The State of Scouting and the USSF

I'd be more appreciative if the clubs in the US had a track record of doing it, and doing it well, but they don't. It's very erratic. There are some clubs that clearly appear to be thoroughly invested in scouting and developing talented kids in their "region" and there are other clubs that are beyond garbage at it. It's extremely hit and miss. You'll have organizations that are good, and bad, that always happens. But in Europe you have clubs at multiple levels that have been doing this for decades, and in many cases more than a century and have figured out how to do it well. We've had a league for 24 or 25 seasons, and development programs for less than a decade so there are going to be some potholes. The problem is that we can't afford all the problems that are cropping up right now, what with how the fed completely dropped the ball with the 1990-1995 generation, figuring things out now is imperative, and it doesn't sound at all like the fed is doing things right with any consistency, and it does sound like most MLS clubs either are horrible at this, or not invested in this, or are struggling slowly but surely up hill to figure it out.

I do get that the track were on eventually will yield results, but by and large it's not working remotely efficiently and there are massive gaps in the quality of player development and scouting, much greater gaps than any other nation that prioritizes the sport (at least to my mind). That's my frustration. We may have finally kinda started to do things right, but it's only some of the clubs, and only some of the time. It's not a good thing when you struggle to think of clubs really doing things well, and when it's easy to think of a club that's had two prized prospects sink drastically in value under their stewardship (Atlanta).

I'm just incredibly disturbed in general. i don't buy what the feds selling at all, especially with outreach into the latin-american communities, and I think because of the top down nature of MLS development over the past 25+ years, what should be, and usually is a natural player development pipeline based on local interest like the rest of the world, is far less well developed, efficient, or sensible. What worries me most of all is that it really incentivizes players to find anyway humanly possible to get the paperwork they need to move onto Europe because MLS deals with young players are so thoroughly to the clubs advantage rather than the players and because of permit requirements, passports and the like, it's only a handful of players that can actually do so.

How can we motivate teams to get their ---- together on this? How can they be incentivized to do this well, rather than just exploit the systems already in place?

 

I think you overestimate European clubs and underestimate MLS.

 

There’s many more DAs than MLS. As USL matures, players can avoid MLS altogether in their development if they want/need to.

 

In terms of contracts and MLS and all that ....

It will likely work itself out. People here always give the impression that they think that MLS and the teams don't understand what's going on. They do - it's just fixing things isn't always the easiest of fixes. There's a pretty good chance these three new U22 roster spots that are not going to be subject to the salary cap could be used for larger contracts for US players as well as overseas. We'll see.

What we need to hope and push for is for there to continue to be financial incentive for MLS and USL clubs to develop players. It will take decades to build the infrastructure other countries have, but it won't happen if those two leagues don't see the economic value.

Training comp and solidarity don't exactly make up for missing out on transfer fees, but they aren't chump change, either. It's something to work on.

 

Could be. The sense I've gotten is that there are a handful of MLS clubs really doing this well, and a lot that are either god awful or working towards competence.

 

Considering the size of academies at the major European clubs, they produce very few world- class players.

There are the great academies of course, Ajax, Tottenham and Lyon to name three.

The top clubs in England put dozens of lower league academies out of business by threatening to withdraw TV money unless the EFL agreed to allow youth players to be poached for peanuts.

It's the same with MLS. A few academies produce stars, while others don't seem to care.

 

But on the flip side, its also more rare for a player to come up in a developed soccer nation and not be scouted, whether by club, academy, or fed. In the US, guys slip through the cracks. So my point is, we dont scout nearly well enough or efficient enough to prevent players who could otherwise be fast tracked to get a longer slower development plan. Thats my main concern, and if guys like Ramos and Perez are to be believed, its going backwards and not making progress. So we should be focusing on fixing a below average scouting network and system and to do that we first need to spend more money.

 

The problem with fast-tracking is that the most talented 15 or 16 year-olds may not turn out to be the best adult players. This seems to be why many feds have abandoned their national academies and handed back player development to the clubs.

For example, England abandoned their national residential "School of Excellence" after 15 years in 1999. Out of the 234 "fast-tracked" students who attended the school, only 12 went on to play for England.

 

Right, players flop and flounder. That's the norm, and handing back to the clubs who actually want to invest (whether to build their own brand, sell to make profits, stock up players for a run, or just to get more recognition) if fine, if they actually do it. But if a player does flop, chances are it wasn't because the fed didn't make an effort to scout or better them. So I think the US has a higher bust rate with players or players never reach their potential because of poor developmental opportunities and lack scouting to bring them in to integrate them.

 

So what did England do with the money it would have spent in their "School of Excellence" (sounds like something Wayne would tell Garth). Maybe give a bonus to each academy that develops a kid with extra's when they hit milestones ie 25, 50 100 caps etc.