Professional clubs, meanwhile, argue that their own youth systems do the job better. Of these, 60 have made their League debuts, most of them in the lower divisions, while a handful have risen to stand out among the more conventionally educated: for example, Andy Cole, Nick Barmby, Sol Campbell, John Ebbrell, Garry Flitcroft, Ian Walker, Mark Robins and Trevor Sinclair.Of the school’s 100 other graduates, many are still too young for anything of significance to be expected of them yet Of those that are not, some have failed to make the grade. If there is a lesson to be learnt from such establishments it is that these things take time. Tennis’s five-year-old junior initiative is only now beginning to show signs of bearing fruit, as we report below. The Football Association’s School of Excellence has been here for 11 years, and in the eyes of its critics remains at best unproven as a means of nurturing young talent and preparing it for the rigours of the professional game.
The FA School of Excellence held its 10th graduation ceremony in May, when the total number of boys to have passed between its goal-posts reached 160.

If so, it will be the latest chapter in the legend of the mountains.. AMID the almost universal approval with which John Major’s plans for a British Academy of Sport have quite rightly been greeted, little mention has been made of the fact that in two leading sports – football and tennis – academies, or comparable institutions, already exist, and a third, cricket, could well open one before the end of next year. More likely is a stage win, maybe today on his 31st birthday. Knocked unconscious, Durand lay for what he called “an eternity”. With 17 stitches and a hairline scaphoid fracture, he got back on his bike and continued the descent before climbing into an ambulance.A crash is now probably the only thing that stands between Indurain and the yellow jersey in Paris. Next day, seven more riders retired, including the Frenchman Jacky Durand, winner of the prologue time trial He slid on a bend at 80kph, lost control and fell heavily.

His more favoured compatriot, Tony Rominger, reached the 6,500ft-high finish six minutes behind, and then refused to speak to reporters before riding away to his hotel. More than seven minutes back, the Danish challenger Bjarne Riis crossed the line in a final, desperate lunge as a pyrotechnic thunderstorm erupted. The vaunted Russian challenger Evgeni Berzin, on his first Tour, arrived over 17 minutes behind, his hopes washed away.The next day on l’Alpe d’Huez, 11 men did not make that stage’s cut- off time of 45 minutes behind the winner, and another five gave up. With the zipper pulled down on his bright pink team jersey, baring his sweat-glistened chest on a day of 38C heat, Zulle gained time on all his rivals – except for Indurain, the Spaniard closing to within two minutes by the finish, preserving his race leader’s yellow jersey.The enormity of Zulle’s epic ride was emphasised by the looks of disillusionment on the faces of his rivals. But even so, they cut Zulle’s lead by only a few seconds before the start of the final, brutal climb.Zulle faltered on the early slopes of La Plagne, but regained his rhythm for the second half of the 17km climb. Racing through Alpine meadows and past cascading torrents, Zulle seemed inspired by his surroundings and by the banner-waving fans who lined the upper slopes of the Roselend pass.By reaching the summit five minutes ahead of the other race favourites, he forced Indurain to call on his Banesto team to race to their limit on the Roselend’s long, torturous descent. He proved that again last week on the two Alpine stages, finishing second at both La Plagne and l’Alpe d’Huez.On the climb to La Plagne it was Zulle who brought out the best in Indurain, taking the field by surprise with a solo move 93km and three mountains from the finish.

The probable winner, for the fifth successive year, is Miguel Indurain.The man from Navarre is an anomaly, because, despite his impressive physique (6ft 2in and more than 12 stone), he revels in the long mountain climbs. By that time, the outcome of the three- week race will almost certainly be known. “You don’t know how hard you really have to go to make the time limit.”At about 3pm today the 130 or so competitors who have survived the first two weeks will reach the lower slopes of the 5,000ft-high mountain pass in the Pyrenees, the Port de Lers.It is the first of 16 climbs they will tackle before emerging from the mountains on Wednesday afternoon. Last Tuesday, one such was the New Zealander Stephen Swart, who finished 129th at La Plagne, 30 minutes after the stage winner, Alex Zulle “When they’re going so fast in front,” Swart said.