IN DEPTH WITH...Charlie Austin

The 14 or 15-year-old football-mad child, who thought they were on the path to success, sees their dreams shattered into a thousand pieces when they are told by a youth development manager that they are not quite right.

A report out yesterday highlighted the scale of the problem, with only 11.7 per cent of top-flight players graduating from their club’s academy systems.

Clubs are becoming increasingly reluctant to give their young starlets a chance to shine at the top level due to the huge financial pressures to succeed and the readily available pool of foreign talent to pick from.

Charlie Austin was one such player to have his hopes dashed at an early age.

Having spent six years on the books at Reading, he was shown the door at the age of 15 when a change in hierarchy left him out in the cold, saying that he was too small to progress and compete in the adult leagues.

How wrong that person - and many given the same powers to make or break a young player’s career - was.

All Austin wanted to do then was go back to playing with his mates in the park and reconnect with the game he loved. Before, that was drilled out of him by endless training routines and fitness tests and having to constantly prove himself.

“It was hard for someone at the age of 15 who only wanted to play football and then they’re told ‘no it’s not for them’,” said Austin, reflecting back on a time where he thought the game he adored had deserted him.

“I don’t think that is right. You are wrecking a boy’s dream, which is not what you want to do at that age.”

Charlie Austin joins in with the kids at his soccer school in Hungerford

Little did he know, when he was playing for his uncle, former Portsmouth player Darren Angel, at Kintbury Rangers in the 11th tier of the football pyramid, that he would one day be on the brink of the national side, having scored 18 goals in his first season in the top flight with Queens Park Rangers.

Sat on the side of an artificial pitch in the shadows of John O’Gaunt School in Hungerford, where Austin had played football with his mates in any spare second he had out of the classroom - and sometimes in it - the 26-year-old struck a content figure.

“Did I think that I would be where I am now, setting up my own soccer school being a professional football player? Then - no,” he admitted, all but giving up on his dreams of making it as a footballer after leaving the Royals.

“Hard work, determination and a bit of luck - everybody needs a bit of luck - and here I am now as a professional footballer.”

For Austin, it was a case of pushing the reset button. No longer did he have these grand ambitions of emulating his heroes that he would watch on Match of the Day on a Saturday evening and then try to emulate on the pitch on a Sunday.

Instead, he wanted to have fun again.

“At 15, it is hard when you have been at an academy for so long and you get told ‘no’,” he said.

“You do need to get around it and need to get the enjoyment back by playing with your friends week in, week out, and that was what really gave me the buzz.

“For two years, I really enjoyed my football and then I broke into Kintbury’s reserve team when I was 16.

“When I joined Kintbury, I thought 'that was it now' and there were no ambitions at that stage that I could still make a career in the game.”

However, that was not it for Austin. Far from it.

Whilst at Kintbury, Austin was given his first taste of professional football with Swindon Town when Iffy Onoura handed him a trial at the County Ground.

A knee ligament injury that required an operation stifled that move though and when Onuora was replaced by Dennis Wise, the chance had passed.

Austin went to play for Hungerford Town before his family moved down to Bournemouth and he followed in tow, then working for his father’s company, Austin Brickworks.

Getting up at six in the morning to go and work on a building site before downing tools and making his way to the Isle of Wight to play an away game for his new club Poole Town may not have been the most glamorous of affairs but for Austin, it was his new routine and something clicked for him down on the south coast.

“My dad had a big building company so I just thought I would work for my dad and that was it really,” said Austin.

“Football was a hobby for me and I wanted to maintain that - if that was just playing with my mates, then great.

“It wasn’t until I moved to Poole Town that money came into it and I thought maybe I could earn £100 or £200 playing non-league.

“I went down to Poole and everything fell into place.

“I really enjoyed it down there and it was like I had grown up down there - it was quite surprising.

“If I didn’t go down there then would I be here today? Maybe not, but that is the luck and good fortune that I mentioned that you need.

“I went down there and met some really nice people and they put me in good stead and I started to make a name for myself again.”

Austin, pictured in his Swindon Town days

And some name it was.

Now in the ninth tier of the football ladder and on a semi-professional contract, Austin notched 48 times in just 42 appearances and it wasn’t long before the vultures were circling.

Eddie Howe at Bournemouth was the first to notice him and Austin went on trial with the now-Premier League outfit in 2008, having scored in a pre-season friendly against them for Poole.

However, a transfer ban was in place at Dean Court and Howe was unable to make the move for his man.

Swindon took full advantage, handing him a big step up to the third tier.

“I trained with Bournemouth for six weeks and did all my pre-season and then I went to Swindon for a week’s trial and scored against Swansea,” explained Austin.

“Danny Wilson (then-Town manager) saw me play against Bournemouth Poppies. I scored two and it moved so quickly from there.

“The next minute I was signing for Swindon Town and becoming a professional footballer.

“I was just delighted to be given the chance by (chairman) Andrew Fitton, Danny Wilson and Swindon Town.

“That was my chance then and it was a case of going and grabbing it with both hands.”

Austin struck up an immediate partnership with Billy Paynter and his 19 goals fired Swindon into the play-offs.

If it hadn’t been for that infamous bobble against Millwall at Wembley, then he may have been the person to send Town into the second tier of English football for the first time since the turn of the century.

Austin, who picked up a shoulder injury that summer, stayed at Town before leaving in the next January transfer window for Burnley, a move which he has admitted since that he could have handled better.

Undeterred, he spent two-and-a-half seasons with Burnley before QPR came knocking and his 17 goals in his first season helped fire the club and himself into a position he never dreamed he would be in after that car journey back from Reading just 10 years previous.

Now the former Town striker has headed back to his roots to set up football schools in the area, to not only give back something to the community that gave so much to him but also to get children enjoying football without the pressures of an academy surrounding.

“I am against academies. Maybe not at 15, but around the 10, 11 or 12 age,” said Austin.

“There is winning and losing at my camps, but what it is all about is having fun.

“I was fortunate that I got released at 15 and then a few years down the line, I was lucky to find my way and was eventually picked up by Swindon.

“It is important to give back because I was once one of these kids coming to a soccer camp and I really enjoyed it.

“I feel like a proud parent when I come here and see all these kids having fun.”

Austin, right, shares a joke with fellow former non-league graduate Jamie Vardy on England duty earlier this year

Austin was not the first player to be turned down at 15 and he won’t be the last.

You only have to look at the likes of Ben Gladwin, who was also released by Reading and forced to work his way through non-league, and Jamie Vardy, who was told he was too small by Sheffield Wednesday and went to play with Stocksbridge Park Steels but is now in the England squad and picking up player of the month awards in the Premier League.

Austin can’t say if he would have made it had Reading stuck with him or whether non-league helped him to mature as a player and gave him that hunger, but for many now, he will be a guiding light for what can be achieved.

“I have been there and played Hellenic League football, North Berks football, Wessex League football - who knows who is at that level now who could have that something about them,” he said.

“The one I can recently think of is Matt Taylor, who was at North Leigh and is now at Bristol Rovers.

“There are players out there and you just need to be fortunate enough to be spotted at the right place and the right time.

“It is all about moving forward and believing. If you want it hard enough, then it is out there and the chances are there to grab.”