MILAN – Johnny Arnold is one of only 12 men to have represented England in both cricket and football. It seems almost impossible now, but back in the late 1920s Arnold divided his time between Hampshire Cricket Club and Inter’s next Europa League opponents: Southampton FC.
One can imagine him casting off his pads, throwing his bat to one side and hopping on his bike down to The Dell – the stadium renovated in 1927 by Archibald Leitch, the man behind Anfield, Highbury and Old Trafford – for training.
Arnold, who was a batsman on the cricket field and a left-footed wide man on the football pitch, is just one example of the Southampton youth academy’s ability to produce talented players – many of whom have gone on to reach the very top of the game.
Southampton’s youth philosophy is mirrored by that of Inter. The Nerazzurri have seen exceptionally high numbers of academy products make their debuts in Serie A and B in recent years, while Inter’s various youth sides are regular winners of trophies both domestic and international. Notably, the Nerazzurri clinched the 2011/12 edition of the NextGen Series - the precursor to the UEFA Youth League - while caretaker Inter boss Stefano Vecchi has led the Primavera to Viareggio Cup and Coppa Italia triumph.
Back on the south coast of England, Saints’ ethos is a simple one: to carefully select the best local youngsters and then invest time and effort into developing them into players. According to Academy Manager Matt Hall, the overarching goal is to "produce at least 50% of our first team playing squad from the Academy".
The Saints Academy has been wildly successful over the years, thanks largely to the application of a clear methodology which is rolled out throughout the various age groups and backed up by state-of-the-art technology. It is indicative of the club’s modern approach that each and every academy player receives a tablet which monitors their health, technical ability and progress at school and on the pitch in real time.
The academy focuses on promoting a 4-3-3 system characterised by high levels of rotation in midfield, building the play from the back and encouraging full-backs to get forward to support attacking moves. Training is recorded using a system of cameras, with the data gathered then sent to each youngster via an app and analysed in a control room known as the Black Box.
Everything about the academy is ultimately geared towards benefitting the first team in the long term, in line with the Premier League’s Elite Player Performance Plan. Further evidence of Southampton’s commitment to training and development came in 2014, when the club inaugurated the Markus Liebherr Pavilion, a cutting-edge training centre at their Staplewood base.
Senior and youth players mix freely at Staplewood, in order to facilitate the education and sporting development of the latter. In this way, youngsters receive an early introduction into the typical day of a professional football while being allowed to evolve in an organic, sustainable manner.
The goal is to instil the Southampton way into young players from the very beginning of their journeys at the club, as they look to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Alan Shearer, Matthew Le Tissier (who spent 16 years with Saints, earning himself the nickname Le God), Wayne Bridge, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Adam Lallana and of course Gareth Bale.
Bale has recalled how he had to promise his parents that he would not neglect his schooling in order to get them to allow him to accept the club’s offer, which arrived when the Welshman was barely ten years old. It turned out to be one of the most important decisions of his life.
Bale scored in his very first training session at Saints – under the watchful gaze of Rod Ruddick, the man who had discovered the now Real Madrid man in Newport at the age of nine – but, dissatisfied with his overall performance, the Welshman stayed behind, gathering six balls to practice long-range shooting. Four hit the net. All with his left boot. A bit like our friend Johnny Arnold.
There’s a pretty impressive group of young left-footers in Southampton’s current crop of homegrown talents too, not least Matt Targett – the 21-year-old left-back with a handful of English U21 caps to his name – and James Ward-Prowse, the captain of the young Three Lions.
Targett is currently carrying an injury and could be replaced on the left side of defence by another 21-year-old, Sam McQueen. Born and bred in Southampton, it would be McQueen’s Europa League debut. If he does get on, it’ll be another small victory for the Saints Academy. And few would bet against there being many more Bales, Le Tissiers and McQueens to come.
Aniello Luciano
