Author: The Coach Diary

The Coach Diary was setup simply because I love football and I love coaching and I want Irish kids to play a brand of football that we can be proud off. I also want to hear what other coaches in the game have to say about football in Ireland particularly at the Grass roots level.

Is it to competitive?

Are the coaches good enough?

Are only ELITE teams catered for?

The FAI are working hard developing kids and breathing them for the future, the emerging talent programme seems to be working well, but is there more that we as Grassroots coaches can do for our kids?

I think so; I believe we can produce even more technically talented kids, however MAJOR changes to the KIDS game need to be implemented ASAP.

We have competitive leagues right down to the youngest age groups, putting huge emphases in the idea that winning is everything. This leads to teams picking the bigger, stronger players, at the expense of the smaller, more talented players.

Kids Naturally want to win, we don’t need leagues and cups for the benefit of the adults. 

Personally I believe that we don’t do enough in training on the technical side of them game, in fact we aren’t allowed due to the competitiveness of the game in Ireland, to much focus on wining over development. With street soccer pretty much a thing of the past, we no longer see kids with natural skill or street soccer skill as you might call it – yeah some  can pass a ball, but can they really dribble and keep the ball in a pressurised game, do our kids have game intelligence, are the kids being taught game intelligence?

Who was the last technically gifted player we produced, that has gone onto be a world class player?

The grassroots game has become so competitive that as coaches we are forgetting why we signed up for this in the first place. You only have to watch how coaches are losing the plot, screaming and shouting instructions on the side lines every weekend.

“The player pathway is designed to give every person entering the game the chance to go as far as they possibly can within the sport. In order to achieve this the FAI has brought together the many strands of the game and has encouraged them to work together to put player needs at the heart of their programmes. This approach is designed to create a seamless transition for players as they develop and mature. The pathway is divided into six stages (See FAI Website)

The FAI player pathway training to win is at age 18 so why are we doing it at age 6? Another problem is that of the 32 leagues in Ireland all of them are doing different things, some play 7v7 to 10, others to 8 etc, etc. We all need to be doing the exact same thing, all leagues should have the same policies and strcutures in place, but they don’t!

I would like to see competitive football in Ireland starting much later & cup football even later and also make small sided games 5v5 @ 7s & 8s and 7v7 to under 11s and move to 11v11 at u14s, allowing kids to develop technically be more confident on the ball..We want our kids to…

• Be more confident on the ball,
• Be able to play in a pressurised game,
• Play in all positions,
• Develop left & right foot,
• Get kids playing out from the back,
• Get keepers on the ball more

The non competitive SSG allows for all of this to happen naturally. We need to get away from the competitiveness in our game at under age and be more focused on development at all levels.

So my focus for this site and blog is to try and get coaches thinking more about the technical side of the game, about player development and a little less about tactics and winning all the time, particularly at a young age.

Don’t get me wrong, I just as much as anyone else love winning, but I want my players playing football, I want them keeping the ball, I want them all to be confident on the ball and not always opt for the kick and run game and get “stuck in” attitude.

“We cannot want to win more then the kids themselves”

The great thing about us Irish players is that physically we have always been strong and we have great fighting attitude that most Europeans countries don’t have. We always compete and have that never give up attitude; forgive me using this cliché “The fighting Irish” comes to mind. Now imagine adding technically developed players to that, could you imagine how good we could be. There is no difference between an Irish 8 year old and a Spanish one – put there is a difference in  coaching and structure of football each child is given.

So, what do I think can I do?

Well, I know I’m not alone in thinking this and I wouldn’t have started this site and blog, if it wasn’t for other coaches in the game who thought like me I wouldn’t have started this. I think we can change the attitude of Parents and coaches across Ireland.

I cant do this alone, I need your help and we all need to be on the same page and have the same focus and goals for young footballers in this country.

My aim is to try and gets as much information and ideas about coaching football in Ireland, I hope to make contact with other nationalities and see how they approach the game in their countries. See what we can learn from them. 

I hope to make contact with the all grades of coaches, from the ones just starting out at grassroots, to the ones at the very top of world football. I will open up discussions on my blog and find out what you are thinking and how we can make the Irish National league and International team a powerhouse in world football.

