By Kevin Graham This is the final in a three part series with the first parts – dealing with AZ Alkmaar and Feyenoord – can be found here and here respectively. Differences The two clubs were different in many ways, particularly so on the following: The amount of football, and training in particular, the kids get at the two clubs differs greatly due largely to Verheijen's influence and physical periodisation methods at Feyenoord. Feyenoord believe in 11v11 team development from a young age whilst AZ only work on that intently in the latter stages of the players' journey through the academy.
AZ take a more holistic approach to development and utilise a more comprehensive and innovative range of methods to support each player's journey. Feyenoord place more value on experienced coaches most of whom have played professionally. They also embrace young players with challenging characters and difficult behaviour whereas AZ appear to recruit more responsible, well behaved and conventional kids. The environments and communities that form the backdrop to the two clubs are very different - Rotterdam's more industrial and gritty profile contrasts greatly with the relatively privileged and sleepy feel of Alkmaar, and this was reflected in the two clubs' academy environments. Similarities Despite getting the clear contrasts evident there were a number of similarities between the two clubs: The recognition that talent alone is not sufficient for a player to develop into what he is capable of becoming, and that players must recognise the value of hard work from a young age. Both clubs recognised the need to supply the first team with a steady stream of academy graduates and that some of those would be sold to ensure the long term financial viability of the whole club. Neither club wrapped the players in cotton wool and key criteria for measuring development focussed on the player’s ability to make independent decisions on and off the pitch. Both clubs invest heavily in the relationships with local amateur clubs. Relationships with the players' school seemed to be very joined up with the school
supporting the players’ football development and the clubs supporting their education (one first team squad member at Feyenoord was once told by the club not to attend football activities until his grades improved sufficiently - a year later!). Both academies took a long term view when it came to developing players - they are patient with players and staff, which leads to a very stable environment compared to many UK academies. Regardless of the development focus, results matter at all age groups! How do they compare with the English approach? The general consensus from those in the travelling party who work in the professional game was that there was nothing groundbreaking or revolutionary in the coaching methods or football development agenda. I think the differences between what we saw in Holland and what we see in UK academies lies largely in the environments and cultures of the two respective countries. As with any observation exercise, there are ideas and concepts from the trip that we as coaches can all reflect on. For me, the benefits of team development driving individual development in an 11v11 context were clear to see at Feyenoord - because of the small sided game preference driven by the FA, it is something that has largely been frowned upon in England, considered by many to be an aged concept. Similarly, the value placed on winning games, even at a young age, in Holland would probably be frowned upon in England but it feels to me like the Dutch strike the right balance between development and winning and perhaps we have gone too far in our attempt to impress the point that winning is not the be all and end all.
I also found it quite interesting that neither club placed much emphasis on the use of overloads in training sessions, something we see a lot of in the UK, and again this stems from their belief that everything should be considered in an 11v11 context to replicate the challenges in a competitive match. I would add that the FA's 4 corner model and it's reflection throughout coaching ideology in England seems to be more engrained than it is in Holland - AZ's approach is viewed as quite revolutionary but it doesn't appear to be any more advanced than the methods deployed in much of the English Academy system. It's also important to note that there is no Dutch equivalent to the EPPP - the respective clubs are not constrained by compliance and so can progress with a model much more of their own design. That explained the reason for some of the differences between the two clubs and it just felt right to me. I’m sure many English Academy coaches suffering with writer's cramp will agree! The Dutch Eredivisie is not nearly as strong in commercial terms as the English Premier League. There is an acceptance that players will leave Dutch football for financial reasons but rather than be bitter and twisted about that, the Dutch clubs use that to invest in their own development. The fact that the Dutch league is not so competitive in terms of finance and commercial might means that patience, stability and a long term view on the development of both players and clubs alike are the order of the day. I think placing the Academy at the heart of a football club's vision and values works in Holland. I also think it can work in England for all but the elite - by that I mean the Champions' League contenders. That said, while English football clubs continue to be courted by potential owners with vast financial resources, it's unlikely that we'll see a massive cultural shift. Regardless, what we saw was a sustainable business model built on the back of academies that know how to develop young players. It was more pragmatic, less creative and less free spirited than I expected it to be, and you could even argue some of the methods were old school. But crucially, it is working. Final Words Travelling with this group of coaches proved to be a fantastic opportunity in itself - sharing ideas and experiences with coaches from all sorts of different backgrounds was a great learning experience in itself. Euro Football Tours and Events who organised this trip are on Twitter. If you're interested in Kevin's views on football and coaching, he was one of those featured in our e-book Blueprint According To...Volume 1 (US version here).
In the beginning, there was a financial crisis. Then again, there always seems to be a financial crisis at the beginning of stories like this one. This, however, was an important financial crisis rendered such by the stature of the club entrapped by it: Feyenoord. Winners of fourteen Eredivisie titles, eleven KNVB Cups, 1 European Cup, two UEFA Cups and one Intercontinental Cup; this wasn’t just one of the biggest clubs in Holland, it was one with genuine European pedigree. The trouble had started back in 2006. That year, echoing mistakes that others had done before them and others will do in the future, they brought back to Holland three of the country's international stars; Roy Makaay, Giovanni Van Bronkhorst and Kevin Hofland. The belief was that these players could lift the team to success and, crucially, Champions League football. That never happened and, slowly, the huge wages they paid for these players along with other costly transfer mistakes until the club was on the brink of administration. Loans had to be taken just to pay players’ wages. To fill the hole, any player who could command a decent transfer fee was sold with those tasked with running the club keeping the wolves at bay whilst some clever financial restructuring whilst a significant chunk of investment from a group of fans breathed new life into the club.
