By Albatross
March 22 2005

Hartlepool United go into their third group game of the Dallas Cup on Wednesday knowing they have a very good chance of progressing. The youth system continues to thrive, and that surely spells good news for the future of the club as a whole. The news for our Youth Team looks good, despite failing to beat Tigres of Mexico in their second group game, managing a 0-0 draw against tough opponents. A win over American side So Cal United in the final group game would almost certainly see them qualify for the next phase. While they would have to produce a better result than Tigres in their game with Jubilo Iwata to win the group, second place might be enough with seven points; the results in other groups are such that the only threat comes in Group B, where Atletico Paranaense of Brazil and Deportivo Saprissa from Costa Rica have both won their opening games. If they draw, then Paranaense - the defending champions - would go through having thrashed their two opponents so far; Saprissa have won their two games 1-0, and so anything better than that for Pools would be enough. With the Brazilians looking firm favourites to win in any case, a win for Pools would then be enough - and the semi-final would in all likelihood see a rematch with Tigres.

That's assuming that Pools can overcome SoCal, and while they would have little other than pride to play for results suggest that there wouldn't be much in it. The four games in Group A have produced just two goals so far - one each for HUFC and Tigres - indicating that defences have rather been on top.

While the side out at the Dallas Cup may be the current focus of attention, our youth team has very much been in the spotlight for a couple of seasons now. Neale Cooper has been happy to give young players a chance, and while at times he has been forced to play more of them than he'd like, there looks to be plenty of talent. The season we won promotion from Division 3, eight players that had come up through the ranks appeared for Pools - but three of them only appeared in the LDV Trophy when we fielded a reserve side, and the five that did appear in the league included Graeme Lee from several years previously. Jim Provett was a regular on the bench, but saw no league action at all. Last season ten current or former youth teamers appeared for Pools; this season already 12 have taken the field for the first team. With the likes of Graham Low also close to making a breakthrough after making the bench for the game with Hull, we can certainly say that our youth system is doing it's job - producing young players capable of playing in the first team - to great effect. You can't quite stock a 4-4-2 formation just using the young guns that have played for the first team - but include Low, and we'd be able to field a 3-4-1-2 formation that could include seven players with more than a dozen appearances each already: Provett, Brackstone, Low, Craddock, Robson, Sweeney, Turnbull, Istead, Boyd, Foley and Appleby.

While the future looks bright at the moment, the challenge for those involved in the Youth setup and Centre of Excellence is how to continue in the same vein over the next few years. While young players may well look on Pools favourably, knowing that they have an excellent chance to progress through to the first team at an early stage rather than mouldering in a reserve side, there are twin threats to our continuing success.

The first is, almost inevitably, money. It costs to run a Centre of Excellence or Academy, and Ken Hodcroft has been critical in the past of the rather erratic level of funding provided by the footballing authorities - this has included at least one scheduled payment not being made at all. Centres of Excellence are not cheap to run - should central funding cease completely (and it's already been reduced), then a club of our size may have to drastically cut the size of the current operation.

Possibly more of a threat comes from UEFA's proposals to insist on as many as eight home-grown players in a squad of 25 for sides taking part in European competition. While not all of the eight have to have come through the club's youth system, four of them must do - and this is due to come into force in 2008. With Newcastle regularly involved in European action and now Middlesbrough aiming to do the same, they will be looking at their squads and thinking about how to make this happen. I can see a risk that the clubs aiming for Europe will be more inclined to try and "hoover up" any young players showing potential, with the hope that they will find enough to meet UEFA's requirements; the rewards are such that a few hundred thousand a year on a vastly increased academy set-up could be regarded as a good investment for them if it supplies four or five players that meet the criteria. The competition for young players would obviously be more intense. A decision of whether this will be accepted is due in the next few weeks.

Ironically one of the things that may help Pools in the longer term would be if one or two of our current stars - the likes of Boyd, Sweeney or Provett - were signed for big money in the near future. It would be a sign to any young player that being successful at Hartlepool United is a good way of getting yourself noticed and attracting attention from some of the bigger fish. I can't help but wonder if part of the current generation of youth teamers saw the success of Tommy Miller as a very good reason to join Pools - and whether another generation might view Adam Boyd or Tony Sweeney in the same way. They say that success breeds success - here's hoping that the HUFC Youth Team can rise to the challenge and be successful for many years to come.