We need to come in line with Spain, Portugal, France, Holland & Germany and copy a lot of what they are doing and competitive leagues at under age need to go (its ruining the kids game) and keep the 5v5, 7v7 & 9v9s game for longer.

Let’s not rush the kids into a game they don’t understand, leave that for the adults.

I would love to hear from you, so please get in touch

Many Thanks,

Antonio Mantero

Top Youth Academies in the World.

Football Youth Academy’s are going to increase in importance with transfer fees and wages spiralling out of control. Football clubs need to grow their own top-class players in the hope of either selling them on for major profit, or unearthing a hidden diamond with a love for the club who can be the backbone of their team for years to come. But this seems only to happen in the continent as far as I’m concerned, which means that English clubs will suffer unless they do something now and re structure there academies to enable them to produce, instead of being buying clubs.

The money can’t last forever, the money won’t last forever. I think it’s time that Irish pro/semi pro teams started to structure there academies and start thinking about youth football, it’s time to produce for the future.

Young players brought through the academy, and “home-grown” players who may be signed from elsewhere and then nurtured by the club, The Coach Diary looks at the World’s best Football Club Youth Academies.

Manchester City

It would be easy to look at Man City’s transfer policy over the last couple of years and label them as a team with the ability to sign anyone due to their deep financial pockets, but that would be doing a disservice to their youth setup.

Man City’s academy has produced and nurtured international players like Shaun Wright-Phillips, Dickson Etuhu and Stephen Ireland, as well as the likes of Vladimir Weiss, Kasper Schmeichel, Daniel Sturridge and Nedum Onouha.

It is essential for City to continue developing young players as their limitless spending cannot and should not go on forever and it will be interesting to see which academy players stay at Eastlands and which move on in January? DB Sports Tours could tell you a thing or two about Man City’s setup.

Grêmio (Brazil)

The club is officially ranked the number 1 Brazilian team by the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) The greatest period in Grêmio’s history came in the 1980s, coinciding with the completion in July 1980 of their new stadium. 1983 was the most successful year in Grêmio’s history. Grêmio has produced one of the greatest players ever in Ronaldinho and love him or hate him Lucas Leiva is also a Grêmio production as is Anderson Polga, Emerson,Tinga, Eduardo Costa.

Crewe Alexandra

When you think of clubs with great youth academies, you probably wouldn’t even think of Crewe Alexandra. However, during the near 30 years that Dario Gradi was in charge, Crewe kept themselves alive by developing their own players and selling them on to the big powers of the English leagues.

They churned out Danny Murphy (ex Liverpool), Seth Johnson, Dean Ashton (who Crewe sold to Norwich for a record fee of £3 million), Nicky Maynard and Welsh international David Vaughan. Crewe also have an impressive history of bringing in young players from other places and developing them, most notably Rob Jones, Seth Johnson, Neil Lennon and David Platt and Robbie Savage, both signed from Man United.

Everton FC

Everton have a very successful and some might say underrated youth academy set up, which is confirmed when you take a look at some of the players that they have developed. Michael Ball, Richard Dunne, Phil Jagielka, Tony Hibbert, Gavin McCann, Leon Osman, Victor Anichebe and Michael Johnson and Joey Barton (as schoolboys), all established Premier League players, came through Everton’s youth setup.

They also, most famously, produced Man United and England striker Wayne Rooney. Though his name has since become a dirty word at Goodison Park, Everton received over £25 million for a home-grown talent.

Arsenal FC

The Gunners are synonymous with bringing through top young players and whether you agree that signing a kid from abroad really counts as “home-grown” or not, Arsene Wenger has developed a talented squad that is only going to get better with age and experience.

The most notable players include Ashley Cole, Cesc Fabregas?, Gael Clichy and Nicklas Bendtner.

Before the Wenger era, Arsenal produced and developed international players such as Liam Brady, Niall Quinn, David O’Leary, Paul Merson, Ray Parlour and Tony Adams.

