Source: Telegraph
Nedum Onuoha denies young players have it too easy
Lampard claimed that academy graduates would have been better off under the old apprentice system, cleaning boots, sweeping the terraces and painting dressing-room walls.
"Maybe he knows a few people [in the comfort zone] but in terms of our team and the players I know, a lot of players don't get 'too much too young' because you have a grounding," said the under-21s' eloquent captain, Nedum Onuoha.
"Even at Manchester City, it's very hard at the academy. You don't just walk into a professional contract. You always have to work hard whether you're cleaning cars or something like that. Although people say that's gone from football, there's still a lot that goes on.
"The majority of us at City used to clean the coaches' cars. It was [youth-team coach] Alex Gibson's car and it was quite a big car so it took a while. You can still go to some places now, like in the FA Academy League, and see a lot of people doing ground-work there.
"We were at Derby the other day and we weren't sure if one of the players there had to cut the grass, but it's not something people are aware of. They just think, 'He's a young player and he's got this and that'. It's not like that at all."
The proud owner of three grade As at A-Level, Onuoha is not your average academy product. He is so bright that under-21s coach Stuart Pearce often refers to Onuoha "being off somewhere splitting the Atom".
Pearce took a measured response to Lampard's comments, arguing that it depended on the individual not the era.
"I worked for five years in a job," said Pearce, a former electrician.
"That served me well and I draw on that experience. I've not got the experience of being a young player being brought up through a club.
"I'm sure some of that is fantastic experience for a career. What we're talking about is young men who have to keep a level tilt on everything that goes on around them: some do, some we lose, and that's the sad thing about football.
"But there's a lot of good pros out there who get brought up in the right way who have a great mentality towards football and towards life."
