Football is our national sport. Arguably however, other sports do better are identifying and nurturing talent and taking them forward to eventual success.
Whether it’s swimming, athletics, cycling or judo, it seems that those with talent are easily identified and nurtured as part of an established programme where they eventually compete for success at the highest level.
In football, it seems there are a lot of participants picked up, yet only a tiny fraction of those in academies seem to break through into the top teams.
Why is this? What changes could be made to the player pathway?