There was a magical and entirely fitting symmetry to the fact that Tobi Adeyemo scored his goal against Blackpool in the 72nd minute on Saturday.
On the day when Watford once again paid tribute to their greatest ever manager, Graham Taylor, the 17-year-old Academy product emulated what so many young players achieved under GT.
Having come onto the field in the 68th minute, he took just four minutes to hit the net. It could have been three minutes, 13 minutes or the lunging defender could have deflected his shot round the post.
But no, Adeyemo’s shot hit the net in the 72nd minute – the precise time Watford fans have, in the six years since he passed, sung the name of Graham Taylor in recognition of his age when he died.
You could imagine Taylor nodding approvingly as he added Adeyemo to the long list of players who have left their mark on the first team having started their careers in the youth ranks at Vicarage Road.
Luther Blissett, John Barnes, Nigel Callaghan, Nigel Gibbs, Lloyd Doyley. The names of those legends just trip off the tongue.
There are many other names that Watford fans will know and class as ‘one of our own’, players who have emerged from within the club to become successful at Vicarage Road and beyond.
Two of them are men who played for and worked with Taylor, and whose job it now is to ensure the conveyor belt of talent he created – which has, in recent years, largely ground to a halt – starts to flow again.
Academy Director Richard Johnson and Jimmy Gilligan, the Academy’s Head of Technical Development, had enjoyed quite a week.
Despite the loss at Reading in the FA Cup, the 18-man squad was full of Academy players, many of whom made their debuts.
A few days later Watford overcame the odds to beat Everton in the FA Youth Cup Fourth Round, and then on Saturday the spotlight fell on Adeyemo, and later Jack Grieves, in the win over Blackpool.
“To be at the Reading game in the FA Cup and sit in the stand with Jimmy, watching those young lads who were involved in that game was incredible,” said Johnson, who arrived at Watford from Australia as a 17-year-old in 1991 and went on to make nearly 300 appearances for the club.
“Adrian Blake started, Michael Adu-Poku led the line up front on his own at 17 and then we had James Morris who has come in after being released by Southampton.
“Then to have Tobi Adeyemo and Jack Grieves come off the bench to make their debuts, Damani Hunter was on the bench too and we gave a first-team experience to Harry Amass who is still an Under-16.
“To have all those lads involved and have that first-team experience was a great day for the Academy.”
A little more than 48 hours later, those same young players were part of the team that beat Everton in the FA Youth Cup.
“The FA Youth Cup is the pinnacle for any youth footballer, and as a group of players you only get one crack at it, and to make history for themselves and the club,” said Johnson.
“To be drawn against Everton, who have a very good reputation with regards to their Academy, was a great opportunity. For the boys to play at Vicarage Road under lights with their family and friends there watching was special.
“It was a very great night, a great performance from the boys and a proud evening for the Academy.
“But what made it even more magical was that night we brought forward the schoolboy training for all age groups so that most of them could attend the cup game in the evening.
“So we had boys from Under-9s upwards who trained early so they could come and watch the Under-18s play Everton.
“We had boys aged eight, nine, ten sitting in the stands watching the older lads and aspiring to do the same one day.
“That 3-1 win was fully deserved too. The performance was superb, and what an inspiration for all our other young players.”
What many don’t know is that four of that team almost didn’t play against Everton.
“That morning some of the boys who had been involved at Reading were still training with the first team because Slaven Bilic wanted to keep them as part of the group,” explained Johnson.
“So Adu-Poku, Grieves, Blake and Adeyemo all did a session with the first team that morning.
“I was watching that session and then after it I went over to Slav and said ‘we’ve got a big game tonight in the Youth Cup, can I have the boys back so they can play?’
“He said yes, and so we then shuffled the squad around to get them in.
“Their faces lit up when I told them were okay to come back and play in the cup game that evening. It meant everything to them and they probably thought they were going to miss out because they were still training with the first team.”
Obviously a division separates Watford and Everton at senior level – and the gap is as wide, if not wider, at Academy level.
“As with any Category 1 Academy, Everton will have to meet a certain criteria in terms of facilities and resources,” said Johnson.
“Clubs have to invest more, and they get more funding from the Premier League to run a Category 1 Academy.
“It’s a huge difference between a Category 1 and a Category 2 Academy, and what Category 1 Academies can offer is a huge draw to young players and their families.
“Jimmy and I have tried to instil the culture and club values that we knew when we came through the ranks at Watford. We want to make sure the young players know the Watford ethos and how we feel about the club.
“But even then, Category 1 clubs have the resources, the finances, the facilities – everything is on a different level to a Category 2 club, and that’s understandable given the level of investment.
“Since me and Jimmy have been in the building we’ve probably lost six or seven players that have left us to go to Category 1 Academies. It’s a variety of circumstances, and some families see it as a better pathway. But there is obviously financial gain in moving to Chelsea or Leeds or any Premier League club.
“Jimmy always says that when young players and their families get a tour of a Category 1 Academy it’s like going into a football version of Disneyland!
“The facilities they have, the pitches they play on, the gyms they get to use. Everything is on another level which we currently can’t compete with.
“But where we can compete is trying to offer boys an environment where they feel valued as an individual, with really good staff who look after them incredibly well.
“The club has really supported me in making a lot of changes since I took the job. Scott Duxbury has really backed me in terms of getting good quality staff into the Academy for instance.
“We have a top team of coaches, medical staff, analysts. We have full-time staff who look after player care, which is massive these days.
