INTRODUCTION

It's pretty common knowledge that football is a sport with large financial involvement. To reach the top levels of the sport, teams need to invest greater sums than ever to secure the best players, coaches and even stadiums to ensure long-term success. So with this in mind, we have decided to try and find out just how linked a football club's finances are to its success.

We will also look at how this financial involvement affects the prospects of young players who are trying to make it into the game. With so few young players making it out of the academies and into Premier League teams, we will assess the importance of the factors that can help young players to make it to the top, and how coaching can influence the journey.

CLUBS' FINANCES AND SUCCESS

The English Premier League is big business. With Sky Television's money and club sponsorship (let alone ticket sales and merchandise), there is a huge financial incentive to do well in the top division of English football. There are, of course, also significant opportunities to be gained in Europe from doing well in the Premier League, just look at the battle for 4th place and you will see how much it means to make it into one of the two big European cup competitions (the Champions League and the Europa League). All of this potential income means that clubs are looking to maximize every pound that they spend.

The infographic below shows exactly how much individual clubs have spent on players over recent seasons. As you can see, there is a direct correlation between spending and the finishing position. This is no surprise, the teams with the largest finances can bring in the best players. The biggest of England's Premier League clubs all have extensive scouting networks that allow them to locate the best players across the globe. The large financial backing then allows them to outbid rival teams to secure the players.

INTERACTIVE GRAPH

Please use the toggles below to switch between the various premier league seasons

ACADEMIES

It is not only the signing of big stars that is important to clubs, but it is also finding the best young players. Often scouting networks earn their money from finding future talents. It is no surprise that the biggest clubs not only have the highest spending, but they also have the best academies. This future investment ensures a steady supply of young players who will help to ensure the club's future prosperity. Newly crowned Champions League winners Liverpool, for example, have a renowned academy that develops some of Europe's most exciting talents including England international Trent Alexander-Arnold, who was a pivotal member of their success and has been at the club since childhood. Academies are the ideal way for clubs to bring in young talent and develop it in-house. By employing expert scouts and coaches, millions can be saved long-term by the development of prized talents.

While academics are an excellent idea, they also offer a brutal reality: many players do not make it to the top. Out of players who enter academies at the age of nine, fewer than 1% will make it as professional footballers at any level. When it comes to the Premier League, the statistics are even starker: of the 1.5 million youngsters who play organised football in the UK, only 180 will make it to the top of the game. In the next section, we are going to look at some of how a child can have the best chance possible of making it to the top.

MAKING IT TO THE TOP AS A YOUNG PLAYER 

If innate talent was the total of what made a successful professional footballer then there would be a lot more than the 1% of those who enter academies as a 9-year-old making a career out of the game. So one thing is clear, it's more than just talent that makes a professional footballer.

So what else makes a great footballer? Well, many factors help football academies to decide whether a player is going to make it to the top. Leadership skills, for instance, are another skill that can be the difference between an average youngster and one who is headed for stardom. There is also attitude keys such as the determination to succeed that can be the difference; a lot of young players have natural talent but struggle when it comes to the mental side of the game. Coaches need players who have strong mental focus and can be trusted not to lose their heads when they are on the pitch.

While not all of the factors that make a young player a likely future star can be taught, many of them can be fostered. Great coaching and mentorship can make a real difference in outcomes and go a long way to help improvements in some of the other areas of the game that are just as vital as natural talent. It is these skills or lack of them, that has meant talent has either reached the top or never reached its potential. Football is littered with stories of naturally talented players who did not have the mentality to get to the top.

THE DIFFERENCE COACHING MAKES

Think of today's top coaches - the likes of Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp for example - and you will see the difference that a coach can make. At the highest levels, coaching is much less about technical skills - though this is also a prerequisite - and much more about man management. While tactical knowledge can make a huge difference, it is the ability to coach the complete player that makes all of the difference. You can often see this in action when teams change managers; while it sometimes seems that managers are always being sacked, the reasoning behind it is that there is a clear disconnect between the manager and the players that can often only be fixed by replacement. Bringing in the right coach can take the right team to the top. It is this ethos that we bring to our coaching. We teach a whole lot more than technical skills so that our young players have the chance to become the best player that they can be.