LEARNING OFF THE BEST

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

Introduction

I have listened to numerous people working within the youth academy systems in the UK and
Europe and also some key people within national federations via the excellent My Personal Football
Coach platform. The purpose was to identify how certain academies continue to produce top players
year after year, decade after decade. Why are Croatia and Belgium producing top class players when
they have such a small population.

I was lucky enough to find podcasts with Coaches or ex Coaches who work / worked at 3 of the top
10 clubs in Europe in terms of producing professional players, Ajax, Dinamo Zagreb and Benfica.
Whereas the national federations, are all in the top 5 of the FIFA rankings (Belgium 1st, Croatia 4th
and England 5th), so a good evidence base to work from.

Key Findings:

- 1 v 1’s practices important at the majority of the clubs.

- Foundation stage, there is a big drive on ball mastery, duals, more dribbling than passing.
- Players develop technique using both feet
- Multi sports are an important part of development
- Competitive game programmes start earlier in other European countries, from under 9’s to
under 14’s.
- Recruitment is based on technique, speed, agility at many clubs. Size is not an important
factor.
- Key age for ball mastery and technique is at foundation stage, good habits early. The golden
period of learning.
- Coach Education is critical

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

Benfica (Portugal) – Joao Tralhao

Players Produced: Bernardo Silva, Renato Sanches, Victor Lindelof and Ederson

Under 9’s

All players must be taught to play with their left and right foot.

Start at 8 years of age. Ball mastery first, critical to develop acquisition of skills. Becomes harder as
they are older.

Train 3 times per week, plus games.

Start 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 games with goals.

Games are competitive from a young age to coach the winning mentality. Formal competitions from
9 years of age.

 Sessions are split into – First part. Always ball mastery (first 20 minutes, one ball each or one
ball between two);
 SSG with goals, directional with conditions for second part.
 Third Part games, 4v4 with floaters, 3v3 with floaters.

Have four week cycles, dependent on progress.

Under 12 – 16’s

Train four times per week.

Playing different positions to understand different roles. FB’s as wingers etc.

Play 4-3-3 as this is the easiest formation to adapt, 3-4-3, 3-5-2, 4-4-2.

Work on fixing positions at around 16 years of age, sometimes change right up to playing for the first
team.

Under 19’s

Gym session, then training in morning, school in afternoon.

Train every day, one free day Sunday. Play Saturday.

Have a B Team to bridge the gap between the 19’s and first team and speed up their development.
Play in Second Tier, adult football.

English players struggle to adapt to changes tactically in his view. More physical, athletic, powerful.

Personally – he has to improve every day.

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

All the top players do more and work harder. Di Maria, always stayed behind in training to work on
crosses, technique, shooting.

Produced £230m of talent in the past 3 years !

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

Genk (Belgium) – Niels Jansen (Technical Coach)

Player Produced: De Bruyne, Courtois, Koulibaly, Benteke

Currently top of Belgian First Division.

First age groups 1 v 1‘s, dribbling, creativity, exploration, results not important. NO passing. Results
are not important.

Players given option on what to train through the individual time allocated to them, so take
ownership of their development

Learn technical skills isolated, they have the tools to apply this in the game

All players at 6, 7 and 8 years of age have a ball each at training. Play lots of Futsal.

Play 1v1’s, 1 v 2’s, 2 v 2’s in training. Do not play 4 v 4, 3 v 3 at young age groups.

Do two week blocks of 1 v 1’s – behind, side, in front.

All coaches get technical skills plans every 2 weeks for their groups.

Develop both feet of the players, De Bruyne highly developed with both feet.

Players given homework working on skills, they then send a video in showing that they have
completed this.

Play a lot of tournaments so they are tested against the best in Europe – Germany, France, Holland.

Older age groups – U14’s + - video analysis and go through what they would do differently, what
they thought went well in games

Phases

7 – 10 years of age – Exploration. Train 3 times per week. Do multi – sports; karate, basketball.

11 – 12 years of age – Apply learning into games. Train 4 times per week.

13 + years of age – Tactical skills, refine technical skills. Train 6 times per week.

Fixtures start at Under 7’s

U6 – 2v2 games, U7 – 3v3 games; U8/9 – 5 v 5 games; U10 – 12 – 8 v 8 games:

Competitive games start at under 13 level with league tables

They have 8 x under 7’s and 23 x under 9’s. Key is quality, not quantity.

