Transcript

CAL TEMPLETON:

It's all that I've ever wanted to do. I didn't really see myself doing anything else. It's something that I've dreamed of doing since I was a little boy. I've worked hard.

I was at Leicester from the age of 10 to 18. So I've been there for eight years. Also represented Northern Ireland under 17 and under 19 level, playing in the Euro qualifiers.

At the start of March, we had decision meetings. Me and my mum went into the club for a meeting with the academy manager. And it was simply a decision of that there was no pathway for me at Leicester.

RHYS SPRINGER-DOWNES:

Schoolboy, that was a good time for me personally. I'd say I was one of the top performers in my group. I got my scholarship early, so the beginning of under 16 I got offered my scholarship. Started the scholarship was doing quite well. Towards the end, confidence was low.

And then basically we went into the meeting. We had our head of academy, head of coaching. And they basically just said unfortunately we're not going to be offering you a new contract next year.

Everything went out my head. It was like, well, bit of a shock. You've been here for six years. So it's like, not sure what would happen from here. Thoughts going through your head of, is this the career I still want to do? Do I want to go somewhere else, do I want to try something else, do I want to stay in football?

It was a big, thing for me. And it did take a week or so for me to get back up and say, OK, Rhys, where you gonna go from here?

SAM PHILLIPS:

I was at Wolves for about nine years. I just went on trial there about nine years ago, and I've been there ever since. I had a scholarship there, as well. You've obviously got to put in a lot of work, not only on the pitch but off the pitch. We've been doing our BTEC college work for the whole two years of my scholarship, so that's another thing you got to work at.

But then on the pitch you've also you got to really try your hardest, and hopefully the coaches see that in you and they decide to offer you a pro contract.

We all had meetings. Everyone would then be told in that meeting whether we were going to get a pro contract or not. And I just wasn't one of the ones who got a pro contract at the end of my scholarship.

If I'm being honest, it hurt a lot, again, because I'd been there for so long. I'd spent so many years at the club. I knew a lot of people there, I'd made loads of friends there. And it was just a real homely club to be at, and I enjoyed my time there.

I suppose maybe for a few weeks I thought, Christ, what am I going to do now?

CAL TEMPLETON:

It came as a shock. Because I've been there for eight years. It's all I've ever known, I didn't have anywhere before that. So you go into shock a little bit. Obviously, your mind just starts going into overdrive thinking about what you're going to do next. But I never considered giving up football, it was what I always wanted to do.

MICKY ADAMS:

It's not something that you do over a month period, they've been with football clubs in general two years, sometimes even longer than that. So what you have to do is consider the budget restraints that you've got on the football club, how many gaps in the squad you need to fill, and the quality of the player that you're having to give the bad news to. So it's not easy, I have to say.

I've delivered it from the Premier League at Leicester City down at Port Vale level in League Two. So I've let some good players go, I have to say, who've come back and haunted me.

BARRY DUNN:

We let a player go last year and he's got a pro-contract at QPR. It's a matter of opinion if you think that's a mistake. But there's not many.

The message I always give to players is the game's about opinions. My opinion at this precise moment in time is that you're not quite up to the standard that we require, but you shouldn't lose heart with that.

SAM PHILLIPS:

We got told of the Exit Trials before we got told our decisions. So they were always in the back of my mind. But obviously no footballer really wants to think that before they get told that decision. Assessment Trials has always been a thing that people know about, and it's proven to work in the past.

DANIEL JOLLY:

Tonight is really part of our progression program. So we have the players for two years on an apprenticeship program. League Football Education manage that process, make sure that they are achieving their apprenticeship framework. I think one of the things that we recognize from a contractual point of view and from a moral point of view is that after that two years, decisions have been made about players as to whether they will be offered a professional contract or not.

We see it as our duty to make sure that, for those that aren't offered that professional contract, we offer something to allow them a route either back into the game or utilizing the football skills that they've acquired over the last two, three, four, five, ten years to move forward within football in order to make the most of the talents and skills that they have.

One of the most notable successes from this event has been Jamie Hopcutt, who took part in these events and as a result of that, went on the Swedish player placement programme. He's now playing for Ostersund. So he's now playing at the top division in Swedish football.

Marvin Sordell and George Boyd are other individuals who have gone through this process. It's a stepping stone for other things. Yes, back into the football pyramid, but also out into other broader, wider opportunities as well.