Ben Burgess became a fan favourite at Griffin Park during the 2001/02 campaign, netting 18 goals in 51 appearances while on loan from Blackburn Rovers. In total, Ben led the line for ten clubs during a 14-year career.

Now a teacher in Lancashire, Ben still keeps a close eye on the Bees.

In his latest column, Ben addresses ticketing as a professional player and also sums up his experience of football academies

Tickets

Ex-Liverpool and Aston Villa player Steven Warnock recently did a piece for BBC Radio 5live around the pressures and stresses of ticket allocations as a professional footballer. The Lionesses also mentioned that some of the England men’s team had been asking them for tickets for their Euro’s game. So when you must go out and perform in front of 50,000 fans and a worldwide audience of millions, why do players get stressed by such a small detail?

This also used to stress me out before games because contrary to popular beliefs, players don’t just have an unlimited amount of tickets to hand out to anyone they like. In my time, each player received two or three tickets for home matches and any extra had to be traded with team-mates so at least we were always aware of the exact amount we would have.

These would be distributed by the captain. Away games were an absolute free for all. Often you would have family and friends travelling for hours to come and support you, but the away team wouldn’t tell you how many tickets they were allocating until you arrived at the ground.

So as soon as you entered the changing rooms there would be a big scramble for tickets and sob stories shared with the skipper, so he gives you one extra. It was a horrible thought to imagine your parents standing outside the ground with no ticket.

I know that at many of the bigger clubs now, the players buy a box at the start of the season for their friends and families to use (sadly our finances weren’t quite comparative) to alleviate any issues. The worst was playing at Wembley and only receiving two Club Wembley tickets (for the hospitality areas). Other tickets could be purchased to watch the game but that meant picking two people to access the VIP areas while the others go without. It’s not easy choosing between your parents, your wife, in-laws and best friends!

Academy

I have really enjoyed watching the recent documentary involving today’s opponents Crystal Palace and their academy, especially considering the Bees are in the process of renewing their own youth system.

Football Dreams follows three players each week to show their journey in the academy and ultimately ends with the club deciding to keep them for another year or to throw them on the proverbial football scrap heap.

I was in the academy system from the age of eight and my son and daughter are playing for Blackburn Rovers and Manchester United respectively, so I am more than aware of the cutthroat nature of football.

Many of my friends keep mentioning to me that they can’t believe how serious, high pressured and ruthless the whole system is. Constant monitoring of weight, speed and the pressure of the dreaded chop can take its toll on young people, but I have wracked my brains for an alternative way to this high-pressured system and I just can’t find one.

Football is an elite sport that everyone wants to play, and it would be cruel to keep players hanging on that aren’t good enough. What has improved from my time in academies is the player care side of things. Football clubs constantly run workshops for parents and players on nutrition, life after football, education, racism and equality just to name a few. The message from clubs to parents and players is always that it’s extremely hard to make it as a professional player and to make sure there is always a plan B.

I sometimes question myself about what impact being in the academy system will have on my children, but so far, they have learned so many life skills that they otherwise would not have faced: building relationships with people from different backgrounds, responsibility, dedication, overcoming adversity, working under pressure and the most important skill is to challenge themselves.

There will come a time when they have to deal with rejection, but that happens in every walk of life and at least they won’t be placed on the transfer list (yet) like their dad was!