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

Romeo Jozak (Croatia) - Ex Head of Dinamo Zagreb Academy (2008-2013).

Players Produced: Modric, Kovacic, Kranjcar

Now Technical Director of Croatian F.A.

13 of the 24 players in the Croatia WC squad were from the Zagreb Academy. Modric one of the
famous sons of the Academy.

Passion of the Coaches is abnormal, level is crazy. The Croatian F.A pretty much know the team for
Qatar 2022!

Zagreb is trying to build an Academy to compete with the best in Europe.

Have a Psychologist as part of the team.

Let the game be the teacher is not correct. No one corrected us playing in the street, that’s where
we formed bad habits as well as good habits.

Early Stages

 Basic Development of a certain technique

 Dynamic Development of a certain technique
 Functional Development – 1v1, 2v2, 3v3
 Situational Development – Using technique in game related settings

Primary focus in Croatian Academies is technique development. Stable repetition = sub conscious
programming. Players form engrams, which are basically memories stored in the brain that trigger a
response to a stimulus. So, beating 2 players in a certain situation.

Before 11 / 12 years of age, kids only see what is in their periphery.

Analysis important as it is a biological and scientific fact that we can only detect between 25 – 35%
of events in a game. So, 4 – 5 watches of the game, so you can see everything.

In terms of recruitment, they are looking for technique, physical, aggressiveness, handling pressure,
can they adapt and problem solve.

85% of Croatian Academy players are Q1 / Q2 births.

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Dinamo Zagreb and Croatian Football Association (Croatia)

Boris Kubla (Previous Ass Mgr, now with federation)

Zagreb has a technical programme that is followed with 104 components, pitched by age group.

Recruit on agility, technical ability, character. Smaller players than those in England.

Tactical work in training is varied, so they do not stick to one formation as they are producing players
with a view to selling them. So, the more knowledge they have of other systems the more chance
they have of succeeding.

Every session has 1 v 1 practices with the 8 – 11 year old age groups, results not important at
Academy, players are challenged to do say 5 Cruyff turns in a game, more so than winning the game.
Put into the game what has been learned.

On Modric, he was loaned out to a Bosnian club, then a Croatian club before breaking into the first

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

Queens Park Rangers and Tottenham Hotspur

Chris Ramsey (current QPR Academy Head, previous Assistant Head Spurs)

Players Produced: Winks, Kane, Campbell, King

When Chris started all practices were very random, teams playing different, each coach did their
own thing.

We are here for the players, no other reason ! FIFO phrase brought in for Coaches, Fit in or ……

12 year plan started in 2005, had to put the first brick in the wall to start developing players. Spurs
was known as the 4 x 4 club (as in the motors on display), went in to inner city areas such as Hackney
for recruitment.

Plan was:

Extreme Technique (1v1 with or without the ball; left and right foot; ball mastery, balance, ball
striking). All players have a ball each. If you cannot mechanically do the trick, you will not do it in a
game. Unopposed to start. The build in interference.

Let the game be the teacher – load of rubbish ! Pep and Jose coach players, so should we !

Movement Experimentation – All players play different positions. Kane played 8, 9 and 10.

Movement Refinement – Refine positions as they get older

Positional Refinement - Looking for as essentials and desirables as a club, position specific to ensure
the lads are offered a contract at Spurs or elsewhere.

Work on Essentials and Desirables to help players get contracts, so a CB needs to be able to head a
ball, be good in 1 v1’s for essentials skills, desirable is if he can hit a 25 yard free kick.

Look for players that:

Technical excellence, demands of the game (i.e a CB can defend)

Retain the ball, use body

Able to contribute to purposeful possession

Physical and Mental Ability to play different positions

Mental capability to understand tactical and position specific instructions

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8 / 9 / 10 years of age

- If you have space run with it.

- If you hit a wall, pass it or beat the man
- Playground finishing is more realistic, how many prefect training ground moves are goals,
scrappy, red zone, boots flying. Games such as World Cup. Why practice 30 yard striking,
practice scrappy finishing.

11/12 years of age

- More tactical, shape. However, ball mastery still a big part of training.

Judging Players

In Possession

- Can the player score

- Can the player create
- Can the player maintain possession
- Can they get something out of it (set piece)

Out of Possession

- Can the player win the ball

- Can the player make play predictable
- Can the player support the first defender

The loan system is very important, players need to see what it is like at Dover, Billericay. All players
must have midfield player qualities.

