Gab Marcotti

Not going great, but whatever, they're there.

That is something that I think you as a young player...

you have to understand what's in front of you.

You have to think of terms of player development pathways and realize I have to do what's best for me.

And I think in the past, I think also because some of these relationships between intermediaries and clubs are unhealthy, that hasn't happened.

Because you can make money off the commission.

There are different stories, of course, at different academies in Italy, certainly Atalanta and Roma are fine examples.

Some clubs have B teams.

Yeah, the next gen.

Yeah, the next gen.

So they're very good at developing players for other countries.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Ken and Yildiz.

I want to make one other point, and I've seen this a lot now, having sort of my cousins of kids who played in academy systems and speaking to now the younger players are coming through, one huge difference, and this might also explain why Italy's success at youth team levels in international football might be fool's gold, is this.

In these academies, the people coaching the academies in Italy, this has become a bit of an obsession of mine.

Most of them want to go on to coach in Serie A. They do not want to be youth coaches.

They're like, oh, look, I take the under-14s this year, I win the league, next year I move to the under-16s, and then I become an assistant here, and blah, blah, blah.

To do that, they want to win.

They don't want to develop players.

They're not there to develop players.