A long read as androofrench talks to Richard Johnson and Jimmy Gilligan about how the Hornets' Academy is changing to give young players the best chance to progress through to the first team WatfordFC
Richard Johnson has been at the Academy helm for a little over a year. Pictures: Action Images
Since 2016, there have been only six starting appearances for Academy players: Brandon Mason , Dan Phillips and Alex Jakubiak . “If we’re honest, it probably didn’t fit the model that the owner was adopting at that time,” said the club’s Academy director Richard Johnson, himself a veteran of more than 250 Watford appearances having come through the club’s youth ranks.
“We had a lot of 21 and 22-year-olds playing in the Under-23s, and that just wasn’t right. We adjusted that quite quickly and now we have 16-year-olds playing in the Under-18s and 18-year-olds playing in the Under-23s. “I feel there are outstanding players that are 16, 17, 18 years of age. You see that when you look at the England senior teams and further down the age groups. England Under-19s have just reached a final in Slovakia for instance,” he said.
“We have players here now, that we are telling the board we think could be good enough to play in the Championship. They are showing they are trusting us because they are listening to us, and are allowing us to put boys onto pro contracts. “The manager will generally want some younger players to make up numbers in sessions, and that gives lads the chance to be involved and show what they can do.
“I’m a Watford fan through and through, and for the last few years I didn’t recognise Watford FC. Part of that was because you didn’t see the Academy boys coming into the first team,” he conceded. There was no standing still last season though, as the Academy got back to a way of working the likes of Gilligan remember.
“The league programme though is about player development. We look at each individual player, as an entire Academy staff, and look at what their needs are. We’ll identify players who need to move up two age groups because they are technically very good and need the greater physical challenge.” “That was why we tried to make the changes we have as quickly as we could. We didn’t want a situation where young players felt they had to leave in order to progress and develop.
“We’ve changed that in the last year, and we have started to see players at every age moving upwards and progressing.” “But I’m personally more interested in the level and standard of the coaching, what they do for the players, how they develop them. We will always lose players to Category 1 Academy clubs. Brexit has made it harder for us because the big clubs are getting the pickings from clubs with Category 2 or 3 academies.
“It’s harder when you’ve got a young player that a big club is interested in and, as Jimmy says, they get given the tour of the facilities. We lost a lad to Chelsea, and he and his family had a full two-day showaround! They brought John Terry in to have lunch with them, they met Thomas Tuchel. It’s all relative, and you have to accept that some heads will be turned.
One thing both Johnson and Gilligan are rightly proud of are the facilities the Academy can now boast at London Colney, even if it’s not quite Disneyland – yet!
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