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

Schalke (Germany) – Bodo Mendes

Academy Director

Players produced: Sane, Ozil, Draxler, Neur, Matip

Games programme starts at Under 9’s up to under 23’s.

Leagues are competitive from under 9 – Regional Cup

From an early age, develop a mentality to win

Under 9’s – Under 12’s – two squads – play 7 – a- side

Under 13’s – becomes 11 v 11

Coaches have freedom to play different formations, based on players available, but must play the
Schalke way, possession football and regain the ball quickly.

Under 9 – Under 11 – Individual technical development, lots of 1 v 1 ‘s – defensive and offensive –

front the front, back and side. Do 1 v 1 ‘s as part of all age group training as important. Developing
technique is the main priority.

Under 9 – 13’s – train three times per week.

Under 14 + - train 7 times per week (3 are before school)

Lots of individual work to develop technique

Recruitment

9, 10 and 11 – From the City

12, 13 and 14 – Region

15 + - National

Living at home is a huge advantage.

Ozil came at 17 years of age, Draxler at 11 years of age, Sane 11 – 13 years of age, went to
Leverkusen and then returned at 16 years of age.

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

William Weiss

Ex – PSV Eindhoven, now Ajax Academy

Players Produced: Van der Vaart, de Jong, Kluivert

PSV

Technical Skills Coach in place for under 9’s onwards.

60 minute session per week working on technical skills between 9 and 19 years of age – Scissors,
Cruyff, 1 v 1’s. Age group 13 to 16 years of age do individual development programmes on day
release.

Ajax

Play street football in the car park, to re-create what the previous generations had.

Start with isolated practice, then opposed practice. Show them the skills and the players then decide
what to use. Receiving, Beating opponent, back, side, front, shooting.

Exercise 1 v 1 – 2 mins front; 2 mins side; 2 mins back. Combine with goals, so more game related.

“We are not just developing players, we are developing good human beings”

If you have a poor attitude, you are gone.

Recruitment, look at the following:

Movement, Can they run, pass, receive, finish, technique (control, passing, finishing, tackling). Do
they have a growth mindset, so if they make a mistake, do they keep going.

Hold talent trials every Spring. Sometimes group the players by the quarter of their birth, so four
trials (3 months DOB coverage).

Training:

Under 8’s / 9’s – Play 1 v 1, 2 v 2, 3 v 3, no more for example 7 v 4. Practices a mix of technical skills
and SSG.

Under 8’s – Under 12’s – 3 to 4 sessions plus game per week. Come in after school. Players play 3 – 4
positions per game.

Under 13’s – Under 16’s – 4 to 6 session plus game per week. Players play 2 – 3 positions per game.

Under 17 + - 7 + sessions plus game per week.

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All sessions are at a high rhythm.

Weiss commented the Belgians produce so many good technical players as they work in very small
spaces.

They play every Saturday, aim to also play every Tuesday, which is a replacement for one of the
sessions.

Speciality Coaches are employed – Defence, Midfield, Strikers

One coach per 5, 6, 7 players, no more.

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

Danny Searle (ex - West Ham United Head of Academy) and Michael Beale (ex - Liverpool
Academy and Sao Paulo Assistant Manager) on Foundation Phase - DS and MB.

MB – session to be high tempo, train the way you want to play. Have a nice mix of big and small
spaces. Set boundaries for training, playful but controlled. Do individual technical work, then add
this into games.

Warm ups are all with the ball Sao Paulo. Work on 1 v 1 ‘s – pressure from the side, front and
behind.

In terms of games – Alex Inglethorpe at Liverpool – 25% out of comfort zone; 50% at the level; 25%
below the level.

If a player has social issues, play them down to build social skills, maybe make them Captain,
encourage leadership.

DS – Early developers move up to challenge them technically, so that they are not just relying on
their physicality and when others catch up, they cannot cope technically as always relied on their
physicality. Equally for late developers, to move down.

Play GK a year down so that they develop communication skills with a younger age group.

Sessions split 50/50 – Defending and Attacking principles.

MB – recruitment – look for personality, enthusiasm, movement mechanics.

DS – recruitment – growth mind set, do they give up when things are tough, do they react quickly,
transition.

Always have goals in practices where possible. Practice progression at SWFC 6 v 6 v 6 – 5 passes then
in on goal. If score, still same defending team, team that misses becomes defending team.

