South London footballers

Redwurzel

Redwurzel

Well-known member
Just read an article called "Home Comfort" in When Saturday Comes, about Clubs could do more to support players. It focuses on Jadon Sancho and Djed Spence and how they have struggled in the last 18 months. The writer Callum Murray suggests that footballers from South London can struggle to integrate and can quickly be accused of having a bad outlook, when in fact they are just being themselves. This failure to integrate can often occur when a South London player moves to another part of the country with a different culture.

He suggests South London has become a hotbed in recent years for developing talented footballers. He gives the reason as cage football culture, the socio/economic landscape and an environment that fosters resilience.

Djed Spence is from Lambeth - Murray suggests many young people have to develop an attitude as a form of defence, where any weakness is punished.

I hadn't even thought much about this with Spence. I am also not convinced one area of London produces footballers of so different a character from the rest of the UK. But it has got me thinking. I did notice working class areas of London are developing quite a high percentage of young footballers. I had partly put it down to better resources and opportunities. I was not aware that South London was that much different from say East London.

Murray says Clubs should support young South London footballers coming to their club as they would do with young footballers coming from overseas.
 
Redwurzel said:
Just read an article called "Home Comfort" in When Saturday Comes, about Clubs could do more to support players. It focuses on Jadon Sancho and Djed Spence and how they have struggled in the last 18 months. The writer Callum Murray suggests that footballers from South London can struggle to integrate and can quickly be accused of having a bad outlook, when in fact they are just being themselves. This failure to integrate can often occur when a South London player moves to another part of the country with a different culture.

He suggests South London has become a hotbed in recent years for developing talented footballers. He gives the reason as cage football culture, the socio/economic landscape and an environment that fosters resilience.

Djed Spence is from Lambeth - Murray suggests many young people have to develop an attitude as a form of defence, where any weakness is punished.

I hadn't even thought much about this with Spence. I am also not convinced one area of London produces footballers of so different a character from the rest of the UK. But it has got me thinking. I did notice working class areas of London are developing quite a high percentage of young footballers. I had partly put it down to better resources and opportunities. I was not aware that South London was that much different from say East London.

Murray says Clubs should support young South London footballers coming to their club as they would do with young footballers coming from overseas.
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Can you share link to the article please ?
 
Tammy Abraham, Trevor Chalobah, Loftus Cheek, Rice, Smith Rowe, Wan Bissaka, Ryan Sessengon all from South London too
 
I've read an article in the past mentioning Boro among a few clubs scouring South London, where players who don't progress to the pinnacle in the academy system often end up back home and dropping off to non-league. I think it was also mentioned in a documentary possibly presented by Rio Ferdinand, if memory serves, on ITV.

It was ever thus, wasn't it? Rooney, Gazza and many others were from backgrounds which didn't suggest they'd be sipping a glass of red wine after a day at a polo match had football not came a-knocking. Phil Foden still looks like that cocky kid from junior school who you lost contact with until he turned up in the Gazette's scales of justice section.
 
The Guardian published an article many years ago predicting the rise of South London as a hotbed for young football talent, in particular the amateur leagues on Hackney Marshes which at one time had 120 pitches.

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Boro4life said:
Can you share link to the article please ?
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Sorry Boro4life its copyrighted to When Saturday Comes. Its not a long article I think Callum wrote it to promote his book "Something in the Water" - the new football hotbeds of Britain. The book is 224 pages long. Amazon says its Callum's first book - he is a sports psychologist from Huyton.

The edition it is in is March 2024 Issue 440.

WH Smiths sell the paper copy and the magazine may sell digital copies off its website.
 
Some people are bellends. There are a lot of people that play football so makes sense that some of them are bellends. I don't think you can categorise a whole area of people to have the same attitude, especially when there are so many examples of people from the same area that aren't bellends. There are players from all over the world playing for these clubs. It would be very surprising that a single area of London would have an attitude that was at odds with the rest of the footballing world.
 
jeff_potato said:
I've read an article in the past mentioning Boro among a few clubs scouring South London, where players who don't progress to the pinnacle in the academy system often end up back home and dropping off to non-league. I think it was also mentioned in a documentary possibly presented by Rio Ferdinand, if memory serves, on ITV.

It was ever thus, wasn't it? Rooney, Gazza and many others were from backgrounds which didn't suggest they'd be sipping a glass of red wine after a day at a polo match had football not came a-knocking. Phil Foden still looks like that cocky kid from junior school who you lost contact with until he turned up in the Gazette's scales of justice section.
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I think Boro still have a tie up with Tooting and Mitcham, who found us Isiah Jones.

