R.I.P. Jeremy

Once again, mental health is a very sad news item. I am saddened to learn of the passing of former Manchester City academy player Jeremy Wisten who took his own life due to depression on the back of being released by City. He was just 17 years old. Jeremy, who was born in Malawi, played for City’s youth teams after joining the club in 2016.

Jeremy is not the first, nor will he unfortunately be the last, to take such a desperate final step to end his mental anguish upon for what he saw as the end of his dreams. Rejection at such an early age, especially coupled with what he perceived as his entire reason to be, has resulted in the loss of a young man who could have easily been saved if the correct safeguards and procedures had been in place, and if they were in place, they were obviously not the correct ones.

When these youngsters are ‘hoovered up’ by the now industrial scale recruitment engines that large football clubs now employ, there will always be those that do not make the grade, but with increasing numbers being ‘attached’ to these concerns, there will be more and more who, like Jeremy, will not achieve their dreams, and that realisation will hit some very, very hard. Something needs to be done, both to control the farming of youngsters and also to prepare those in the system for their high probability of failure. We need to get to the point where mental health is discussed like physical health.

There needs to be an urgent intervention by authorities to ensure that correct pathways are in place, that responsibilities are met, and that expectations from the youngsters are set at a level where the fall from the heights is not dramatic enough to ruin young lives, and in some cases, cost lives. More, much, much more, needs to be done to help young footballers at this stage in their life and career, and force clubs to use the resources they have to ensure the safety and sanity of those in their care, and especially when they have removed what will appear to the youngsters, their future.

A gofundme page set up to help support Jeremy’s family pay for funeral costs has already reached over £5,000.
It reads: “We are raising money to help Jeremy’s family give him the best send-off he deserves.”