MB – Liverpool U18’s lost two games on the bounce. Put it to the players, what shall we do as a
group. Players idea was that if a team was 3-0 down in a practice they did doggies. This only
happened once or twice in the next 150 sessions.

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

Wolves (England) – John Hunter - Barratt

Head of Coach Development – Foundation Phase

Players produced: Gibbs – White, Keane, Baath

His role is split into Coach Development and Operational. As a club the HOC and Operational side are
split.

Have a lead FT Coach for two age groups, so 9’s and 10’s; 11’s; 12’s; 13’s; 14’s and 15’s and 16’s.
Category One club and heavily funded. Ranked as 3rd best in the country.

Lead has half a season with each age group. 12’s first 6 months as big transition with secondary
school, then 11’s. 9’s first 6 months, then 10’s.

Pre – Academy is 2 to 3 times per week.

Under 9’s / 10’s – 7 ½ hours per week. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday after school. Saturday and
Sunday morning. Under 9’s is all about ball mastery, then 1v1, 2v2, no more than 4v4.

Isolated work on developing technique, but build in decision making into the practices. Use carousels
when working on technique, keep it engaging.

Under 11’s / 12’s – Start day release at under 11’s, focus on S and C; Technical / Tactical
development, Analysis and Education.

Put Under 8’s, 9’s and 10’s on a regular basis to develop leadership skills in the older players. Parents
made aware. “If it’s planned, it works”

Foundation – Two competitions per year; YDP – Five competitions per year. England Youth players
develop from this exposure to competitions.

Ask players to do team talks, social and psychological side. Explain that players playing up is not the
golden ticket to parents as they get excited !

All Coaches have 25 areas of development.

Every 7 weeks, they have a loading week.

Develop Good People First !

Wolves do blocks of 4 weeks –

1 – Initiate the Attack

2 – How do we finish the Attack

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3 – How do we press

4 – How do we defend the goal

This rolls round every 4 weeks so the learning is in short blocks and so that motivation is kept high as
opposed to a 6 week block on one area.

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

Brentford (England) and FC Midtjylland (Denmark) – Rasmus Ankersen

Director of Football Brentford and Chairman FC Midtyjlland

Players produced: Poulsen, Sisto

Have a B team at Brentford after scrapping the Academy system due to the number of competitors
in the locality. They have a very competitive games programme playing Villareal, Bayern Munich,
Manchester United. They recruit from Scandinavia and by having solid relationships with Category 1
clubs. Four players from the B team have made first team debuts.

At FCM it is a different approach as they are the main club in their region in Western Denmark. They
have beaten Malaga and Anderlecht of late in the UEFA U19 League.

At FCM they have the following targets:

- 40% of game time from Academy graduates

- Make a yearly profit
- Qualify for the UEFA Europa League

They are both subjective and objective when making decisions. The owner of both clubs Matthew
Denham is a professional gambler, who has made his fortune analysing sport. Both clubs have an
approach whereby the league table is not the determining factor on how they are performing.
Football is a random game and as it is low scoring the best team does not win as often as it would in
a sport such as basketball.

Good examples of team having luck and the randomness of football was Pardew’s Newcastle who
finished 5th in the PL, only for the season after to be fighting relegation. They had a DG of only + 5 in
the season and Cisse had a short conversion rate of 33%, which is unbelievably high. The same goes
for Reading who reached a play-off final one season and were fighting relegation the next.

The clubs employ set piece specialists, ball striking coaches, a sleep coach and spend a lot of the
working week on set pieces. All players have an App where they can log sleep and they give a rating
of how they are feeling every morning.

Around 30% of goals come from set pieces, however, we do not spend much time on them in the
industry. When they won League 1, they had scored the second highest number of set pieces in
Europe.

The strategy and philosophy of the clubs is set by the Directors, not the Manager, they don’t have a
long shelf life. The style of play must be attractive, ball on the ground.

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

Barcelona (Spain), Vitesse Arnhem (Holland), Brondby (Denmark) and Maccabi Haifi (Israel)

Albert Capellas (Youth Co-ordinator at Barcelona)

Players Produced: Iniesta, Messi, Busquets, Xavi, Valdes

The Barcelona 14 to 19 age groups was Alberts main focus at La Masia, when he was the Youth Co-
ordinator. He was a disciple of Cruyff and watched him deliver practices many times.

All teams at La Masia must train the philosophy, this starts from the first age group at under 7.