Argentinos Juniors

You couldn’t have a top list without a South American team, I could have put in Boca or even River Plate but for me Argentinos Juniors are the top dogs. Argentinos Juniors famous graduates of “El Semillero” have produced some of the best over the years, like Diego Armando Maradona, Juan Riquelme, Julio Arca, Sergio Daniel “Checho” Batista, Esteban Cambiasso , Fabricio Coloccini, Fernando Redondo and Juan Pablo Sorin.

West Ham United – The Academy Of Football

West Ham are an unsung hero when it comes to talking about player development. This is probably because bigger clubs tend to swoop in and take away the players that The Hammers bring through their ranks.

West Ham’s academy has produced top quality young English players for years, dating back to when manager Ted Fenton established the academy in the fifties. Fenton’s youth policy brought through players like Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst.       More recently, West Ham have produced a multitude of multi-million pound players, such as Paul Ince, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Glen Johnson, Jermain Defoe and Anton Ferdinand. Much of the success of The Academy has been attributed to Tony Carr who has been West Ham youth coach since 1973

AFC Ajax

While Ajax are undoubtedly one of the biggest clubs in Europe, they have suffered from the same plight as West Ham when it comes to keeping hold of the young Dutch players that they develop. Big names like Johan Cruyff, Edwin Van Der Sar, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Kluivert, Marco Van Basten, Ryan Babel, Van Der Vaart Wesley Sneijder and Nigel De Jong all cut their teeth in Amsterdam before moving on to bigger clubs.

Due to mutual agreements with foreign clubs, the youth academy has also signed foreign players as teenagers before making first team debuts, such as Belgian defensive trio Jan Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld and Thomas Vermaelen (now with Arsenal) and winger Tom De Mul (now with Sevilla), all of whom are full internationals as well as Dutch youth international Javier Martina and Vurnon Anita of the Netherlands Antilles.

Manchester United

Man United’s academy has consistently produced great players for years, as much to the benefit of the teams who sign these players when they are surplus to requirements at Old Trafford than to The Man U themselves. Man U’s academy produced world class players like Bobby Charlton, Mark Hughes, David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Wes Brown, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville, all of whom have been instrumental in making United the most successful English club ever. It also nurtured players who then moved on to find success, such as Fraizer Campbell, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, Kieran Richardson, Ryan Shawcross and Robbie Savage. However United most promising young players are now the likes of Jonny Evans and Darren Gibson.

Sporting Clube de Portugal (My Club)

Sporting Clube de Portugal is actually a sports club based in Lisbon, and the second biggest in the world after FC Barcelona. (During the first century of the club’s existence, the teams and the athletes of Sporting won 50 Olympic gold medals (Continental and Global), as well as many silver and gold medals and thousands of national and district titles; more than most clubs in the world). Which happened to have a football “section,” but this facet of the club has produced some legendary players over the course of its existence. A quick look at Portugal’s best players, past and present, reveals that a majority of them were products of Sporting PUMA Academy in Alcochete. Some of its most notable home-bred footballers include Yannick Djalo, Rui Patricio, Daniel Carrico, Carlos Saleiro, Andre Santos and Cedric Soares in the current Squad.

Paulo Futre, Simao, Ricardo Quaresma, Nani, Miguel, Luis Boa Morte, Joao Moutinho, and Hugo Viana all came through the ranks at Sporting. However, the most famous (and valuable) players credited to Sporting are Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo. Figo left Sporting to go to Barcelona for £2.2 million, where he was sold to Real Madrid for £37 million. Ronaldo was sold to Man United for £12.24 million, who sold him to Real Madrid for £80 million.

FC Barcelona (Who could argue with this)

FC Barcelona’s Cuidad Esportiva, or La Masia was established in 1979, and since that time world class international after world class international has been developed to help cement Barcelona as one of the greatest team’s in world of football today. La Masia can also be looked at in the same vein as Manchester United’s, in that they have produced as many great players who went on to find success elsewhere than at the Camp Nou. Barca’s academy alumni boasts names such as Ramon Caldere, Albert Ferrer, Josep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta, Victor Valdes, Pepe Reina, Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique, not to mention superstars like, Busquets, Bojan, Pedro, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi.

Players developed by Barca who moved on include Ivan De La Pena, Luis Garcia, Mikel Arteta and Cesc Fabregas. Barcelona ‘s B team have players who could probably get into any Premiership team, but would rather play for the B’s as they know is it only a matter of time before they step up to play for the greatest team on the planet.

