𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 ‘𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗻’ 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 ‘𝗡𝗼 𝗥𝘂𝘀𝗵’ 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆.

Stan Sargent was at our Academy aged 7-16 years old.

During this time, many of Stan's age group were in & out of professional clubs.

Stan went on trial with various clubs and became frustrated with being overlooked by players already in the system.

To us as an Academy, we were miffed by how many clubs missed an opportunity to sign him, but continued to re-inforce the same messages to Stan; 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘣𝘴 𝘞𝘐𝘓𝘓 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨.

Those who knew him... KNEW!!!

Having spent large parts of his youth football disrupted by trials, we asked Stan to spend 12 months uninterrupted with us to get some momentum without all the emotional baggage that came from regular trials.

At the end of this 12 month ‘break’, age 15, Stan hit a brace in the FA Youth Cup and attracted the eyes of many professional clubs, eventually signing a contract with Gillingham FC.

Stan has now made 4 first team appearances for the club scoring on 2 occasions.

Stan's story is inspiring for all players who are currently playing grassroots football.

Remember, it's not a race. It's not important where you are right now.

Parents; as long as your child is developing:

Technically✅
Physically✅
Tactically✅

Then 𝘛𝘙𝘜𝘚𝘛 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘗𝘙𝘖𝘊𝘌𝘚𝘚

Sometimes people making decisions on your child at professional clubs are doing multiple roles, overworked and may not see their full skill set  in a short window. Of course, managing your child's expectations is important, but so is encouraging them to believe in their dreams.

𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴

Enjoy the roller-coaster.

Don't rush.

𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗿 - Though we always believed things would fall into place for Stan, he had to show an incredible amount of resilience & perseverance to get to where he is today.

#STANTHEMAN #TRUSTTHEPROCESS #NORUSHPOLICY 💫