Reporting by Lewis Steele, Chris Wheeler, Craig Hope, Nathan Salt and Isaan Khan
‘They want revenge, they are ready to throw a missile into the Liverpool academy.’
Those were the words of one well-placed insider recently. They were talking about Chelsea and how executives in the Stamford Bridge corridors of power are still fuming with anger at how their best talent, Rio Ngumoha, was poached from under their noses.
This, we should remind readers, was 18 months ago. But it still rankles and the frustration will be amped up every time they see the 17-year-old pulling on a red shirt in the coming years. They unofficially banned Liverpool scouts from their Cobham base but that was not enough.
Chelsea want revenge. At least three Reds players, two aged 15 and one 16, are on their radar. Liverpool now have a mission on their hands to convince these kids – and their parents – that Merseyside is the place to be. It is easier said than done.
That is because parents and agents (in an unofficial capacity, since you cannot legally represent players until they are 16) are being tapped up and, to put it mildly, sold the world by most big clubs.
Chelsea and Liverpool are the first case study used but it is endemic across the league. Flashy cars, big houses, promises of first-team debuts in double-quick time. Commercial deals for pre-teens. Eye-watering money with easily-achievable bonuses to get around financial limits. Private tutors and coaches, free VIP tickets for parents. Family members employed as ‘scouts’. The list goes on.
Rio Ngumoha was one of the brightest talents in Chelsea’s academy before being poached by Liverpool – whose approach annoyed the Blues so much they unofficially banned Reds scouts
Chelsea are now planning revenge on Liverpool, by targeting their best talents to try to poach
This is the murky world of English football’s arms race for the best young talents and the underhand tactics that enable this poaching culture and make it more common. This is academy wars.
Trading young players has ramped up significantly since Brexit became law six years ago, meaning English clubs could not sign overseas players until they are 18. It has forced them to shop closer to home and the talents clubs are poaching are getting younger.
‘It is really hard working with young players and there are times where I don’t really like it,’ says an agent who represents multiple young talents. ‘Parents are increasingly pushy, being sold the world by rival clubs.
‘They don’t like to hear the truth about what their son actually needs to do to make it. The arrogance of some academy kids is off the charts and that’s often down to those surrounding them. It’s increasingly common now for 12 or 13-year-olds to have figures guiding them and investing early in a longer game. The best players in academies at Big Six clubs are getting insane amounts of interest.
‘What makes things a lot more murky is some agents will try to get to players directly. When I speak to parents of players I work with, you can sense they are under huge pressure because they are hearing constantly that a different club can do X and Y for their son, selling dreams.
‘There are offers of private coaches, lucrative commercial deals and even houses, cars. The unspoken issue is that clubs can discreetly work with wealthier agents to look after a family in the immediate, knowing he will recoup it when scholarship or pro deals are signed at 16 and 17.’
Players are now seen as fair game from around the age of 12. One teenager at Manchester United, for example, was on a staggering £25,000 a week, one of the biggest contracts ever for a teenager. The father and son had moved house because the player lived outside the hour-and-a-half catchment area, so the club also bought him a house and gave him a Range Rover.
They offered another young player £220,000 over two years to sign his first pro contract. The father had been estranged from the player but demanded £70,000 more for himself to persuade his son to sign, citing interest from a top Italian club as competition.
Aston Villa lift the FA Youth Cup Trophy last season. Young players can be offered all sorts of incentives to switch clubs
One teenager at Manchester United, for example, was on a staggering £25,000 a week, one of the biggest contracts ever for a teenager
Often sweetener payments to family members are made to the agent because it’s easier to disperse in that way, and it looks cleaner on the club accounts. Clubs employ dads as scouts, even though some of them cannot even drive, and agents employ family members as well to keep them onside.
One player turned down United to join Manchester City because they were offering St Bede’s schooling and the family couldn’t afford private education.
Daily Mail Sport has been contacted by agents in the past asking if we could help them ‘get to’ the father of a player to sign them up to their stable. ‘No player is more than two phone calls away if you know the right people,’ says one experienced representative.
At most academy grounds now, there are specific areas for parents and others for scouts, media and agents. It is no coincidence that they are often on the opposite side of the stand to avoid parents being sweet-talked.