I would advise the Club to keep this tie up close. Also to look after young players coming North.
 
Nano said:
Some people are bellends. There are a lot of people that play football so makes sense that some of them are bellends. I don't think you can categorise a whole area of people to have the same attitude, especially when there are so many examples of people from the same area that aren't bellends. There are players from all over the world playing for these clubs. It would be very surprising that a single area of London would have an attitude that was at odds with the rest of the footballing world.
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I can understand some of your tone, there must be personality differences that make a contribution to any attitude, but I would like to investigate how deep the difference is in South London to say other urban developed areas. For example I assume caged football is football played on hard tarmac with high fences on small tight pitches with fewer places to hide in games, where the play stays in play longer and maybe no throws or corners, like 5 a side. I would expect there is less time to think, and ball control, finding limited space and short passing are more important than on a full size grass pitch.
 
its not a new concept . Issy Jones talked about the footy culture in a podcast with a S London theme ... likened it to Brazil were all the kids do is footy and see it as a way to change there lifestyle
 
Redwurzel said:
I can understand some of your tone, there must be personality differences that make a contribution to any attitude, but I would like to investigate how deep the difference is in South London to say other urban developed areas. For example I assume caged football is football played on hard tarmac with high fences on small tight pitches with fewer places to hide in games, where the play stays in play longer and maybe no throws or corners, like 5 a side. I would expect there is less time to think, and ball control, finding limited space and short passing are more important than on a full size grass pitch.
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I can fully understand the technical abilities being different by playing a different style of game, similar to the Brazilian futsal type players. I don't think personality/attitude traits would be unique. I was being flippant by saying bellend but I was just trying to make a point that there are people with incompatible personalities/attitudes from all over the world and this article sounds like it is making excuses for some players based on a coincidence of them being from the same area.

I think there are a large percentage of kids these days playing on 5 aside pitches with walls so London isn't that unique. They allow teams to play all year round. When we were kids it was grass or nothing but facilities are widely available now.
 
alanmoodysdog said:
its not a new concept . Issy Jones talked about the footy culture in a podcast with a S London theme ... likened it to Brazil were all the kids do is footy and see it as a way to change there lifestyle
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Murray called that socio/economic background i.e. a way to a better life like Glasgow boxers in the 1930s. While in Scotland now working class kids spend a lot of time playing computer games, than real football so they are not the number of Scot professionals there used to be say in the English top division and their National team has dropped down the World rankings, compared with the 1970s.
 
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The opening post reads to me almost exactly as the Hotbed of footballers from the North East back in the 90s.

Some incredible players whose background and pretense brought them to the drinking culture of the time and often ruined their careers.

Kids, largely from council estates will always be susceptible to the wayward ways of the world, which is exactly why most of them go broke after having millions through their hands in their short career.
 
Not difficult too understand kids from relatively poor backgrounds excel in sport but dont have the educational support to adjust to future new surroundings particularly abroad. As someone said gazza was a prime example, Bellingham is perfect example of a bright kid from a good home adjusting well. What's needed is academies providing more support for these kids to make an educational leap forward with their football.
 
Redwurzel said:
Just read an article called "Home Comfort" in When Saturday Comes, about Clubs could do more to support players. It focuses on Jadon Sancho and Djed Spence and how they have struggled in the last 18 months. The writer Callum Murray suggests that footballers from South London can struggle to integrate and can quickly be accused of having a bad outlook, when in fact they are just being themselves. This failure to integrate can often occur when a South London player moves to another part of the country with a different culture.

He suggests South London has become a hotbed in recent years for developing talented footballers. He gives the reason as cage football culture, the socio/economic landscape and an environment that fosters resilience.

Djed Spence is from Lambeth - Murray suggests many young people have to develop an attitude as a form of defence, where any weakness is punished.

I hadn't even thought much about this with Spence. I am also not convinced one area of London produces footballers of so different a character from the rest of the UK. But it has got me thinking. I did notice working class areas of London are developing quite a high percentage of young footballers. I had partly put it down to better resources and opportunities. I was not aware that South London was that much different from say East London.

Murray says Clubs should support young South London footballers coming to their club as they would do with young footballers coming from overseas.
Click to expand...
I don't buy this if I'm honest, as others have pointed out there's plenty of players with the right attitude from South London.

Sancho didn't have any problems in Germany, so I think his current issues may be about more than his lack of application.

When you're late to a meeting to discuss your lack of discipline, as Spence was, then that suggests something fundamentally wrong in my view.
 
Thanks for the post Redwurzel, I'm going to get hold of a copy of "Something in the Water".

Cheers 👍
 
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