We back up?

Sorry, some stuff happened.

I want to start by acknowledging something wonderful.

Over the past five years, despite my life getting—not exactly upended—but irrevocably changed (along with everyone else’s life) by the pandemic; despite my growing feeling that I’d said all that needed to be said about football (not just football analytics); despite my and my wife’s decision to move with our two children to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where my thoughts strayed even further from the Beautiful Game; despite feeling like this newsletter was well and truly dead…you kept subscribing.

Every few weeks, without fail, I would see new subscriber notifications.

None of this made sense. Couldn’t you read my entire archive without having to pass on your email address? And yes, I’m aware that most of the new subs were through blog recommendations (I don’t know how Substack works anymore) or something innocuous like that, people who didn’t bother to check the date on my latest post.

But it did truly keep the spark alive. So thank you for doing that, whoever you are (and hello if you’re reading this in anger because you forgot you signed up!)

So why am I back exactly?

It has to do with my son.

Right around the time I stopped writing this newsletter, he began his path to becoming a goalkeeper. His career began in earnest in Nova Scotia with a local club, and he’s continued to improve. This past August, we moved back from NS to Toronto, and, at 13 years old, he tried out and earned a spot on our local Ontario Professional Development League team.

And so, over the past few months or so, I’ve had a front row seat to ground zero for one major pathway to Canadian player development.

And I have things to say about it. Things that likely apply to North American youth sports in general. Things that I think make sense in the context of understanding how we develop elite footballers, how great potential footballers can fall through the cracks, and things that can apply to anyone who wants to think a little differently about talent development and identification. Things that, hopefully, might change things for the better.

How many things I have to say on this topic is TBD. But the main thing is, I’ve caught the itch again. So if you're new, please have a look around and see if this site is the kind of thing you’re interested in. And if you’re old, I’m sorry for leaving without saying goodbye, but look, this thing is free and will be free for the foreseeable future, so what the hell are you mad about exactly?

Anyway, I’m back! New posts on the way.