In England, carving a clear pathway to elite professional football has attracted greater focus in the past 15 years.
The prodigious talents of Lamine Yamal, Jude Bellingham and Jamal Musiala might have made light work of men’s football in their teenage years, but the leap between the academy and the first team can often be more challenging for many emerging stars.
To develop better homegrown talent and advance youth development, the Premier League released the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) in 2011, which revamped the approach taken by academies across the country.
Significant progress has been made in the quality and quantity of young players developed in English academies, but huge challenges remain for the brightest talent to break into the world’s most competitive league.
This drive for player development on the pitch has seen clubs expand their infrastructure off the pitch. The role of a pathways and loans manager has become increasingly prominent, designed to support players transitioning from the professional development phase (PDP) — ie, academy football — into the first-team environment.
Ideally, clubs will support players through the academy stages internally — from under-nines through to under-23s and into the first team. Long-term planning helps map out players’ futures within the club. Recently, The Athletic outlined Nottingham Forest’s strategy that ensures pathways are available to exceptional academy talents by not overloading their position in the first-team squad.
Liverpool were among the first clubs to implement a dedicated pathways role in a professional setting, appointing Julian Ward to be their ‘loan pathways and football partnerships manager’ in October 2015.
Now technical director for Fenway Sports Group, which owns the club, Ward developed strong relationships with European clubs suitable for Liverpool’s young talents. He also ensured Liverpool’s medical, sports science and analysis departments were connected to the clubs’ counterparts throughout a loan. Under his watch, Harvey Elliott, Rhian Brewster, Rhys Williams, Sheyi Ojo, and Harry Wilson benefitted from temporary spells away from the club.
In the same period, Liverpool introduced an ‘elite development coach’, a role first held by Pep Lijnders before he became Jurgen Klopp’s assistant. The position, subsequently taken by Vitor Matos in 2019, was to oversee the transition of Liverpool’s most promising talent from the academy into the first team.
With Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones, Conor Bradley, Jarell Quansah and Caoimhin Kelleher all transitioning to the senior squad, Liverpool are one of the shining examples of a clear development pathway. Per Transfermarkt, no Premier League side has more academy players in their current first team.
Liverpool’s Jarell Quansah on loan at Bristol Rovers in 2023 (Steven Paston/PA Images via Getty Images)
Most elite clubs have a dedicated role for player pathways and loans, with a scientific approach often at the heart of a club’s process.
For every loaned player, games are reviewed live or on video, with assessments provided to target specific areas for improvement. Video and data analysis are vital tools, benchmarking academy players against those who have jumped to the first team and challenging subjective evaluations.
“We want to make as many informed, evidence-based decisions as we can (in a player’s development),” said a pathway and loans manager at a Premier League club, speaking anonymously to protect relationships.
“Whether that is technical, tactical, or physical data, or psychological profiling — there are so many aspects and it is about putting the processes together.”
At Brighton & Hove Albion, former captain Gordon Greer, now their ‘pathway development manager’, emphasises the importance of discussing data with players.
“We use data when we give players feedback and it helps us remove all subjective opinion from our analysis,” Greer told The Athletic.
“It’s also a good tool to challenge and check ourselves as a scout or coach. When you’re getting factual information, it’s hard to dismiss it.”
The driving factors behind each loan vary based on a player’s situation. Some are focused on player development, while others aim to increase a player’s market value for a potential sale. This distinction not only shapes the criteria for success but also influences the type of clubs the parent club collaborates with.
Gordon Greer playing for Brighton in 2013 (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
“We look at all aspects that influence our loan club profiling,” said the Premier League pathway and loans manager.
“If we are looking for a player development loan, the priority is the playing style and game model — but there are factors within that. Does that head coach have a history of playing young players? Do they play them out of position?
“Then you have league characteristics. If we are loaning a player with a view to selling, has that league historically done well in driving value in players? We need to ensure that our player is marketable.”
Where young talents might have previously been sent on loan to ‘get minutes’ or ‘toughen up’, this process has become increasingly technical. Metrics such as expected goals (xG), time in possession, build-up, and time in transition are often considered when researching the suitability of a prospective club.
“We look at the players’ development plan,” Peter Ramage, assistant player loans manager at Newcastle United, told The Athletic. Ramage is a former Newcastle, Queen Park Rangers and Crystal Palace defender.
“As the Premier League is such a fast-paced, physical league, we might send a player to a big physical team or league because that’s what he needs for that moment in his development.
“If you want to improve a centre-back defensively, there’s no point sending him to a top-end team where they don’t defend because it won’t help his development plan. Maybe he needs to go to a lower-league team with low possession, who deal with 20-plus crosses per game. He might not have much of the ball but he’ll have to defend.”
The latest Governing Body Endorsement (GBE) criteria for overseas players joining English leagues add further considerations when selecting a loan club.