All practices are prepared for the Coaches. They are there to develop players of the future, not
develop their individual careers. All sessions must be at the correct rhythm, with a big focus on
retaining possession. Coaches can vary the practice a little, but it must fit in with the philosophy at
all times.

Training is no more than 90 minutes per session and delivered at a very high intensity.

They work on the 3P’s

Possession – Lots of passing drills on 1 and 2 touches, will allow 3 touches from time to time. They
do this to ensure the players can make decisions fast.,

Position – working on the correct place to be and body shape

Pressing – winning the ball back within 5 seconds

All warm ups are done with a football.

Session Structure:

15 minutes warming up

20 minutes possession games

20 minutes position game

30 minutes SSG

Must play 1 / 2 touch in defensive and midfield thirds. Attacking third scope to go at players 1 v 1.

Coach only has 90 seconds to explain the next stage of the practice, very little time talking.

No strength and conditioning work takes place until the players are 15 years of age.

Not a lot of training on ball mastery like other Academies, he says Messi and Iniesta could do they
skills they use now when they were 8 years of age!

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

Training Programme

7 Y.O – Train twice + 1 game

8 – 10 Y.O – Train three times + 1 game

11 – 14 Y.O – Train four times + 1 game

15 – 16 Y.O – Train five times + 1 game

16 + - Train six times + 1 game

Train the left foot and right foot from day one. The key periods they develop technique is 8 years of
age and between 12 and 14 years of age during the growth spurts.

Version of what is not a Rondo, what is a rondo.

1 – Rondo – 4 v 2, 5 v 3, 7 v 4 etc, used for warm ups.

2 – Rondo (called Position Games) – 4v4 + 3 etc. Play and stay in the positon in the grid, which also
creates individual duals.

3 – Rondo (called Possession) – 8v8 + 2. Play anywhere.

Recruitment

Never recruit on physicality, it is agility, speed and technique. Barca will lose a lot of games in the
first 2-3 years as other sides are bigger. But results do not matter. After 3 years, due to the
philosophy the team start to win a lot of games, no matter what size the opponent is. At around 17 /
18 years of age, the physicality becomes the same.

Scouts find the talent, then the Coaches go and watch the players before a decision is made on
whether to bring them in.

94% of the players in La Masia are from Catalonia, it is important to the club that players can be at
home and also understand the culture of the country.

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

Belgian F.A – Kris Van Der Haegen

Head of Coach Education

Population of 11 million people. Lots of changes the last 8 years in terms of youth development. As
follows:

- Up to under 10’s it is 5v5

- Under 11 to 13 it is 8 v8
- Under 14 + it is 11 v 11

He has seen the kids come through this change of programme and they are technically better due to
having more ball contact time than previously.

1 v 1 practices are part of the curriculum right up to under 19’s. Big emphasis on 1 v 1 as they want
players that can beat an opponent and create a numerical advantage in a situation. They can teach
them to pass later on!

Use ball mastery for warming up and cooling down.

At U6’S and U7’s play 2 v 2. Kids are egocentric and do not want to pass the ball anyway. Encourage
them to dribble, we as Coaches give them the tools to play. Kids bibbed up in green, amber and red
so that they after competing against players of a similar standard.

Older age groups, set up 5 / 6 2v2’s let them play, re-create the street football, which does not
happen anymore.

They do not shout pass, pass, pass, it is dribble, dribble, dribble !

No competitive leagues until the under 14’s. But teams do play in tournaments. Results up until then
are not important at all, it’s all about development.

They do Multi Move with players as well as Basketball, Dance and Gymnastics.

When playing a 5v5 they play a diamond. Create 1v1’s, all about dribbling and not passing at this
age.

GK

PL

PL PL

PL

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When playing an 8 v 8, they play a double diamond. Which builds upon the 5 v 5 formation and the
same diagonal pass lines.

GK

PL

PL PL

PL

PL PL

PL

11 v 11 – 4-3-3

GK

PL

PL PL

PL

PL PL

PL

PL PL

PL

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

Aston Villa (England) – Tom Bates

Head of Performance and Culture

Started as a practising Sports Psychologist (SP) with Bournemouth Youth Team. There is a scepticism
in football about Psychology and a view that you only see the Psych department if you are weak. The
SP role is not for players who just have a problem, it is to use techniques to keep players moving
forward and have a positive mindset.

You can teach a swimmer all the technique, but if the pool is too cold, then they will not perform!

