In May 2006, Middlesbrough made history by fielding the youngest-ever starting XI in the Premier League against Fulham. The average age of the team that day was just 20 years old. Even more impressively, 15 of the 16 named in the squad were born within a 40-mile radius of Middlesbrough. Of the starting XI, 10 were graduates of the Middlesbrough Academy, and collectively, they accumulated 1314 Premier League appearances throughout their respective careers.
Arguably the most successful product of the Boro Academy, Stewart Downing, wasn’t even involved that day. Downing made 408 appearances in the Premier League and 189 appearances in England’s second tier.
The Middlesbrough-born left-winger won two League Cups and was capped for England 35 times. Fast forward to the present day, Hayden Hackney is the latest academy starlet to be called up to the international stage with a recent debut for the England Under-21s.
In this analysis, we will look at how the Middlesbrough Academy has evolved over the years and provide an analysis of the current crop of academy graduates. Furthermore, we will look at the ones to watch who will be looking to break into the Boro first team in the upcoming years.
A look through the seasons
Over the past 21 seasons, the Middlesbrough academy has produced numerous players who have gone on to feature for Middlesbrough’s first team in the league.
The graph shows the 2005/06 season recorded the highest number of academy players to feature for the first team. This is, however, fairly unsurprising given the unique starting XI at Craven Cottage that season. Whilst the influx of academy graduates stayed relatively consistent in the late noughties and early 2010s, there was a noticeable decline from the 2013/14 season.
This period coincided with the appointment of Spaniard Aitor Karanka — Boro’s first non-native manager. The former Real Madrid midfielder preferred an international contingent as in the 2016-17 campaign, 63% of players who featured in the Premier League that season were non-English. However, he gave Boro’s current centre-back and academy graduate, Dael Fry, his league debut.
Following the arrival of Teesside native Jonathan Woodgate in the summer of 2019 as manager, more youngsters from the academy were given an opportunity. This included Djed Spence, who would go on to sign for Tottenham for a reported £20m fee. Although Woodgate’s successor, Neil Warnock, ensured an upward trend in giving youngsters game time, the same can’t be said for the man who replaced him, Chris Wilder.
Although Wilder gave opportunities to youth players in domestic cup competitions, he did not give a single debut to any academy player in the EFL Championship. During the reigns of Karanka and Wilder, it is plausible that no youngsters were deemed good enough to make the step up.
On the other hand, the lack of playing opportunities may be attributed to the willingness to put trust in the youth setup. It suggests that whether an academy prospect can break through is sometimes due to circumstantial luck.
This is very much the case for current Boro midfielder Hackney, who was given his debut under Warnock but did not appear once in the EFL Championship under Wilder. However, since Michael Carrick took over at the Riverside in October 2022, Hackney has been a critical player for the Teessiders.
The current crop
Hackney plays on the left of a defensive central midfield partnership with the experienced Jonny Howson in Carrick’s preferred 4-2-3-1 formation. Although the Redcar-born midfielder had to wait until the dismissal of Wilder in October 2022 to feature again in the first team, he was on a three-man shortlist for the EFL Championship Young Player of the Year award last season.
The pizza chart shows that in comparison to others in his position across the top three tiers, he ranked highly in his possession play and attacking credentials last season. Even though he didn’t feature in the first quarter of the season, he still managed to register three goals and four assists.
Under the guidance of Carrick, who himself played in central midfield, Hackney has been able to advance his game. The 21-year-old tends to play attack-minded and is effective on the turn, looking to play a progressive pass forward. The chart shows that Hackney’s weakness lies in his defensive play, particularly in winning aerial duels.
As shown in the chart, Hackney ranked in the 14.2nd percentile for percentage of aerial duels won compared to other left-sided defensive midfielders across the top three divisions last season. For the same statistic, in comparison with only tier two players last season, he ranked in the 8.8th percentile.
