Published For the World’s Most Innovative Soccer Coaches English Premier League Academy Tour Journal Free Email Newsletter at worldclasscoaching.com First published August, 2006 by WORLD CLASS COACHING 15004 Buena Vista Drive, Leawood, KS 66224 (913) 402-0030 Copyright © WORLD CLASS COACHING 2006 All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher. Author - Daryn “Ozzie” White Edited by Mike Saif Front Cover - West Ham United U18 v Arsenal U18 game. Published by WORLD CLASS COACHING EPL Academy Tour Journal March 1 - 6, 2006 Arsenal Football Club Youth Academy Developmental Approach Mike Saif and WORLD CLASS COACHING magazine recently teamed up with Travel and Play to offer a fantastic opportunity for coaches in the U.S. to travel to England and visit two of the most successful and accomplished Youth Academy’s in the Professional game. I was asked to accompany the tour and write about the people that we met, the training and matches that we watched. We visited the Arsenal and the West Ham Youth Academies. Our first evening included a trip to the Arsenal Youth Training Academy in London. The Youth Academy is at a separate location to the first team training facility which is located on the outskirts of London. One of the first things that struck me as I walked in to the building was the history and the importance of this Academy to the future of such a great club like Arsenal. Surrounding me on the walls where pictures and posters of great legends such as David O’Leary, Frank Stapleton, Paul Merson, Tony Adams, and more recently players like Ashley Cole, who is making a tremendous impression for Arsenal and England. There are trophy cabinets brimming with the prizes and cups won all over the world by Arsenal Youth Teams. The Arsenal Academy is now in its eighth season, having been one of the first tier of English clubs to gain academy status in 1998. During its existence the Academy has consistently produced soccer player’s ready for first-team action with both Arsenal and other professional football clubs. The Academy Director is legendary midfielder Liam Brady, who is ably assisted by David Court, also a former Gunners star. Both are responsible for the development of all the boys registered with the Academy between the ages of nine and 21. At the end of season 2003/04, the under- 17’s and Under-19’s were disbanded by the FA to form one competitive level for Club Academies, the Under-18’s. The Arsenal Under-18s are based at the Training Center with the first-team squad and are coached by former Arsenal center-half, Steve Bould. The junior levels of the Academy — from Under-16’s down to Under-9’s — are based at Hale End Training Centre, another state-of-the-art Arsenal facility, under the guidance of Roy Massey. The Under-18’s finished third in their league last season and play most league games with many younger players from the u/16’s. Results are certainly not the ‘be all and end all’ for the Under-18’s with the Club’s primary concern at this age being “player development”. The most prominent example of a player progressing through the current system is Ashley Cole, who ©WORLD CLASS COACHING EPL Academy Tour Journal has established himself as first choice left-back for both his club and country. Goalkeeper Stuart Taylor, midfielders Jermaine Pennant, David Bentley, Steven Sidwell and defender Justin Hoyte are all Academy graduates who have earned England Under-21 caps, whilst Academy product Jeremie Aliadiere is a France Under- 21 International. Taylor and Aliadiere also won Premier League Championship medals, in 2002 and 2004 respectively. Hoyte, Aliadiere and Bentley are furthering their Premiership experience on loan this season at Sunderland, West Ham and Blackburn respectively, whilst Graham Stack is on loan to Championship side Reading. With Academy players regularly dominating the Arsenal reserve team line-ups and a steady progression of players being blooded in the first-team, often through the Carling Cup initially, the Academy production line looks set to continue and produce players to grace the Gunners’ new Emirates Stadium for many years to come. Bobby Robson, the former England manager is credited with starting the Academy initiative after his experiences throughout Europe illustrated that the younger you identify and work with players then the better the end product will be. The apprentice system in England used to identify players at 16 while the European clubs where training players as young as 6 or 7 years of age. The Premier League has rules and regulations for Academy Soccer from the age of u/9. The club has talent scouts looking at boys playing u/8 soccer and making recommendations on which boys to sign for Arsenal Football Club. Mr. Roy Massey, Director for the u/9 - u/16 age groups for the Arsenal Academy admits that recruitment at 8 is very difficult; what should you be looking for? Massey stresses that Arsenal is very lucky to have London as a catchment area. London is an extremely strong soccer area and Arsenal often has the pick of the bunch. Massey added that 11 out of the 22 players in the current England squad are from the London area. Arsenal has a number of Regional Centers where players can train and play before being invited to the main Academy located at Hale End, London. These regional centers are based in Middlesex, Croydon, Brentford, Hertfordshire, and Central London and provide Arsenal with a huge catchment area for recruitment. The u/7 & u/8 teams all play at the Regional Centers. Every 4 weeks all players from the Regional Centers come to the main Academy for assessment games. Such is the competition for places that boys are added and dropped every year. The first intake is 12 players and the commitment is for one year. All of the squads are changed each year in an effort to constantly upgrade the standard of the squad and the level of competitiveness for the Arsenal Football Club. There is 80% of the current u/13 squad left at the club who started at u/9. Only 5 of the u/14’s are left and 4 of the u/15’s. There is only one, 16 year old player left at the club who started out at u/9. The Club spends a lot of money and time developing, coaching, and mentoring ©WORLD CLASS COACHING EPL Academy Tour Journal many players who will never play in the first team for Arsenal and many others who will never become professional players. Liam Brady then joined Roy Massey to explain some of his observations and philosophies on developing the very best players for Arsenal in the future. Liam Brady and a number of the coaches have studied youth development throughout the world and have come to the same conclusions as many before them; Ajax of Amsterdam are a world leader and Arsenal send many of their coaches to Amsterdam as part of their coaching training program. Arsenal reverses the Ajax acronym (T.I.P.S.) and adopted S.P.I.T. to epitomize the youth development philosophy at the club. Speed – Personality – Intelligence – Technique London has more professional Soccer Clubs than any other city in the world therefore, competition for recruitment is fierce and parents have many choices if their son is good enough. If a player is pursued by Arsenal then he is usually being watched by a number of professional clubs. Many parents want to join Arsenal because of the pedigree and history of the club but these days many parents are also wary of the amount of players purchased from overseas. Arsenal’s expenditures to maintain the Academy are over US $4 million per year. The facilities include 2 full sized pitches, 1x Junior 11v11 pitch, 2x 8v8 pitches, spare ground for training, 2x sport turf pitches, including one housed inside a bubble to protect against the elements of an English winter. It also includes changing rooms, meeting rooms, offices and a general area for parents and guests to enjoy the canteen facilities and wait for the players. The Academy has 4 full time ground staff as well as kitchen staff. The recruiting staff, coaching staff, and Youth Development offices are also housed within the Academy building. Training is 3 times per week and the players enjoy opportunities to compete against the best in England as well as chances to play against the best that the rest of Europe and Scandinavia has to offer. The Arsenal Youth teams traveled recently and played against Real Madrid, Paris St. Germain, Ajax and Bayer Leverkausen. It is a huge commitment to Youth Football and to the future of Arsenal’s success. Liam Brady and Roy Massey both agreed that the worst part of the job is releasing players at the end of the season. They said that you develop an affinity and friendship with not only the player but the family as well so it is hard to tell that player he is no longer good enough for Arsenal Football Club. Most players released by Arsenal do receive opportunities at other professional clubs in the London area. The weekend game program is split with the main emphasis being on player development. The u/9 play 2x 5v5 games on a Sunday morning with each game split into quarters which allow the coaches more time emphasizing the club developmental philosophy.