Manchester City has agreed a deal with Nottingham Forest for England midfielder Elliot Anderson, according to reports.
Photograph: Nick Potts/PA Manchester City has agreed a deal with Nottingham Forest for England midfielder Elliot Anderson, according to reports.
Photograph: Nick Potts/PA What is the secret to Wallsend Boys producing so many top-level football players?
Elliot Anderson is the latest in a line of successful footballers from a club that focuses on the wellbeing of young people Not many local football clubs can claim to have produced the most expensive British footballer of the day.
Wallsend Boys, a grassroots team in working-class north Tyneside are about to do it for a second time.
With Elliot Anderson on the brink of a deal with Manchester City worth £116m, eclipsing the fee paid by Arsenal for Declan Rice in 2023, another chapter in the history of the club is about to be written.
It is one that will be familiar to club members old enough to remember Alan Shearer’s record breaking £15m move to Newcastle in 1996.
Wallsend club.
Photograph: Wallsend Club And it’s not just expensive talent that Wallsend churns out.
As well as producing record breakers, the club can also claim several England internationals who have come through their ranks such as Michael Carrick, Peter Beardsley and Fraser Forster.
It raises the question of whether there’s something in the water in the town, whose population numbers just 45,000, or it is the way Wallsend rears its young that makes the club such a crucible for footballing prowess.
Geography certainly has no small part to play in it.
The north-east is second only to Greater London as the county to supply players for Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup squad, with four of the squad raised in Tyne & Wear.
But Alan Thompson, another of the club’s graduates whose professional career included stints at Newcastle, Leeds, Aston Villa and Celtic, said it is people as much as place that makes Wallsend so special.
Wallsend shipyard, circa 1985.
Photograph: Brian Harris/Alamy Alan Thompson (left) celebrates after scoring for Celtics against FC Shakhtar Donetsk during the Uefa Champions League in November 2004.
Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA “It wasn’t just the football side of it, it was the people who worked at the boys’ club and how grounded they made you as a person.” The club was founded in 1904, created by a local shipbuilding company that wanted a “positive, safe” environment that would “keep their apprentices off the street”, according to its general manager, John Percival.
That focus on the wellbeing of young people has remained the club’s main focus for more than 120 years, with activities ranging from martial arts, line dancing and pilates offered, as well as discounted or free meals discreetly provided to anyone who needs them.
The Esso Northumbria supertanker being built at Swan Hunter shipyard in Wallsend in 1968.
Photograph: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Despite the name, the club also supports the women’s game, with teams ranging from juniors to seniors, some of whose players have moved to top professional sides and played internationally.
“What we provide is more than football, we give kids the skills they’ll use in life,” said Percival.
“We get families coming from the Scottish border, and people from down the road.
The youngest person at the club is four and the oldest is 84, and we have players in our youth team that are third generation.
It’s a proper community club, almost like a family.” Lee Clark, another former player turned pro who played for Newcastle and Sunderland, is the manager of National League side Hartlepool United.
He considers his time at Wallsend to be formative to who he and many others are both in and beyond the sport.
Lee Clark in a Newcastle match against Portsmouth in October 2005.
Photograph: Mark Leech/Offside/Getty Images “You learned about structure and respect,” said Clark.
“And obviously it produced a lot of top-level professional footballers but the lads who didn’t want to choose to go into football and went into different industries, because there were plenty of those lads, they took those qualities into their roles.” Despite the success the club continues to enjoy, Percival has said that the most important thing for the club is to continue to help young people in Wallsend and beyond, and producing the next wave of footballing stars is more of a bonus.
“We’re not here to build an empire or take over the north-east, we’re NE28,” said Percival.
“We just want to be here for another 120-odd years and hopefully help our community at the same time.” Explore more on these topicsFootball Young people features Share Reuse this content
