1965 Davey, Chris
Biographical Text
Chris Davey was an Exeter City 'Colts' and 'A' team player in the mid-1960s who played a lot of his football for the club either in the Wessex Youth League or the Exeter and District League. He later returned to the club to run the youth team in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
A right-back, a highlight of his playing days with the Grecians was a Wessex Youth League Cup final appearance against Bristol City in May 1966. Moving into local football soon afterwards when the club pulled the reserves out of the Western League in 1967, he eventually managed Heavitree United before returning to City as youth team manager in the late 1970s at a time when professional football was adjusting to changes in the signing and development of young players.
On the one hand, the raising of the school-leaving age in the early 1970s meant that clubs were essentially getting players a year later than before and the 'halfway house' of taking 15-year-old new arrivals on the 'groundstaff' - or registering them as amateurs - had effectively been removed. On the other hand, what had started as the Youth Opportunities Programme was starting to be replaced in the early 1980s by the Youth Training Scheme which led to the the government subsidising the wages of 16-18 year-old footballers. This meant that clubs were using the 'associated schoolboy' option - whereby a school-aged pupil could train with a club - for 14-16 year olds and take on more and more school leavers as they developed whole squads of teenaged footballers.A right-back, a highlight of his playing days with the Grecians was a Wessex Youth League Cup final appearance against Bristol City in May 1966. Moving into local football soon afterwards when the club pulled the reserves out of the Western League in 1967, he eventually managed Heavitree United before returning to City as youth team manager in the late 1970s at a time when professional football was adjusting to changes in the signing and development of young players.
This was the task facing Chris Davey and early successes as 'YTS players' (a term that lasted far longer in football than in the outside world) included Scott Hiley and Martin Ling. But in 1982, with City facing a financial shortfall, Chris's post was not seen as a priority and was scrapped. There was then a gap before Mike Radford took over the youth development reins.
Having finished with Exeter City sooner than he may have hoped, Chris was nonetheless fondly remembered when he died in October 2018 and there were online tributes from the likes of Scott Hiley and Graeme Kirkup and this from Martin Ling, then director of football at Leyton Orient:
"Chris was a massive part of my successful football career. He signed me as a 14 year boy from London and made sure I was always looked after properly and helped me with his knowledge and guidance.".
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