Sport

Brendan Crossan: Irish League can be the platform to cross-channel clubs

Gavin Whyte (centre) is living proof that the way to make it across the water is through the Irish League
Gavin Whyte (centre) is living proof that the way to make it across the water is through the Irish League Gavin Whyte (centre) is living proof that the way to make it across the water is through the Irish League

EARLIER this week, Gavin Whyte became a £2m player. Only a couple of seasons ago he was playing on the right wing for Crusaders.

Given his raw talent it was only a matter of time before an English League club came knocking for the Markets man.

In just one full season with Oxford United, Whyte hit nine goals. His highlights reel is worth watching as he quickly became a firm favourite among the Oxford fans.

I watched Whyte playing for Crusaders on umpteen occasions. He was often worth the entrance fee alone.

The great thing about Whyte was his incredible consistency in the final third of the pitch.

For the much-maligned winger, his game always had end product.

He also scored with his first touch on his senior international debut for Northern Ireland.

The first time I saw Whyte on the international stage was in a friendly game between the north and Republic of Ireland in November 2018.

Although it was a drab friendly game, what stood out was Whyte’s strength and conditioning, and his pace.

He didn't look like an Irish League player out of his depth.

On Tuesday, Whyte signed for Cardiff City for £2m.

That’s a jump from a mid-table League One side to a Championship side who have designs on a quick return to the English Premiership.

Whyte’s path to becoming a successful, fully-fledged professional footballer was through Crusaders Football Club.

He didn’t spend any time in cross-channel youth academies or any trumpeted centres of excellence.

The training and the standards set by Crusaders were good enough for Whyte to make it across the water.

In Michael Calvin’s outstanding documentary: ‘No Hunger in Paradise’, he revealed a startling statistic that out of 1.5 million youth players in England 0.012 per cent of them become Premier League players.

In other words, youth academies aren’t the best pathway for players to make the breakthrough.

All they seem to do is peddle dreams to kids and their parents.

As a consequence, their education takes a back seat as the parents imagine that their kid will be the one that makes the breakthrough at Manchester United or Chelsea or Arsenal.

But it’s a lottery ticket where so many kids’ dreams crash and burn and it takes them a long time to get to grips with reality again.

Rory Hale moved to England as a young teenager. Coming from a close-knit family in north Belfast, Rory had to grow up fast. Too fast, as it happens.

He remembers having to YouTube how to make scrambled eggs.

“You have to learn quickly,” says Hale, now with Crusaders. “You have to cook, you have to do your own washing, sort your own bills, sort out your own tax. It’s a young age to have to do all that.

“There is pressure. Everybody thinks we have it easy. I know they’re short days [as a professional footballer] but when everybody goes home, you’re going back to your ‘gaff’, curtains closed just watching TV.”

Hale was carving out a decent career at Aston Villa. He was U23 captain and training with the first team.

Two weeks before the end of the season, the-then Villa manager Steve Bruce called him into his office to say he would not be getting a new contract.

He traipsed the length and breadth of England auditioning for a new club before returning home where he’s carved out a good career in Irish League football.

Given his disappointments in England, it’s testament to Hale’s character that he is still making a living out of playing football and has never lost faith in his ability.

If Hale had his time over again, he would have chosen a different path to his preferred destination.

“You look at the Irish League: if Gavin Whyte goes across the water he will go straight into a first team,” he said.

“Sometimes if you sign a four-year contract as a 16-year-old, you still might not get anywhere at the end of it. If you stay in the Irish League at 17, it might work out better for you. It’s better than academy football.”

Bobby Burns took a similar path to Whyte and used the improving standards of Irish League football as a springboard to full-time football at Scottish Premier League club Hearts.

Burns rejected a couple of moves to England to finish his studies at St Malachy’s. If it is for you, it won’t pass you. After serving his apprenticeship with Glenavon’s first team, Burns earned his move to Scotland at 18.

“I don’t know how some of the 16-year-olds stick it,” said Burns. “It’s very young to leave your family and all your home comforts and your friends.”

With more Irish League clubs making tentative steps towards becoming fully-fledged full-time outfits means that standards will continue to climb.

Before last season’s Irish Cup final, Crusaders midfielder Declan Caddell took me through the enlightening process of moving from part-time to full-time – which the Seaview club is currently doing – and the importance of eating right before and after training sessions, whereas it’s infinitely more difficult to manage this as a part-time footballer holding down a full-time job.

To keep pressing forward, Irish League football undoubtedly needs to move to summer football to mount better challenges on the European stage.

And talk of an All-Ireland League with a lucrative TV deal would be another step in the right direction for the local game so that young footballers and their wide-eyed parents are no longer seduced by the forlorn promises of cross-channel trials, youth academies with billiard table pitch surfaces and centres of excellence that break more dreams than they make.