Radhi Jaidi sits in a Southampton hotel and gestures to a glass of water on the table.



“So this is the first team…”, he remarks, before placing another glass next to it. “…and this the academy.”



Jaidi is trying to illustrate to The Athletic the nature of academy football. First, pushing the glasses away from each other, he comments how many clubs keep a gap between their senior side and academy, with some teams looking to bring in transfers from “Europe, or South America”, while using sales of youth players to fund further transfers.



But when the Southampton under-23 manager brings up the club’s arrangement, he brings the two glasses much closer.



“At Southampton, the idea is to have the academy and the first team close. Always. They are different, but they are the same.”



When Jaidi is handed a third glass to demonstrate his new secondment role at Hartford Athletic, the...