Story of Phil Neville, when England were waiting in the tunnel to face Brazil, they were tense and
focused. The Brazilians were laughing giving high fives, had someone playing music. The message is
you can play with intensity, but do not have to be tense.

At Barcelona a couple of times per month, the academy players will sit with Messi et al and have
lunch with them. This process is part of the glue of the club and links the Academy and First Team.

When giving information (Wenger) – three pieces maximum IP and OOP.

When doing post-match, give players ownership, what did we learn, no need for big enquiries after a
game.

Academy – the purpose is to develop players and work on topics covered in training and try them
out in the game. We do not coach for ourselves, we coach for our players. In England we have a
culture where results define the Coach.

Cruyff – “We are developing human beings, education is key”

Spoke about a few examples he had come across in football. He observed an Academy Director
come in and do the team talk after a 3-1 loss. His words were we were not good enough tonight.
Not, we aren’t good enough, so it is a failure, but one which is not defining and it is the responsibility
of everyone (we), not just the players fault.

Watched Bayer Leverkusen v Barcelona Academy, Leverkusen coach was up and down the touch line
shouting instructions constantly, with a clipboard in hand. The Barca Coaches praised good play and
gave the odd tactical instruction. When asked why they did not give lots of instructions, the
response was “game day is about the players demonstrating their knowledge on the pitch. How
would we ever know if they have learnt what we have done in training if we are instructing them all
the time”

Spoke about creating a culture at Aston Villa and that Steve Bruce followed the Ferguson mould of
knowing all the people at the club, having a brew with the kit man etc. What happened at Villa is

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

that all staff and departments came together to explain their roles at the club, so everyone had an
understanding and appreciation of all the different elements in the club. Values and Beliefs were
also covered at this meeting.

The Welsh football team had ‘Stronger’ as their identity. Leeds United have ‘together’. This helps
contribute to togetherness within a club and empowers them.

Developing culture takes time, to develop this we need to ask the questions.

WHY are we here ?

WHAT does this team mean to us ?

WHAT do we stand for ?

WHAT do we expect from each other ?

So, we define the purpose.

Great quote “ I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, they will forget what you did, but
they will never forget how you made them feel” (Maya Angelou)

The six human needs is something that Tom refers to a lot, a philosophy developed by Tony Robbins.
We need to cover this as part of our player development.

Spencer Fearn, March 2019

England – Richard Allen

Former Head of Talent ID. Also previous QPR and Spurs. Now Director of Football at Loughborough
University. No 1 Sports University in the World.

Tottenham Hotspur

When at Spurs set up a vast scouting network that looked at different areas of London, the inner city
places where there were immigrants. Players from different cultures play the game differently, for
example pockets of South American immigrants in central London.

When recruiting they select a large pool of players and do not de-select too early. Look for players
that can manipulate the ball and have one outstanding physical attribute, agility, speed. Spoke about
Harry Kane, he arrived at 11 years of age, 30% down on all physical tests, but he could strike a ball
well and was keen to learn. A July birth date.

With the exception of Rooney, Owen and Cole at 12 year of age it is pretty much impossible to see
who is going to make it in the game.

Training is around ball mastery, technical development and SSG’s. Players must be good mental
qualities, so will they do extra. They do not recruit on physicality.

Late developers, play down. Early developers, play up.

Aims:

1 – To develop players for the first team

2 – Produce players that will have a career in football

3 – Produce nice people

QPR

Spent 2 years as Head of Academy.

Training fundamentals were 1 v 1, ball mastery, manipulation. View that when teams stop you
passing, you need the ability to beat a man.

Arsenal was pass, pass, pass. QPR and Spurs was don’t pass !

Held regular meetings with parents so that if they were working on playing out from the back on a
Sunday and mistakes were being made, the parents understood that this was part of the training
that week and the players were now putting it in to practice.

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England

Held training camps based on birth dates. Three groups of 20, beginning, middle and end of year
dates (i.e Sept to Dec).

We have a perception that he is small, so he won’t be good at heading the ball.

The game is changing, is size going to be an important factor in 10 years.

Set up a games programme where an under 15’s was developed. The first group of the Under 15’s
went on to win the World Cup 2 years later.

Came out of the Victory Shield and played games against Spain, Argentina etc. Higher level
opposition to prepare players.

When scouting a player, watch 2-3 times, not just one game. Focus on character, ability, technique,
psychological aspects.

Have a performance grade and potential grade.

Spencer Fearn, March 2019