I could have mentioned clubs like Standard Leige, PSV, FC Porto, Benfica, Roma who also have a great record for producing some of the world best players.

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9pm just packing my bag for Barcelona, flight leaves Dublin at 6.40am

Monday 22 November Flight left Dublin just after 7am and we arrived at our Hotel 10.20am.

The Nou Camp was practically sitting on our Balcony, I could almost touch it.    At 11.30am we took at walk around Travessa de les Corts, had a quick Coffee and then we jumped a taxi for our first meeting with RCD Espanyol Agents.

Great to meet like minded guys, who have a total love for football and a mind for business. We discussed various topics and exchanged ideas, then we went for lunch and sampled some local food and the Estrella Daura beer (Which was really nice and is actually a gluten free beer and therefore coeliac friendly).

After Lunch.. we go to the Nou Camp

After Lunch we headed back to our hotel. At 4pm we meet with our good friend Juan, who had arranged our meeting with FC Barcelona for 5pm. I, David and Juan left the hotel at 4.52pm and arrived at the stadium at 5pm, thats how close we were. We were welcomed by Enric and Franc, two of the FC Barcelona Academy Coaches. They brought us into the Stadium offices and took us down a long corridor and into one of the boardrooms.

Contracts are signed

After some discussions and a bit off chit chat about the forth coming FC Barcelona Coaching Clinic which is coming… to Carton House, Kildare in February 2011, we signed the contracts, shook hands and with smiles all around, we proceeded out of the offices for a tour around the Escola, followed by a tour of The Ciutat Esportiva (FC Barcelona Academy) Joan Gamper (The Founder).

The Escola – Located at Camp 3 next to the Mini Estadi (Mini Camp Nou)

Just as we arrived at Camp 3, hundreds of kids were pouring into the Camp 3 area (this was the old Barcelona Academy), all immaculately kitted out in Barca gear. There are currently more than 300 boys and girls aged between 6 and 11 years that are enjoying the emotion of training twice a week (Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday) and playing only 7 aside football each Saturday morning in small groups and always at the FC Barcelona grounds against FC Barcelona teams.

Enric and Franc told us they are divided into the following groups

Initiation stage: Boys and Girls aged 6 and 7 years. At this stage there are 8 groups working mainly on the coordination and motor aspects of football. Pre-training stage: Boys and Girls aged 8 and 9 years. At this stage of the course there are 12 groups working on basic football skills. Training stage: Boys and Girls aged 10 and 11 years. At this stage there are 10 groups working on simple tactics and skills development.

Objectives of FCBEscola

The objectives of FCBEscola are centred on two basic ideas: teaching the basic concepts of football and transmitting the values that represent Futbol Club Barcelona, such as tolerance, respect, solidarity, companionship, citizenship, integration. The Escola acts as a feeder system for the Academy and if Barcelona see potential in a player who may not be good enough for the academy, instead of letting him go they will get him to spend some time learning at the Escola and try and develop him the Barca way, the great thing about the Escola is that kids have a chance from 6-11 to develop, before they are progressed to the Academy or not!

FCBEscola Technical school

This almost unbelievable thing about the Escola is that any kid of any ability can actually play at the Escola and develop the Barcelona way. They have an FCBEscola Technical school and All boys and girls aged between 6 and 14 years that want to improve their technical skills can attend sessions every Fridays at the FCBEscola. The players? levels are not important, just the desire to learn!

So Barca is giving an opportunity to all the kids. Enric told me that Barcelona also has five FCBEscolas in Mexico (Monterrey, La Loma San Luís-Potosí, Guadalajara, Puebla and Mexico City) and one in Egypt (Cairo).

FC Barcelona Ciutat Esportiva

After the brief stop at Escola, Dave and I were brought by Franc in his car to The Ciutat Esportiva (FC Barcelona Academy) Joan Gamper. Sport City is about 15 minutes and just 4.5 km away from the Camp Nou and is directly connected by the road between Barcelona and Sant Joan Despí.

