Young Players` Last Stage of Integration: Preliminary Data

Many football clubs strive for reproducible successful integration of young players in their main professional squad. Such integration enables these clubs to bridge financial inferiority and create continuity in playing style elements. Certain clubs’ success depends on their ability to integrate young players efficiently. Therefore, they aim to form a reproducible process that players undergo from the moment they set foot in the club to becoming an integral part of the club’s first team. This study focuses on young players’ last stage of integration, starting when they first join the first team and ending with them becoming regular first-team players. We analyzed data from the English Premier League (18/19), Italian Serie A (15/16, 16/17, 18/19), and the Israeli Premier League (15/16, 16/17, 18/19). A statistically significant relationship was found between young players’ playing time/increase in playing time in the upcoming four games and environmental parameters (e.g., team, age, position), alongside their performance in the previous four games. Performance was represented by match “on-the-ball” metrics such as goals, shots, passes, and tackles. In addition, we implemented a cluster analysis to differentiate young players according to playing-time patterns. We focused on a cluster of non-playing squad members at the beginning of the season who became regular players. We sought differences in performance metrics between players who received consistent playing time from the point of first integration until the end of the season and those that at some point, relinquished their regular status. For this purpose, we used several machine learning algorithms, but were not able to form a significant separation between the two sub-groups based on such performance data.