Former Aston Villa prospect Josh Webb reveals how club care for released players
One-time Aston Villa bright light Josh Webb has revealed the level of care the club take with released youngsters in an interview with the Claret & Blue podcast.
Webb broke through at Villa alongside the likes of future captain Jack Grealish and Irish international Callum Robinson, but never got a chance in the first team.
In the interview, which was written up on the Birmingham Mail website, he revealed how the club took care of him after he was let go in 2016, when he moved to Kilmarnock.
“I knew it was coming at Villa. Sean Kimberley, the Academy Manager came in and said I know you’ve got that offer lined up so it’s probably the best time for us to do this,” he described.
“It’s hard when you’ve come up through the ranks, made so many friends and been there so long, but I was okay with it because I had something lined up.
“It was probably the easiest conversation I had even though I was there for 10 years.”
Villa’s aftercare system should be a standard across the Premier League
In the interview, Webb described the lengths the club go to in order to ensure released youth players have a future in the game.
He revealed that the club pay all released players for two months after their contract ends while also securing trials for them at other clubs.
This makes sure that released players have a guaranteed source of income while they search for employment elsewhere, either in football or not.
This sounds like it should be a standard across football, but sadly that is far from the case.
Many young footballers who get released experience mental health difficulties as a result, with former Manchester City and Blackburn scholar Luke Merrill describing how he was cut off after release to Mancunion in March.
He described receiving zero contact from his club after release, saying that very little was done to protect his mental health.
Crystal Palace launched a three-year aftercare program for released players back in January, giving each player a Player Care Officer to either find a new club or a path out of football.
While Villa do not have as extensive a scheme as Palace, and they should adopt a similar strategy, they still provide more support for released players than many other clubs.
Hopefully, Palace and Villa can help lead change in this area going forward.
In other Aston Villa news, the club are preparing to move away from the current club crest.