Chris Rigg is the latest academy player to make a major first-team breakthrough at Sunderland. However, Chris' story isn't the reality for most young players.

In this episode of Word on Wearside, we're looking into the problems surrounding academy football - just why do so many players enter club academies and not make it to the ultimate goal?

We'll be joined by Sunderland's Under 21 footballer Ben Crompton, and Sunderland Under 18's Academy Coach Jordan Moore.

The team behind this episode:

• Finlay Anderson
• Blake Burns
• Liam Day

Word on Wearside is a Spark Sunderland podcast, produced by journalism students at the University of Sunderland. With teaching supervision by Lecturer in Audio, Jay Sykes.