The youngster has, however, drastically improved this side of his game for this campaign, as he now ranks in the 47.2nd percentile for this attribute compared to other players in tier two. Whilst this does indicate that Hackney’s aerial duel win percentage is below the median, it nevertheless highlights his development as a player.
The statistics shown indicate why Hackney was worthy of his nomination last season. The Boro Academy graduate was also recently named in a study of the top 100 players in the world, born in 2002 or after, who are ready to make the step to a club in one of the top leagues.
He was one of only five EFL Championship players to feature on the list, including Swansea defender Nathan Wood-Gordon, who himself is a product of the Middlesbrough academy.
Hackney is one of five academy graduates who have featured in the EFL Championship for Middlesbrough this season. The others include Hayden Coulson, Fry, Josh Coburn, and Isaiah Jones.
Coulson has been given another opportunity to impress at Boro under Carrick, having been sent out on loan to Aberdeen last season; it is easy to forget that Fry, now one of the more senior players at 26 years of age, hailed from the academy.
The Middlesbrough-born defender has already made over 200 appearances for Boro, having made his debut in 2015 at the age of just 17. The fact he was integrated into the squad at such a young age suggests the high regard that the coaching staff held him in.
On the international stage, he was a member of the England Under-17 European Championship-winning side in 2014 and the Under-20 World Cup-winning side in 2017.
Fry is one-half of the current first-choice defensive partnership at Middlesbrough with Republic of Ireland international, Darragh Lenihan. The defender is comfortable in possession but could improve in making progressive passes forward, but there is no doubting his defending credentials.
Despite Boro’s poor start to this campaign, he currently ranks in the 93rd percentile for percentage of aerial duels won, and the 74th percentile for percentage of defensive duels won for right-sided centre-backs in the Championship. His 6ft1in stature would suggest why he is so dominant in the air.
At the other end of the pitch, Coburn has been welcomed into the Boro fold for this season after spending last season on loan at EFL League One side Bristol Rovers. During his spell at the Pirates, he scored 10 goals, and during the first half of the season, he was more lethal in front of goal. Between October 2022 and January 2023, he scored nine goals in 15 matches and had a scoring rate of 0.7 goals per 90 minutes.
Injury did hamper his campaign last season, but he did impress Rovers manager Joey Barton, who described him as “a fantastic prospect” who “could go on to play for England”. Coburn is a striker who can use his height to his advantage, holding up play, but he also possesses technical ability and is able to demonstrate there is more to his game than being a target man.
Spurs fans will remember Coburn as his goal ensured Boro progressed in the 2022 FA Cup at the expense of the North Londoners.
The young striker showed composure to play a one-two with Matt Crooks and beat the offside trap before hammering into the back of the net past Hugo Lloris.
Unlike his teammates, Jones was not born and bred on Teesside but was scouted from Tooting and Mitcham. He developed in the Boro Academy, was given his first-team opportunity by Warnock, and has been impressive at the Riverside in the past two seasons.
The heatmaps show Jones’s positional play down the right-hand side, and particularly in his debut season in 2021/22, he did not shirk his defensive duties as the graph testifies his ability to track back. A particular strength of Jones is his speed, which he uses to good effect to dribble and get inside the opposition penalty area.
The winger recorded nine assists in his debut season but will be looking to improve on his goal return, as his best return performance came last season with three goals. Furthermore, although he is strong at providing low crosses into the box, he will look to strengthen his floated crosses into the area.
Nevertheless, it is a testament to Jones’ character as well as the Academy setup at Middlesbrough that the young winger was willing to relocate from London to the north-east.
As well as the current academy graduates who are making a name for themselves at Boro, the Teesside outfit has produced many other players, currently plying their trade across the English football pyramid.
The bar chart shows that despite not being a Premier League side, Boro has produced talent who are currently playing at the highest level.