For example, Newcastle loaned Gambian winger Yankuba Minteh to Feyenoord last season to earn the required points to play in the Premier League. Having bought Minteh from Odense for approximately €8million (£6.6m; $8.4m) in 2023, Newcastle made a significant profit after selling him to Brighton this summer for €35m.
Brighton have enjoyed particular success with their loan model in recent years, often acquiring young talent from lesser-known leagues and loaning them out to gain senior experience.
While Kaoru Mitoma and Simon Adingra developed at Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium — a club in which Brighton owner Tony Bloom holds a minority stake — Moises Caicedo (Beerschot), Alexis Mac Allister (Boca Juniors), and Facundo Buonanotte (Leicester City) had focused loans that aided their development, outlining Brighton’s considered approach to long-term squad building.
Moises Caicedo on loan at Beerschot in 2021 (Jeroen Meuwsen/BSR Agency/Getty Images)
For Greer, the method for such loans is the same across the board.
“We work the same for all players, but the option of (loan) clubs we have will be dictated by the player,” Greer said. “Some players arrive with more experience because we’re bringing them in for money, so you’ll have more options than a current academy player. It’s about challenging them in different ways.”
As well as Greer, many former players and coaches hold similar roles within pathways and development, including Joleon Lescott (Manchester City), Carlton Cole (West Ham United), Sam Baldock (alongside Greer at Brighton), Shola Ameobi (Newcastle) and Les Parry (recently left Manchester United).
Knowing how to play the game can count for a lot when guiding young players.
“There’s quite a lot of experience I think I can pass onto players because I’ve been there and done it,” Greer said. “If you’re going through something difficult in your career, it can be useful when someone knows how it felt.
“While they’re out on loan, we encourage players to ask as many questions as possible. We try to coach and mentor them to make them feel part of the process while they’re not at the club.”
Whoever the personnel may be, it is clear that this department is ever-growing.
Leicester have recently advertised for a ‘loans manager’. Liverpool have expanded their team this year for a ‘loans performance analyst’, with applicants required to use video, data and live analysis to monitor and assess the progress of the club’s loan players. Brentford also closed a position for a ‘loans analyst’ this month.
Elsewhere, Newcastle have advertised for a dedicated loans and recruitment sports scientist and loans physiotherapist to support with medical and rehabilitation services for all loan players, with Aston Villa posting a similar job role too.
At the elite level, few academy players transition seamlessly into the first team. A more likely scenario is that the player will be sold, released, or fall out of professional football altogether.
Nurturing the person behind the badge is crucial, but it has been historically overlooked. The drop from Premier League academy facilities to lower-division football can be jarring to some players, and some can struggle without adequate support.
West Ham’s Freddie Potts spent last season in League One with Wycombe and is with Championship side Portsmouth in 2024-25 (Pete Norton/Getty Images)
Initiatives have also been set up outside the club, with Liverpool right-back Alexander-Arnold launching the After Academy in 2023 to provide support and help with further career opportunities to those who have dropped out of elite academy football.
Player wellbeing is at the heart of every decision made by the loans and pathways departments. While some loaned players are comfortable with minimal contact from their parent club, others might need to be monitored more closely as they negotiate an unfamiliar environment — whether that is technical, pastoral, or nutritional support.
“The psychological element is probably the biggest challenge we face as a loan department,” Ramage said. “Normally, our lads on loan are emerging talent who will be used to playing every week and being among the best players within the group. All of a sudden they’re going into senior environments where they might only be getting 50 minutes here or there.
“They might not have the same gym equipment or training ground facilities. They might have to wash their own kit, feed themselves — all things that are new to them and it can be quite eye-opening. That’s why we do work at the academy to prepare a player and build bespoke programmes into the loans.”
Ultimately, it is the players who will dictate whether they success or fail.
“There’s a huge moral obligation at the club,” said the Premier League pathway and loans manager. “Whenever they first walk into the building, we want our players to achieve longevity in the game.
“But it is also up to the player, and there are two key traits we regularly see in a successful loan — regardless of level. The first is that the player is physically robust, so they’re available to play and their profile is suitable to the league they’re playing in. The second is that they are mentally robust, on and off the pitch — and that comes from committing to the club you are with for the period you are there.”
Manchester United’s Amad had a successful loan with Sunderland in 2022-23 (Clive Mason/Getty Images)
With Premier League clubs having to carefully navigate profit and sustainability rules (PSR) by limiting their losses to no more than £105million over three years, investing in young, talented players can be of huge financial benefit.
A cynical view is that clubs can maximise their transfer fees if homegrown academy players are sold, as this constitutes ‘pure profit’ under the financial fair play (FFP) regulations — as evidenced by this summer’s sales of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (Leicester to Chelsea) and Conor Gallagher (Chelsea to Atletico Madrid).
Whatever the motivation, supporting players to reach the first-team environment is the goal and is becoming increasingly important. The world of loan and pathway departments is integral to making that happen.
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
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