I think it's cultural more than it is practical. Corporate leadership mentality has taken over football management alongside the rise of the supercoach, who has become more like a chief footballing officer. Idiosyncratic creativity is an abberance, unless it comes from management or the executive group. Players are expensive cuts of meat and managers/directors are salty meat wankers sprinkling their genius on them.
Academies and the associated lifestyle essentially offer shelter from the very things that once made footballers interesting, where conformity and discipline reign over talent. Effervescent weirdos have been deplatformed in favor of bank managers like Mikel Merino.