Marcus Tavernier made a reported £12m move to Bournemouth last season and has performed well in his first entire season for the Cherries. He scored five goals for the South Coast side the previous season, aiding their Premier League survival. As well as his attacking credentials, he proved he is just as capable defensively as he ranked in the 85th percentile for percentage of defensive duels won compared to others in the same position in the first tier.
Jason Steele managed to displace Robert Sánchez as Brighton’s number-one goalkeeper last campaign as the Seagulls secured European football for the first time in their history. For the 2022/23 Premier League season, 40% of the matches Steele featured in resulted in a clean sheet. This was bettered only by the now former Manchester United goalkeeper, David De Gea.
As former Middlesbrough youth players are coming to the end of their careers or have not quite been able to make the grade on Teesside, they have bolstered sides further down the divisions. EFL League Two side Bradford City are currently benefiting as five former Boro Academy players make up their current squad. The loan market still proves to be mutually beneficial for Boro and teams placed lower down to give youngsters much-needed game time.
One player reaping the benefits of a loan move is goalkeeper Sol Brynn. Brynn is the Leyton Orient number one at present, having spent last season on loan at Swindon Town, where he made 136 saves, the most in the division. He also ranked highly for the number of clean sheets. There was speculation he would compete for a first-team place at Middlesbrough this season, but Carrick felt another loan move would be beneficial.
Ones to watch for the future
Current Norwich City defender and former Boro academy graduate Ben Gibson once described how the academy on Teesside helped develop his “technical” side and his “knowledge of the game”. The Boro Academy, situated in the Rockcliffe Park training site near Darlington, is one of 26 academies in England currently awarded Category One status.
A new format was introduced for the 2023/24 season, whereby all Category One academies compete in the Premier League 2. The Middlesbrough Under-21s have gone unbeaten in their first four league games this campaign, including victories over Liverpool Under-21s and Wolves Under-21s, who both recorded wins in this season’s EFL Trophy. They are also amongst the highest scorers in the division. On the scoresheet against Liverpool was forward, Sonny Finch.
Finch was first introduced into the first-team fold in training under Wilder at the age of 17, indicating his potential like Fry. He then went on to make his first league appearance under Carrick in the 3-1 victory to Swansea last season. Finch is regarded as an exciting prospect for the future, as he was rewarded with a new contract in August 2023.
Another player who earned a cameo off the bench last season under Carrick was midfielder Pharrell Willis. The 19-year-old scored nine in 32 appearances while representing the Boro Under-18s.
Before revising the league format, Calum Kavanagh finished as the top scorer for Boro in the Premier League 2 Division 2 last season, scoring 0.8 goals per 90. This figure meant he finished in the division’s top 10 for goals per 90, alongside his teammate Jeremy Sivi, who ended the season with 0.68 goals per 90. Sivi is now on loan at EFL League Two side Harrogate Town and looking to impress.
In the first-round EFL Cup fixture away at Huddersfield, four academy prospects were named on the bench, suggesting that given the right opportunity, Carrick will look to include youngsters within the first-team fold. Included in the four was Finlay Cartwright, who, at 16 years and 161 days old, became the Teessider’s second youngest-ever player when he came on as a late substitute. Cartwright was recently selected to represent England at Under-17 level in the recent September internationals, and he provided an assist in the 1-1 draw with Morocco. Cartwright has attracted attention from Chelsea, and the North-East outfit will be hoping they can keep hold of the talented youngster.
Conclusion
In this analysis, we have seen how the number of academy prospects who have been allowed to play for Middlesbrough has evolved over the years. The Teesside club has a long history of producing talent, and the current first team is benefiting from such talent with more highly regarded youth prospects looking to grasp an opportunity.
Whilst the starting XI from that now historic day in May 2006 is likely never to be repeated in football, Middlesbrough have shown their willingness to adapt to the present football landscape, widening its net across the country in search of young talent.
Carrick is keen to oversee the integration of young players into the first team, given the right circumstances. The favourable policy suggests the future looks bright for the youngsters plying their trade on Teesside.
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