ALEX Neil’s willingness to play youth and Romain Esse’s club-record sale to Crystal Palace has shown academy players and potential recruits “there is a really good pathway” to the first team, according to the coach who helped produce the £14.5 million-rated star.
Neil has been at the heart of Millwall’s youth revolution, handing seventeen-year-old Sheldon Kendall his debut, trusting 20-year-old forward Ra’ees Bangura-Williams with four consecutive starts only a few weeks after his debut, and starting a youthful front four in the Lion’s 2-0 win against league-leaders Leeds United including Luke Cundle, 22, Camiel Neghli, 23, Mihailo Ivanovic, 20, and Femi Azeez, 23.
He has been ably supported by the board, who signed eight players in the January window – all of whom are 25 or younger. They include potential stars in Ajay Matthews, 18, Benicio Baker, 21, Lions academy product Zak Lovelace, 19, and first-team contributors in Neghli, Cundle, Tristan Crama, 23, Aaron Connolly, 25 and loanee Zak Sturge, 20.
The Lions were able to splash the cash because of their record-sale of Esse to the Eagles earlier in the window, who snapped up the Lions’ academy product for a club-record haul of £14.5 million.
Under-18s coach Larry McAvoy, who worked with Esse during his formative teenage years, said the sale was “brilliant” for his players.
“Romain’s been with us since the foundation phase, since under-9s,” McAvoy told NewsAtDen. “He’s one who’s come all the way through.
“So to see someone command a club-record fee and move into the Premier League and who’s been with us from the foundation phase and through the youth development and professional phase is a really proud time for the moment for the Academy. Not just the under-18 staff, who worked with Romain for the last two years, but also all the other coaches who’ve spent a lot of time with him.
“It’s brilliant for the younger players and he’ll be like a role model now. We’ve had good players, but to get someone that high profile and selling them for that sort of fee is brilliant. It’s a testament to the work that’s been done in the academy. The younger players now in our academy can look up to him and try to emulate what he’s done so far.
“Romain is a local lad from Deptford, living half a mile away from the Den and someone’s been with us from the age of nine. We’ve got players from all different backgrounds, so for them to see someone who looks like them, who’s from maybe the same area, it’s really helpful for us.
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“In terms of recruitment but also in terms of retention of the really good players we’ve got in the academy at the moment in the younger age groups. But it’s like anything, not just in football, in any sport, you need a role model, you need someone that the younger players can aspire to be and be like.
“At the moment Romain’s been a great one in terms of the money for the club. That’s brilliant. It’s great at the top end and they’ve been able to bring players in I’m sure. But for us in the academy in terms of what we’re trying to do is we need that and we need more of it.
Esse’s journey from joining the Lions at the under-9s level to joining a Premier League side aged nineteen has shown youth players and potential recruits that there is a “pathway” to minutes throughout the academy, no matter how old they are.
“We’re really strong in terms of playing younger players when we think they’re ready and we give them the opportunity,” McAvoy said. “The under-21s, who have been really successful over the last three, four years, similar to the eighteens, they’re not always the oldest team when they go on the pitch.
“Certainly not the under-18s either, we beat Brentford 3-1 last Saturday, a Premier League side, with half a team of school boys and a 14-year-old player. So we’re really big in terms of if they’re good enough we’ll give them the opportunity to play.
“So we think someone like Romain, if he was a maybe a Category One club as a scholar, he probably may have not played much in his first year, but with us players know we don’t carry a lot of players and the opportunities are there to play a lot of games. So we think that’s a really good model in terms of how we operate.
“Jakub [Przewozny] has been offered a pro contract, and Jakub has been with us for four or five years. That’s a really good one for him. He’s been to Poland training camps, England training camps. He’s had time at the under-21s.
“Harry Taylor’s played a lot of games for the under-21s, George Beaumont’s played a lot of games for the under-21s. A lot of our second years have played a lot of minutes for the under-21s ones and they’ve stepped up really well.
“Everyone’s doing well. Everyone knows if they do well enough, there’s an opportunity to progress. With in our model, there has to be a pathway if they’re good enough. We don’t just carry loads of players to be really strong every week. We need the spaces to be there if players are good enough.
“So players are playing up, under-16s are playing up in the under-18s, under-19s are playing in the under-21s and under-21s players like Ra’ees are getting opportunities in the first team.
“So there’s a really good pathway and at the minute we’re really lucky with a first team manager who’s not shy to put young players in if he thinks they’re ready.”
McAvoy thinks players like Lovelace, who turned down a contract extension at Rangers to return to south-east London, are more likely to join the club because of the pathway.
“Zak played for me as an under-15 and under-16,” McAvoy said. “Even at that age group, he was good enough to play in the youth team.
“I worked with Zak a lot and it was a shame to see him go, and he had his reasons for that. But one of the big things he said about coming back was that he felt there was a pathway now better than ever before. So that was pleasing to hear and really pleasing to see him back.
“We’ve lost Romain, but then Zak comes back. It’s really nice to see old faces and boys that have come through the academy. Zak’s got a really bright future as well, just needs an opportunity to play. We’re really pleased to have him back.”
