Derek Geary on the Sheffield United academy mindset that drives on Sydie Peck, Oliver Arblaster and co
Sheffield United academy manager Derek Geary is not afraid to say out loud things most of his counterparts would keep to themselves. “I'm obsessed with wanting to develop a player who's going to be worth between £50m and £100m,” he admits as we chat in his office at Shirecliffe.
But it is more than just that ambition which stands out.
In an era where English football is pumping out perhaps its most technically-gifted generation of players, it is unfashionable, maybe even taboo, to talk about developing fighters. But Geary is proud to.
Anyone hiding away from that mindset at Sheffield United's training ground can expect the hairdryer treatment from him – unless first-team manager Chris Wilder gets there first.
Wilder set the lead when he first took the job in 2016 demanding the academy produce more competitive players. No one epitomises it more than current posterboys, Sydie Peck and Oliver Arblaster.
Ex-Sheffield Wednesday and United full-back Geary had been part of the set-up for six years when Wilder returned to breathe new life into the then-League One club.
Geary came back in 2010 to dip his toe into coaching and see if he liked it. Having started with the under-9s, the Wilder revolution saw him coach the under-18s. When Wilder's sacking as manager in 2020 prompted Paul Heckingbottom and Jack Lester to shuffle up the ladder, Geary took the latter's job with no pretensions to go higher. Academy manager is his calling.
After his team's recent 1-0 win at Hillsborough, an emotional Wilder spoke of the transformation since the Owls were a hair's breadth from promotion to the Premier League with their neighbours in what some blue-and-white fans called a “pub league”.
“I wanted us to have the best team, highest standing, best academy, best ground, best training ground,” he said.
Now on the verge of the Premier League – a push which continued at home to Coventry City on Friday – he has his wish.
The academy was already good, Kyle Walker and Harry Maguire having not long left on journeys which led to European Championship finals. David Brooks, Aaron Ramsdale and Dominic Calvert-Lewin have since made it to the Premier League, Iliman Ndiaye the World Cup, Daniel Jebbison was the Premier League's youngest goalscoring debutant, and Will Osula raised £20m when sold to Newcastle United.
In his second spell as manager, Wilder is enjoying the fruits of his demands.
Arblaster, who captained his club in the Premier League aged 20, would be spearheading their push to get back there but for a ruptured anterior cruciate knee ligament. Peck has picked up the midfield baton, and 21-year-old Femi Seriki is threatening to solve the right-back problem.
“We have a mantra here – outrun, outfight, outplay,” says Geary. “Outrun, you look at Femi's physicality, outfight, you look at Sydie and outplay, you look at the technical talent Blaster has.”
Most academy products can outrun and outplay opponents, but some set-ups are shy to talk openly about outfighting them.
“We've got a manager who is very competitive,” says Geary. “Certain academies can be a bit fluffy and say it's not all about winning but you have to want to win.
“The other weekend (the Steel City derby) it's win or bust. Win and everyone's happy, lose and they're not.
“They have to be able to deal with a football but we have to instill that mentality. They have to be able to go onto a football pitch in front of 40,000 people and deal with all sorts – the opposition fans or their own getting on their back.
“Their youth team years are probably the hardest. They do 60km weeks. The doctor will say, 'We're getting injuries here, there and everywhere,' but I'll be like, 'The programme's not changing.'
“Jamal Baptiste was on the bench at Hillsborough and when he was warming up he was getting abused so it's just getting these boys prepared for it.
“We've got to make sure the support is just as high as the toughness. They have to feel you care about them and their development, and about them as a person as well.
“I've never seen a young player come here, not embrace the place and get into the first team.
“If we're five steps behind Man City (financially) and we do the same programme, we'll always be five steps behind,
“They're in at seven in the morning, they'll do a session before breakfast. That's 20 hours a month Sydie Peck was getting better than a midfielder somewhere else.
“In the youth team we made Oliver Arblaster captain so he'd got to come out of his shell. In games we'd get the keeper to pass to him with two boys around him.
“Sydie Peck's an absolute winner so we put him on the weakest team and watch him go absolutely mad. We put Femi up against somebody as physically strong.
“The Sheffield United culture the manager brought in in 2016 is fundamental. We have non-negotiables. I have signs all around the dressing room with them on it.”
He proudly shows me one.
“Every session must have the Sheffield United way in it,” it starts.
“Tackle, track runners, win your individual battles” stands out from a lengthy list of demands. “Make your players better. Drive the standards” is the sign-off.
“We've got great coaches so I tell them they can do any session they want, experiment, but if it doesn't have those non-negotiables in it I'll go absolutely nuts,” says Geary. “Even if it's an under-8s session I'll have the coaches in a room saying I ain't having that in a Sheffield United session.”
Peck, a Londoner picked up from Arsenal, arrived with that mindset fully-formed. It has fed his ego – another taboo word but not an insult if managed to drive him on.
“He almost needs a carrot in front of him that he can't catch,” explains Geary. “When we played Middlesbrough Jack (Lester) said he had to get the better of Hayden Hackney.
“Playing in the Championship won't be good enough for him. The manager said it and it is true, Sydie will be wondering why Real Madrid aren't calling up about him.”
Before he got the better of Hackney, it was Arblaster. The Sheffielder beat Peck to his Blades debut, first goal and captaincy.
“Sydie came at 15 into a really strong youth team with Will Lankshear, Blaster, Louie Marsh and Owen Hampson, I don't think we lost a game all season,” recalls Geary. “Sydie probably saw Blaster more as a competitor. It's Sydie's mentality to always want to be the best player.
“Sometimes we just put them against each other, Sydie's emotion trying to get the better of Blaster's brain. Blaster stepping up and doing really well probably niggled Sydie, just like it probably would if Sydie had and Blaster stayed behind. Now they are established they probably don't see each other as competitors.”
Peck made light of Arblaster's injury.
“I chat with the manager on a weekly basis,” says Geary. “It's because there are a lot of good kids coming through. When Arblaster got injured you could panic and think you needed to buy a midfielder but they said, 'Okay, what's the academy got?'”
The pathway is an edge the Blades have over more prestigious academies.
“You can lose kids to Category 1 academies,” admits Geary. “But I believe we've got the best programme in England with regards to coaching. We may not have the best facilities, we may not be able to buy kids for £1m but I believe the proof's in the pudding of the players we're developing.”
Now it is time to take the next step.
Sharing space with the first team bars the academy from the Category 1 status that allows their teams to play at a higher level, and changes the landscape for recruiting and retaining players. A new first-team training ground at Dore will allow Shirecliffe to become more productive.
“I do genuinely believe we are the best Cat 2 club in the country, it's just can we make that next step up?” asks Geary. “Everything’s geared to get there.
“There's a young player we're interested in at the minute and he loves everything about us. It’s between us and a Cat 1 club.
“I think he really wants to come to us but the other club is doing really well in the Premier League so their under-18s could be playing in the UEFA Youth League next year. Their academy manager can say next year you'll be playing Monaco, Atletico Madrid and all. We'll be playing Fleetwood.
“When the first team move to their new facility we've got more or less everything in place. It's a Cat 1 programme, it's just a lack of space and a few other logistics.
“I just want to keep turning out kids with Sheffield United in them. The more we can get into the first team, the more value we can get... I don't see any reason why we can't get that £50m to £100m player. The biggest satisfaction I could have is seeing a kid who'd been through our academy in a Champions League game.”