Covering 136.839m2 it is used by all youth teams for training and matches as well as, Barca Ladies, Barca B and the Senior team. There is also the multi sports arena for Basketball, Handball and Futsal. This is a truly amazing facility.

The facility consists of:

• 5 grass pitches
• 4 artificial grass pitches
• 1 multisport pavilion
• 1 grandstand building by pitch 1
• 1 service building
• 1 dressing room building
• Different training areas for goalkeepers and technical aspects

Barcelona Sport City

Costs

The Ciutat Esportiva eventually cost 68 million euros (when you think of some of the money wasted in Ireland for bail outs etc 68m seems like pennies), of which 25.6 corresponded to urbanisation and 42.5 to the total construction costs. The club apparently sold two plots of land,  for the values of 29.7 and 15.9 million euros, respectively to cover part of the costs of the operation. The rest of the money was invested directly by the club, an amount of 22.5 million euros.

1st  Team move to Sport City

When Barcelona’s 1st team moved to the Facility in 2009. Incredibly this brought to an end a 30 year history that the first team had of training on the small pitch (known as the La Masia pitch) annexed to the Camp Nou.

Pitch 1 dimensions were changed by Pepe Guardiola to match those at the Nou camp. The first team train on this pitch now which is enclosed at the Sport City.When we arrived we were told that there was a trial match on for 4 players who were making the progression from Barcelona Escola, they were trialling out for the Barcelona Academy team.

Youth Players

The Club taxi’s were pulling up every few seconds with droves of players exiting them and only boots in hand. I asked Franc, where is their gear? he said ,”All Players arrive and go to the changing areas, they collect their gear and drop it back after training”.Franc, tells me that; the players only need to come to training with is their boots, everything else is provided for them.

Players who live more than an hour away and who can’t get transport to training are collected by the club and dropped back after training. Players who live more then an 1.5 hours away are also collected, however the must drive to a pick up point, which has to be no more then 1 hour drive to Sport City. Barca spends over 4k a week on Taxis for youth players.

Who was training?

Almost every area at the facility was being used. We saw Barcelona 7’s, 14’s, Youth A & B teams, Barca Ladies & U16’s Goalkeepers training. Barcelona’s basketballers were also out running.

Franc asked us would we like to take a look at the trial and without hesitation we proceeded over to the pitch. The kids warmed with the ball and everything they did was with the ball.

Always with the Ball

Franc told me that, 99% a training session is always with the ball. Parents were watching from a distance and all the coaching was coming from the Barca coaches.

The Youth Teams

There are 19 different teams at Sport City, that includes Barca B, Youth A, 13 lowers category teams and 4 ladies and girls’ teams. That’s over 330 boys and girls and around 40 Coaches.

Recruitment

We were told that Barcelona is not actively looking for kids outside of Catalunia; they will only allow foreign players (who are good enough) to join the under age set up if they have relocated to Barcelona. Barcelona no longer relocates family for football until they are at least 16years of age.

7’s

After watching the under 7 plays, I was excited to be able to compare them with our under 7’s  and believe it or not there was like for like, however where we fail is the competitiveness in our game and the transition from 7 aside to 9 aside to 11 aside.

The Catalunia way

In Catalunia they play 7aside football all the way until U12, (last year it was until U10)  they use bigger goals then the Irish small sided games but slightly smaller than full size. This allows kids to develop technically, every players gets plenty touches of the ball and this is why Barcelona players are all so confident and assured on the ball. Only at U13 do they move to the 11 aside game. Cup Competition is not introduced until U14 level.

This was a truly breath taking experience and one i will never forget.

A big thanks to Juan, Enric and Franc and all at FC Barcelona.

I hope you enjoyed my short Journey to FC Barcelona “mes que un club”

I am delighted to confirm that FC Barcelona Coaches are coming to Ireland in 2011

Next February 5th & 6th 2011 FC Barcelona Escola Director Albert Benaiges and 2 Academy coaches Franc Carbo Pujol and Enric Duran Diaz, along with Juan Mari will come to Ireland for the very first time ever, to teach Irish Football Coaches, Barcelona’s most successful training methodology. The 5 star football facility at Carton House will provide for this amazing attraction. Details to follow.

Barcelona coming to Carton House February 2011

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