What a treat this one turned out to be!

In a bit of a midweek surprise, the gang caught up with Ryan Baldi, football writer for The Independent, The Guardian, BBC Sport and more and author of the upcoming book 'The Dream Factory - Inside The Make Or Break World Of Football's Academies'.

What followed was just short of an hour of insightful conversation about how the youth system in England works, what are its strengths and what are its flaws, what goes into the making of superstars like Marcus Rashford, Trent Alexander Arnold, Mason Mount and others and what happens to the thousands of kids who slip through the cracks and never make it in the professional game.

We cannot wait for you guys to hear this episode and tell us what you thought. 

You can follow Ryan on Twitter @RyanBaldiFW and on Instagram @ryanbaldi_writer, and you can pre order the hard copy of his book on Amazon.co.uk. Ebook versions will be out soon for international readers.

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