'One step forward, two steps back': The trials and tribulations of the Wanderers Academy

Season 2022-23 is shaping up to be an optimistic one for the long-suffering fans of the Western Sydney Wanderers.

The toxicity and culture within the club has been wrong for some time. A shake-up was well overdue and key players within the whole saga have fallen on their swords.

Long-time CEO John Tsatsimas has stepped down, as has much-maligned football department head Gavin Costello.

There also has been an assortment of changes in the back-room staff, with an assistant coach, equipment manager, data analyst and strength and conditioning coach also departing.

Coach Mark Rudan now has a much larger say in how the whole football department is run and the club have recruited well in the off-season

In terms of the recruitment, the Wanderers’ raids on young and mature players, in particular the young players from rival Sydney FC has seen eyebrows raised by both clubs.

It is an unwritten mutual law in football to not recruit from your direct rival, but the Wanderers have done just that.

While Milos Ninkovic’s defection to Sydney’s west may be seen to some as all about the money, it is the youth signings that paint a larger picture – which has been swept under the rug at the Wanderers.

(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

For anyone unaware, the Wanderers have lost a mind-blowing 24 players from their fabled academy this year alone.

That’s not a typo either and I will repeat it again, so the sheer magnitude sinks in: over 20 youth players have left the Wanderers Academy in 2022.

To put this into some form of context – that is two potential teams of generational talent that has quietly exited the club.

The purpose of an academy is a pathway for young local players to progress into senior football. Offering scholarships to rival players who haven’t come through that academy is wrong on many levels.

It’s not out of the realms of possibility when you start crunching numbers to think that per player, that’s hundreds of hours in training and tens of thousands of dollars the club have invested into each player – with zero return to show for it.

From under 14s coach Rob Bradshaw to under 20s coach Geoff Abrahams, witnessing this talent drain will have the academy staff pulling their hair out.

Although A League academies are not on the same level as English Premier League academies, a recently released report is alarming reading.

After starting in a Premier League academy system at 12 years old, more than 50 per cent of players leave before the age of 16. Overall, 97 per cent of academy players never actually get to play in the Premier League.

Then there is the mental health aspect of leaving an academy. Depression, anxiety and a loss of confidence are all too commonplace.

Of the 20-plus players who have left the Wanderers in 2022, some may genuinely not be good enough – while others have left knowing they will not break into a Mark Rudan-coached side that always prefers mature players.

The Macarthur Bulls have been busy pillaging the Wanderers academy. Dean Bosnjak and Ayman Gulasi, who showed his talent with the Joeys in Indonesia recently, are the pick of their new litter.

The Central Coast Mariners, who are one of the competition’s premier sides at transitioning young players into professionals, have also signed several of the Wanderers academy offshoots – including the highly rated Di Pizio brothers.

The Wanderers, depending on your point of view in terms of how you grade an academy, have perhaps the finest in the A-League.

A $15 million-plus investment that is still yet to really bear any fruit of its hard labour, though.

The club’s long-suffering fans may be delighted with the removal of the previous CEO and changes within the football department. However the 20-plus young players gobbled up by rival club, will leave a sour taste in supporter’s mouths.

But is that anything new for a club that continually takes one step forwards, followed by two steps backwards?