The ever-excellent Michael Calvin's latest book 'No Hunger in Paradise' poses a crucial question: "What is football doing to our kids?"
“Children are not mini-adults. They’re very, very different.” In most environments, this message from the Football Association's Talent Identification Manager, Nick Levett, would be deemed unnecessary and draw a very simple response of ‘well, duh!’
But in an industry where kids as young as four are being hoovered up, where text messages are sometimes used to ruthlessly release those young enough to need a teddy at bedtime, where eight-year-olds are paraded on a pitch one week only for their academy to be shut down the next, where a father admits he admonished his son of six for performing poorly in a trial, and where pre-pubescent teenagers are being hunted by agents through social media, it serves as a most critical reminder.