Some youth matches are not broadcast on YouTube or club channels and teamsheets are sometimes not handed out, with no names on the backs of shirts, to avoid advertising their best players.
‘It is a really interesting thing, how it has changed,’ says one experienced current Premier League manager. ‘It is not as good as it was before. We are seeing so many agents involved with boys too young.
‘They are influencing them and taking them away from a club when they would have been better staying. The agent would be getting more money wherever they are going and saying it is a better deal for the boy. I see a lot of really bad deals being done.
‘I come from a youth background – I know all about it. The idea to make it as a professional footballer should be a thrill. I just hope they are not listening to people who are giving them bad advice. It’s a good topic, it’s a real gripe of mine.’
One player turned down United to join Manchester City because they were offering St Bede’s schooling and the family couldn’t afford private education
Chelsea have expanded their scouting network as far as Newcastle, pinching talents from right under their Premier League rivals’ noses
In 2021, Chelsea made a move to expand their scouting network into the heart of Newcastle. They loaned a camera system to Newcastle City Juniors that enabled the recording of training and matches for analysis and development purposes.
City Juniors has a reputation for producing some of the region’s best young players and Chelsea, under the noses of Newcastle, sought to establish a relationship to give them an advantage over their Premier League rivals.
Two years later, in a move that was not connected, Chelsea took teenager Ollie Harrison from Newcastle’s academy. The England youth international rejected an offer from his boyhood club to stay beyond his 16th birthday and instead signed terms with Chelsea. He has since been included in first-team squads.
It was a controversial switch given Harrison’s dad, Steve, was a respected coach within the Newcastle academy, and he soon left the club to join Middlesbrough.
There is zero indication that Harrison was one of these cases but there are also what one source describes to us as ‘tactical debuts’.
An agent says: ‘One player was included on the first-team bench ahead of arguably better players of the same age and it baffled team-mates also in the Under 18s squad. But it was clearly just to keep his family happy.’
On the same token, managers sometimes avoid filling their bench – now up to nine in the Premier League and 12 in UEFA competitions – with youngsters for the sake of it as it may trigger a contractual bonus.
It could also force the players’ camp to think their client had ‘made it’ and subsequently demand more money.
But there is recognition of the need to give players tangible sight of a first-team pathway, often sooner than ever before, conscious that if they do not, someone else will.
Of course, not all poaching is bad and, if done at a certain age it can be beneficial for clubs to keep the right side of strict financial rules. ‘Player trading at youth level has been around for decades,’ says one source. ‘It is the way they go about it that is maybe wrong.’
During Everton’s issues with said rules, the Toffees were forced to sell some of their best young assets to help them keep their heads above water in the calculations. Ishe Samuels-Smith, Lewis Dobbin, Tom Cannon and Nathan Broadhead were all sold when they might have gone on to flourish.
If they hadn’t been in a sticky financial position, they may have been able to keep hold of Anthony Gordon, who left for Newcastle for big money.
Not all of these examples would have gone on to make first-team stars but a generation of youngsters were all let go on the cheap.
Everton are not the only club to experience such issues and clubs are now cashing in on academy products much earlier than in yesteryear.
Manchester City often counter-balance their big spending by selling youngsters, many of whom they have signed in their mid-teens like Brahim Diaz (Real Madrid), Pedro Porro (Tottenham), Romeo Lavia (Chelsea).
Oscar Bobb, signed in 2019 from Norwegian outfit Valerenga, could be next in line to go with Borussia Dortmund circling for his signature. Like many to leave City, he is perhaps in the category of: a very talented player but not quite City level – though a good money-spinner.
City sold Brahim Diaz to Real Madrid and he came back to haunt them last season, scoring in the Champions League play-off victory for the Spaniards
Oscar Bobb was brought in from Norwegian side Valerenga but has not quite made the grade at City
Every summer, these big clubs usually sign a couple of next-generation superstars from fellow academies. Many of them do not go on to make it in the first XI but they are sold on for masses of profit.
The rise in data and scouting methods mean a lot of clubs can watch any player, anywhere on demand.
So while you may not have heard of the stars of tomorrow just yet, Premier League power-brokers certainly have and they are doing all they can – rightly or wrongly – to try to tempt these future superstars to come to their club.
