Hydward called a halt to training, and the dozens of people in the Pons Academy were nominally a team, but they were not cooperating at all, and the attacking players were desperately trying to show their individual abilities, always treating themselves as world superstars, and deciding the outcome of the game on their own; The defenders are also stealing the show in their own way, defending fiercely, and they can't wait to scrap the opponent's moves.

It wasn't exciting, but it was intense, but it wasn't what Heidward wanted to see.

He called everyone to his side, the group of sixteen or seventeen-year-old children, their backs wet from sweating, their foreheads; There are grass clippings all over my hair.

"Do you know about EPPP?" Hydward sat down on the floor and chatted about family life.

Many people shook their heads and said they didn't know, EPPP translated as "Youth Player Development Plan Reform Plan", which is the current youth training system policy just introduced by the FA in 2011, that is, last year.

Most of them are perhaps more familiar with the famous "90-minute rule", which was introduced by the FA in January 2009 as a rule: players under the age of 12 can only participate in the Academy within an hour's drive of their residence, and the 13~16 years old has been extended to an hour and a half or 90 minutes. Truth be told, sometimes it's not just a football association in the far East, and the FA's rule immediately gives people the sense of "trolls are solving problems with keyboards". This kind of forced zoning for school has made many Premier League managers want to inject brain scraps into those officials who drink and eat bags. The talented demon was forcibly assigned to some youth camps with limited conditions in the lower leagues, and there was no guarantee from time and quality to coaching, if there were parents who wanted to send their children to better youth camps, they could only choose to buy a school district house... Then move.

Commenting on the policy, former Newcastle boss Rod said: "Drive an hour north or west from Newcastle and you'll see more sheep than academy seedlings. Portsmouth's meritorious boss Redknapp had a similar description, saying: "Half of our Academy places have to go to salmon in the English Channel. "And the Liverpool manager...... A year later, England was eliminated by the Germans at the World Cup, and the Germanic family has always been good at filling the English with brain scraps, and what the managers didn't do, the sworn enemies did, well, the world of football is sometimes so magical.

The "90-minute rule" was abolished, and the "EPPP" stepped onto the stage of history, and potential young players from all over the world can break through the region to go to a good academy, and at the same time, all the academy has been re-divided into four levels, the higher the level of the FA's financial allocation, the more resources, and naturally there are considerable requirements for the hardware facilities and personnel reserves of the academy.

Hydward briefly popularized the concept to everyone, especially the generation that had been victimized by the "90-minute rule".

"I don't actually recommend you to come to Pons, it's only a B here, and you'll get a better education in Southampton. The Academy there is A, with a 23-man full-time coaching staff and at least £4 million a year in operating capital. Look at Pons, the coach has only four people, and the funds are less than the others. Heidewald persuaded the young men with great gravity.

After a while, just as everyone was confused, he spoke slowly again, "Have you heard of the succession plan?" ”

Succession planning? Everyone shook their heads, including the battle-hardened coaches on the pitch.

"It was a plan devised by our arch-rivals Southampton in 2008, when they were relegated from the Championship to League One. The plan is simple, by building a database, and whenever you see that the Saints have players who may leave, it means that a successor has been found, it may be an academy or a transfer. ”

Hydward smiled and said, "Boys, how do you think Southampton is the more worthy one!" ”

Everyone in the room thought the manager was crazy and he was trying to persuade the academy to leave his club and join his rivals.

"Why?"

Finally someone asked, why?

A few seconds passed

He said, "I'll give all the rotten apples to my mortal enemy!" A sucker! Hydward's smile was hideous, and the group of children were a little scared.

"The birth of the EPPP means that the local protection has been revoked, the little talent discovered by the regional level of the League Two team, Lao Tzu can take him away with 40,000 pounds when he is 13 years old, Ali is like this, there will be many people like this in the future, I don't need you, the grassroots at the bottom!"

Forty thousand pounds, this is simply a robbery, but it is a pity that the FA supports this robbery for the good of the country.

The manager's words passed through his chest like a sharp sword, and many young players almost cried out in their fragile hearts.

Hydward continued his speech: "A lot of you are simply not ready to be a professional footballer. I advise you to study hard, and being a police officer, a lawyer, or a doctor is far more promising than being a professional football player. ”

He sat for a long time and was a little tired, so he changed to a more comfortable position and continued: "There is a charity in the sports world called the Association of Retired Players, and there is a statistic in it that you may be interested in, 33% of British professional players will divorce their wives in the first year of retirement. James was among them. He said goodbye to football last year and captain Campbell told me earlier this year that his wife had swept up more than £20 million in his fortune and that James might soon have to sell Frank Lampard's shirt to make a living. ”

"More than 40 percent of players will declare bankruptcy within five years of retirement, which is not surprising, the NBA is over 60 percent, the NFL (National Football League) is as high as 78 percent, and you will see a lot of familiar names if you search the Internet."

Everyone around him became focused and serious, and the manager's voice was clear to everyone's ears, and no one dared to interrupt him.

"In a career of more than ten years, nearly 40 million pounds of income has been spent in 5 years, what a group of brainless guys."

"Little guys, players are not a good career, the most profitable is the more than ten years, and the income plummets immediately after retiring. If you look at the social security system in England, people in this country can't start receiving pensions of less than £150 a week until they are 65 years old, but most players retire at the age of 35, and if you don't have a skill or other job, you won't have any income for up to 30 years, can you guarantee that the money will not be inflationary for 30 years? Thirty years ago, £20 a week was the top salary, lads! ”

Hydward got up from the ground and looked at each young face with serious eyes, "I get resumes from retired players every week, but there are very few responses. Take the simplest example of the god of war Batistuta, the idol of many people here, due to multiple surgeries, the cartilage on his feet has been completely removed, and the bones rub directly together when walking, the pain makes him unable to walk normally, and the bathroom is only three meters away, but he can't walk over, and he urinates on the bed. God of War, still can only wait for the progress of artificial ankle technology, this is the most real football, everyone! ”

"I've always talked about dreams with the first team players, and it's actually quite a jerk when I think about it, and there is a sentence in Harry Potter that is very impressive: what kind of person you become is not ability, but choice. Margery they don't have a choice, you still have a chance, boys. Ask yourself, are you ready for this reality? ”