The 7-Month Itch

Last updated : 14 December 2006 By Davidr
Paul Hurst could well, this season or next, break the record for the most appearances ever in a Rotherham United shirt. A one-club man, consistently performing to the best of his ability, he's a rare, rare thing in modern football.

Early in his career, Hurst was featured in When Saturday Comes as a player to watch in the lower leagues. He was described as a promising youngster, a player who had completed his apprenticeship in football and could now start to look for a move up the leagues. He was 23 and in his fourth full season as a first team player.

Hurst, of course, never moved, but the article shows what a change has happened in the last decade. Back then (not that long ago), the assumption was that products of a club's youth system would spend at least two or three seasons with that club, "learning their trade". More than that, it was assumed that this was good for them, for their development, for the game. What lay behind that that assumption and what did it mean for the ordinary football fan?

Firstly, the assumption was founded on the belief that lower league clubs were valid and important breeding grounds for footballers. One of the strengths of the English game was considered to be that all round the country, young players would be coached and introduced to a competitive league competition, develop there and move up the league structure.

Secondly, the assumption was based on the view that football was a "trade", like any other, which you had to learn. Wages were not so different then to jobs outside sport. Most footballers would be earning something similar as a builder's or electricion's mate if they weren't enjoying the good hours and simple joy of being paid to play a game.

Perhaps most important is what these two key elements of the game meant to the fans. Players were not that different to the people watching them (other than they could, mostly, kick a ball properly) in terms of what they earned. Plus, whatever their long-term ambitions in terms of footballing success, everyone expected them to stick around for a bit. They were sufficiently permanent to be part of a club, to be respected, liked, regarded as heroes: there was time enough to form an emotional attachment between fans and players, players and fans.

Compare and contrast Hurst with Hoskins.

Hoskins is a better player, technically. His touch and goal-scoring ability are very impressive. He's shown real ability and potential ... for half a season and 45 minutes at Wigan. Other than that, he's been pretty poor. Easily shrugged off the ball, full of smarmed flicks to no great effect, ok but nothing special.

Which is the real Hoskins? The Hoskins of the majority of his time at Millmoor or the Hoskins who scored the wonderful goal against Forest? Think back to his perfomance against Bristol. The over-elaboration was back, the "smart-alec" flicks as opposed to the solid basics. Physically dominated by his marker, he dropped out of dangerous positions and preened in deeper-lying positions.

The answer, of course, is that Hoskins could go either way: and here's where things have changed. Ten years ago, this would be the point that he learnt his trade, learnt to cope with bad performances, angular, smothering central defenders, tricky pitches, below-par team performances. Learnt, in short, to treat the twin imposters of success and failure the same. Whereas ten years ago, it would be a surprise if he left this early in his career, now it will be a surprise if he's here on 1 February 2007.

His case is not isolated. Look at Dave Hibbert, signed by Preston after just three first team appearances for Port Vale. Look at Jon Otsemobor, leaving Crewe after 15 good performances. A fundamental change has happened and it is not good for the game.

The lower leagues are no longer regarded as respected breeding grounds for players. Premiership teams are taking youngsters under their wings ever earlier. Ever since Ferguson raided the under-16 side at Torquay for Lee Sharpe and trawled other clubs (a sweep which including taking our own youth team captain, Paul Teather, then making appearances for the reserves and highly rated, now disappeared forever) for the constituent parts of his first great Manchester United side, the Premiership clubs have not been prepared to allow youth players to develop outside of their control.

The latest suggestion from Mourinho that Chelsea's "B" side should play in the football league shows how respect has dropped. Not content with hoarding the talent, he's not prepared to trust it to lower league clubs on loan.

The cry that young players can no longer develop is frightening. There are plenty of opportunities at our level and others, if only clubs were allowed to have the players to work with, develop and sell on.

What is fast happening is that players who end up in the youth teams at Rotherham or Scunthorpe or wherever, are already considered failures. Their chances of getting up the leagues are already limited. In that context, seeking to cash in on half a season of good performances is completely understandable: there are fewer and fewer golden tickets.

What this means for us as supporters is more subtle. More and more, clubs are staffed by a combination of players on 2 year deals and loan players from clubs higher up the league. It's increasingly rare for players to sign extensions to contracts, or if they do, see them out. (The most common contract extension is one that sees a player over his 24th birthday, so that he becomes a free agent at the end of it). Most promising players, such as Williamson, leave a club every 18 months or so, unless they find themselves at a club which gains promotion. In other words, it's increasingly the case that squad photo at the start of a season is very different at the end and to see turnover of five or more players each close season.

Today, all player's relationships with clubs are short term. Fans can no longer build the same emotional attachments. Most fans do not think much to footballers and footballers do not hang around long enough for that view to change.

Rapidly, the ties that bind supporters to clubs are being eroded and the fluidity of movement of players is another factor eating away at those links. Any player who's any good will be gone; there's little question of building a squad over time. Everything has to be instant, to work first time. The hope that underpins supporting a team long-term is strained. And once the nature of support changes from a long-term to a short-term thing, the hard-core of support diminishes. There are only so many times that hopes can be dashed.

To be a football supporter is to be a dreamer. Who didn't kick a football against a wall as a kid, imagining it to be the goal at Wembley that saw the Millers lift the FA Cup? What the latest machinations around Hoskins shows is that dreams, for us lower league fans, are increasingly the products of snatched cat naps, not enjoyable, long-term, peaceful rest.

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