of his career to him. The Italian who plucked him from the reserves despite the highly experienced centre-back duo he already had in Desailly and Lebouf but he understood that fresh blood, younger blood specifically needed to be introduced. Frank Lampard has always been complimentary about the manager who brought him to Chelsea and gave him the chance that eventually turned him into a legend alongside Terry.

Having made a point of saying early on how he wants to bring youth through and isn’t afraid to do so, I look to forward to seeing if Ranieri can deliver more of the same. He’s started off well and should he be given the chance at Leicester for more than a season or two, we will hopefully see a better integration of youth to get the academy firmly back on track. Watch this space.