Premier League academies: The brutal release stories of Devonte Redmond and Owen Bailey | BBC Sport

i've experienced first-hand the

heartache of not making it in football

growing up becoming a professional

footballer was everything to me i played

at reading trialed at chelsea and then

signed at yeovil town before my dreams

were shattered by a ruptured quad

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i've seen many similar stories so i want

to explore what happens to the 97 of

young players who come through premier

league academies but never play a minute

of top flight football and what happens

when the dream comes crashing down

everything you've worked towards since

you were nine you feel like it's gone

just literally like that

i just looked and i seen like twitter

and there was hundreds of these

notifications and i seen my name and i

was like wow surely not that way

i probably was in like a state of almost

depression

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i want to see where the dream begins so

i've come to gateshead to meet owen

bailey i followed him for a while and

owen's a top top player but he's a great

example of the fine line that exists

between making it in the premier league

and

you as not so i was signed on the nines

at newcastle obviously my boyhood club i

remember just being so busy because

obviously it's your local team isn't it

and it's kind of what you dream about

and then i've just progressed through

the age groups and i was lucky enough to

sign a scholarship in the 16s the moment

you sign your youth team contracts i

don't know about you but it's like

passing your driving test times 10.

everyone wants to be your friend it's

the best feeling

for the family and stuff people who've

supported you and helped you along the

way you've become someone different

really then don't you people expect more

of you don't then they think of you as

somebody

and everything seems to be going all

right captain eddie under 18s captain

under 23s make it onto a pre-season tour

with the first team playing with

obviously shelby ritchie you know the

real sort of big players that the club's

got and that's such a high

then injury

crash

in october 2019 owen tore his meniscus

which is a piece of cartilage in the

knee a tough year of rehabilitation

followed but on his return to training

he suffered the same injury again i was

tearing up on the floor like you just

you're blank you know what i mean

there's nothing in like the lights are

on but no one's home and you just you're

so good

you sort of

lose who you are don't you you're not

the footballer anymore

i remember one of the coaches walked

past and like we normally have such a

good good banter and good crack and um

like he didn't want to look at us and

that was kind of when it sunk in you

know when i started panicking i was

thinking i'm actually i'm getting

released yeah

everything you've worked towards since

you were nine you feel like it's gone

just literally like that

you've kind of always been known as

someone who plays football and you're

not anymore

owen is such an optimistic lad given how

difficult his last few years will have

been

but i want to meet someone who's had a

bit more time to reflect

i read about davonte redmond a couple of

years ago

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it's unbelievable playing there like i

had some good times man a long way from

old trafford now at wrexham how's it

going tough you know like i'll be honest

i don't think it would go that way like

23's football is the development phase

that wrecks in like every point matters

like people have got mortgages families

so it's a dog fight but you just have to

come to terms but that's where you are

and you're either adapt and it's like

cinco soon

do you remember the first day that you

got called up to the first team i think

i do actually i think it was me axel

twanzabe and marcus rashford it was

probably under louis van gaal i think

that yeah it was like andy herrera

bastian's vines like

obviously rooney but like i think the

three of us would have known we've

earned this now i think we went over and

we done well and living hard liked us

all so everything seems to be going well

training with the first team and then

the worst day the one no one wants to

hear it's a bit like a mad story so i

was on holiday on my phone just started

vibrating and thinking i shouldn't be

getting this many notifications and then

i just looked and i seen like twitter

and was like

oh no hundreds of these notifications

and

like it was like a released and like

retaining list and i see my name and i

was like wow like surely not that way

but did it come as a surprise i don't

think it was a surprise

that that was the news i think it was a

surprise how it happened because i've

been there so many years to a club and

then yeah i think that was the the

painful thing

so after that i just thought you just

grabbed a bit of down time and just get

my head straight

um so i remember one day things were

just building up i said to my mum i was

going for a drive and i just i don't

even know where i was going i remember

like 10 minutes in i just just like a

flood of tears just came out and i was

never like an emotional person and i

just just cried in the car

so yeah i think that was the realization

i i was thinking like i'm struggling now

like this is getting tough for me like

mentally as well

um and obviously i'm not because i was

the kind of person who would kind of

hide it

when you come from a background where

it's

it might not be privileged it's working

class you just always think mum

mum needs you you know what i mean and

you just feel like you've kind of let

them down and like seeing my mum day in

day out i'm thinking you sacrificed all

your life

like by now surely i should be getting

to the point where i'm giving back and

to see that all just disappear you just

start thinking like what what's the po

like what is my purpose do i have a

point i probably was in like a state of

almost depression and you've seen cases

where people do end up doing things like

taking a live like sadly that there's

one of the reasons i wanted to explore

it more thoroughly because i definitely

got to a point of of depression after

leaving full-time football not knowing

what to do next

you give so much of your life to

football that it's like where do you go

from now yeah and like in a case like

yours is probably quite rare and the

fact that you've had that transition and

i think a lot of footballers would

struggle in in that release phase you've

had 10 years of being built up built up

to a point and then the bubbles just

burst like

it's over now and i think that's where

lads coming out of the system

need help

it's clear from speaking to devonte that

his release made him feel like he'd let

the people closest to him down so i'm

going to go back to gateshead visit owen

see how he's getting on and speak to his

family

how's it going all right everyone take

over and then that's the downside is

we're going all right thanks for letting

us take over very very well there was a

thing you said the other day during the

time you were injured it was that the

lights were on but no no one was home

did you notice that

yeah i think some i think it's really

hard when that's what you do day in and

day out it was hard for us as parents

and i'll be honest i used to see it to

be dad i just want him to stop but he is

such a resilient positive person but i

think as his mom there were times when i

saw him really quite down what you

always find with the winners he never

stays down for long and i genuinely

think is his mom that i'm probably more

proud of that than anything

how's it going at gateshead yeah really

well um really enjoying it to be honest

going to gates it's been a real sort of

godsend and getting back to playing

every week because i didn't realize at

the time i'd only played one full game

um before leaving newcastle so i think

now i've played i think about nearly 18

full games and so i'm just delighted

about that i think compared to the 23

games that he's played in the past

atmosphere is really good like there's

actual fans going to watch games and so

when i go down love it yeah fantastic

what would you advise other families who

might be going through the same thing

just talk because i think you know it's

it's quite stressful for parents as well

because you're so upset for your

children not being where they want to be

so i think just be open and honest about

it my philosophy was always owen is my

son who happens to play football and i

think sometimes people can get it the

wrong way around which is he's a

footballer who happens to be my son and

i think for me that was always the most

important thing

speaking to owen and devonte i've

learned that the support isn't always

there for players when they leave clubs

personally i think clubs need to do more

to show these young people that there is

alternatives and a life away from

football i loved speaking to owen i

loved how optimistic he was and on

speaking to his family is clear where he

got that from but the line that stuck

with me was when his mom said owen is my

son first and a footballer a second

i think the difficulty for a lot of

young players is football has been their

focus from such a young age but football

is such a small

part of their life there's so much life

to live after football

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