The danger of joining a “good team” is that sometimes the top teams nick the best players of other teams and walk through games meaning their development is actually stifled. Playing a year up might be better as he’ll be coming up against bigger lads.
One to one technical coaching can be good if it’s a decent person doing it, there’s some utter doyles who do it who just replicate stuff off you tube.
I can’t name reputable people as I don’t live in the area.
Yeah, that's what I thought.
It seems to me like Villa want him to do what is easiest for them to make a comparison, rather than what is actually best for your lads development. Trying to facilitate them, when your kid isn't going to go there, doesn't seem to make much sense. Ultimately I would expect rapid development should be the most important thing, and a rapidly developing player would hopefully not get missed.
I've no idea what's about in the local area or how the scouting system works, so I'll base this on what would seem to be the most common sense approach, and hope that clubs are doing that.
If your lad is much better than his age group, there's likely not much benefit to him playing in that age group. If he can compete well at the age group above, and he's happy playing in that (extremely important), then that seems the best for development to me. If he's well outside his comfort zone, in the group above then this could put his development back. It's also important to not keep changing teams, as being a young lad like that they may find it hard to keep fitting in, depends on your lads personality though.
Any half decent scout should know the age of each player, and be able to figure out rough ability compared to that age group he's playing in, and the one below.
Almost anyone can look good in a good team, when the oppo is already beaten before they step on the pitch, and good players can still get overlooked if they don't stand out as much as some of the other lads. i.e how good is a keeper going to look, if he only faces 10 shots all season?
A player standing out in an age group above, who are not really a great team but who try to play the right way, seems the best for being spotted, to me.
If he's already been spotted, playing in an age group above, then it could be a sign that you have him in the right place already, but extra one to one coaching would be very good, if it's from a good coach, not someone who thinks he knows what he's on about.
I wouldn't be surprised if the above was completely wrong mind, and if the scouts only went to watch the best teams, and made wonky assessments based on 7-0 wins.
Not sure if there's a way to contact the local academies and see what they think, tell them he's being scouted playing in an age group above. I bet they get a few of these contacts mind!