“We have our own Safeguarding Manager now, which wasn’t the case when I arrived.
“The infrastructure we have now and the support I have had from the club in putting that in place is brilliant. I can’t grumble at that at all.”
Despite all those best endeavours, though, Johnson and Gilligan have seen highly-rated players move away from Watford
“We don’t want to lose players,” stressed Johnson, “but like I said, when a Category 1 club comes calling it is quite hard to turn down. I like to think we have great relationships with the players and their families and we do try to convince them to stay.
“I’m always transparent too. If we get approached by a club I tell the player and the parents, and give them the opportunity to go and speak to the club – more often than not, they do.
“My remit, for the Academy, is to make it financially sustainable while developing players. When we do lose players, with the guidelines of the EPPP (the Premier League’s Elite Player Performance Plan) there is compensation in place for each year an Academy player is with us, and that increases with each year.
“So financially, the money we’ve had back for the players we’ve lost has gone a long way to sustaining the Academy for years to come.
“That money has helped us to continue to improve the Academy, and the gaps created has given opportunities to other players.
“I’ve asked for money to redevelop our training pitches, and the club have given me it. I’ve asked for increased and more qualified staff, and the club have supported me to the point where in terms of staff we are running at a Category 1 level.”
Of course, the obvious question in light of the recent achievements of the club’s young players is will Watford get a Category 1 Academy?
“That’s my hope,” said Johnson.
“Jimmy and I have got a vision of where we’d like the Academy to go, but at this moment in time I understand where we are.
“It’s down to us to convince the owner and Scott that there is value in the Academy. We’re not losing players to smaller or similar-sized clubs. The players we lose are joining top Premier League clubs.
“We have got talent coming through, and the key is providing the infrastructure so that the players and parents feel valued and they feel like they have opportunities.
“I think what has happened recently in the first team and with the FA Youth Cup is showing players and parents that there are opportunities at Watford.
“What’s happened to Tobi Adeyemo is a perfect example. He’s a grounded kid who comes in with a smile on his face and loves to work hard, he’s very polite and good to have around.
“When the younger Academy kids see what Tobi has done, or come and watch the FA Youth Cup, then those things will generate a feel-good factor. They’ll hopefully think it could be them one day.
“I know, from my own past experience, that all Watford fans would love to have a first-team player that they can legitimately sing ‘he’s one of our own’ to at games.
“Fans will forgive a stray pass or a bad touch now and then, if they see a player giving 100% who wants to wear the Watford shirt.
“We have a lot of boys who have been with us since they were nine and they have grown up at Watford. So to represent the Academy and Watford FC, that becomes a massive thing for them.”
The club have also recently announced the signing of six young players to the Academy who were playing non-league football
“We have to think outside the box a little bit in terms of recruitment because we are in a fantastic catchment area but we are competing with Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea. Those three can all look in the same catchment areas as us,” Johnson pointed out.
“As I said, we moved on a lot of players from the Under-23s and have a really young group now.
“So I brought in Jerome Thomas as Head of Recruitment, he’s worked at Chelsea and Everton and knows just about every player up and down the country.
“What he has helped us find is players in the 16/17/18 age group who have experience of playing in local mens football. They’ve had a tough baptism, experienced playing against men, and then come into our Academy.
“They’ve added experience and made a great difference to our Under-21s and Under-18s.
“We also do it the other way, where we loan our players out to local non-league teams for work experience. So Tobi had a spell at Hitchin, Alfie Marriott, Adian Manning and Shaq Forde went to Kings Langley.
“Getting them out early to experience senior football and the culture is massive for us and for them.”
When Johnson and Gilligan arrived, they moved on many of the club’s Under-23 players which meant the club’s Under-21 and Under-18 teams featured many players who playing a couple of age groups above their own level.
Consequently, the season started with some heavy defeats.
“We knew that was going to happen, and when you look at the results those heavier defeats were at the start of the season,” said Johnson.
“We were losing to big, physical teams who have lads playing in the Under-21s who have first-team experience.
“We were a young group with only a handful of first-year pros, none of whom had much experience of mens football.
“Gradually the group has got stronger and benefitted from the experience of that tough first half of the season.
“We fielded a lot of players on team sheets who were ‘triallist’. Those are the lads who we announced last week and they have been with us for some time on trial. Because they were non-contract players with their clubs we couldn’t announce they had signed until the January transfer window opened.
“They came in and supplemented the players we had, and their experience was a huge help to the players they were playing alongside.
“I’m excited by the players we’ve signed, and just like the rest of the Academy they now have an opportunity to kick on, show what they can do and hopefully earn themselves another contract.”
As well as Academy players continuing to be involved in the first-team, there is another big night awaiting Watford’s Under-18s when they host Arsenal in the FA Youth Cup Fifth Round.
A date hasn’t been set but a game with the Gunners is likely to mean a bumper crowd at Vicarage Road.
“That should be a really good night, without a doubt,” said Johnson.
“The excitement we’ve had from Academy players being in the first team and then also playing in the FA Youth Cup for us has been so high.
“A game against Arsenal at Vicarage Road under the floodlights, with hopefully a really good-sized crowd. That will be special.
“Arsenal have had a conveyor belt of young talent come through their Academy and they run off a budget probably four or five times bigger than ours.
“So for us to beat the likes of Everton, and hopefully do well against Arsenal says to me we are heading in the right direction.”
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