Those measures had ensured that there was going to be a future for Feyenoord but the present was dire. Shorn of all quality the team struggled with their problems culminating in the most humiliating afternoon of the club's history, a 10-0 defeat at the hands of PSV Eindhoven. Fortunately for Feyenoord, it wasn't just financially that they had started making right moves. Their bitter experience had taught them that success couldn't be bought and, even if they wanted, they couldn’t do that anymore. Either they got players who could come for very little or else they looked within. The latter proved to be the more attractive option thanks also to the fortuitous appointment of Wim Jansen. As a player he had been legend at the club, playing more than 400 games in a career that spanned from 1965 to 1980 in what was the most successful era for the club. After he brought his playing career to an end (somewhat controversially, at keen rivals Ajax), Jansen became a manager of some success, leading Feyenoord themselves to a league and cup double in 1993 as well as helping Celtic break Ranger’s dominance over the Scottish league when he guided them to their first title in ten year. In 2005, he returned to Feyenoord as a technical advisor but whilst most of the club was focused on immediate success, Jansen had an eye on the future. It was something he strongly believed in and remains involved in up to this day. “Wim Jansen is the silent force behind the youth system,” former Feyenoord defender John De Wolf said recently. “He advises coaches and teaches training courses.” Back in his early days at the club, in 2006, he made what would turn out to be his most notable contribution when he brought in Stanley Brard, a former Feyenoord player – as well as Jansen’s son-in-law – to help restructure the club’s youth system. It wasn’t a minor challenge. Feyenoord had produced good players in the past but they
weren’t anywhere close to matching Ajax’s continuous stream of home grown talent, whose history gave them the edge when identifying and recruiting talent. Nor was Brard helped by the club’s fluctuating financial position which changed in a very short space of time from looking largely for readymade stars to one where huge financial problems resulted in cuts everywhere.. Yet he had a vision that he wanted to impose; one that perhaps was best captured in the saying “geen woorden, maar daden” (actions speak louder than words) that eventually became the club’s mantra. So much that when he left in 2013 to try and do a similar job with Azerbadjian side FC Gabala little changed with the exception of Damiën Hertog taking over as head of the academy at Varkenoord, as Feyenoord’s academy is widely known. Deep down, Feyenoord’s system is fairly simple, as most success stories tend to be. Players are scouted from all over the country, although there is a particular focus on the Rotterdam area which is where they exclusively look for players who are younger than 12. Significantly, Feyenoord have placed a lot of importance on building good relationships with the various youth and amateur clubs. That they treat them with respect helps and indeed no player who interests them is approached before Feyenoord have informed his current club
of their intention to do so. In the past they also looked abroad when searching for talent but with budgets reduced, this had to stop as it was simply too costly to find allocation and maintain these players. Now, the focus is entirely on Dutch players. Nor do they look at players who are older than fifteen, with the belief being that once past that age it is difficult for them to join and learn to fit into Feyenoord’s way of playing. Indeed, whoever joins must also learn to live by Feyenoord's rules. At Varkenoord the focus isn't exclusively on the player’s footballing ability but also on their overall development. Everyone gets individual attention and parents are also kept informed. Feyenoord ensure that there is help on hand for their educational needs, working with a local school - the Thorbecke Lyceum - so that lessons are fitted around training schedule. The scholastic element is important because through the school, Feyenoord get additional information about their players and how they are behaving. Indeed, bad behaviour there can lead to suspension both from playing with the club and even the national team. The key element of any youth system, however, is the level of coaching that the players get and Feyenoord isn't any different. Attention is given so that there are coaches with different management styles, even though all have to adhere to the general philosophy, to ensure that players get maximum benefit. More significantly, there is the belief of exposing the players to coaches who know what it is to become a professional. It is why so many of the youth teams' coaches are former players although even they have to prove their worth at different age groups. Roy Makaay, who played not only for Feyenoord but also for the national team and at the highest level abroad (Deportivo La Coruna and Bayern Munich), started coaching the club's U13 before graduating to the U15s and now the U19s. Examples like that show that “geen woorden, maar daden” is indeed at operation at every level and in every facet of the academy. And it is why the Feyenoord academy has won the last five editions of the prestigious Rinus Michels award that identifies the best youth system in Holland. For all the work that Brard did and that Hertog continues to do, the biggest impact came from the change in the club’s attitude. “The focus of the club has changed in recent years,” Brard admitted. “If the club need players for the first team Koeman and Van Geel (Koeman’s assistant) will first look to see if players from the youth department are ready to make the step before they look outside the club.” Whilst the sale of established players might not be agreeable, it is certainly understandable. In order to avoid a repeat of past problems, Feyenoord have set strict limits on the amounts they spend on players’ wages where no one is £635,000 annually meaning that the total wage bill of £9.5m of 2012-13 was half of what PSV and Ajax pay. Indeed, it was the fifth-biggest in the Netherlands. This structure protects the club but, ultimately, once players hit a certain level they will inevitably look elsewhere to make more money. It is something that the club accepts as do the fans (at least, for the moment) which makes it crucial that there are always new players ready to be promoted and integrated in the first team. If Feyenoord’s set-up keeps working as it has, that should be the case but there exists a real threat to this. Sadly, however, the reality is that Feyenoord’s success attracts those – and it usually is rich English sides – looking to raid their youth sides, robbing them of talent before it has the chance to mature. Ironically, UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules, ostensibly set in place to allow clubs who work within their limits like Feyenoord a chance to compete, could end up making matters worse with the richer clubs looking at accumulation of as much young talent as possible – in the hope that a few will turn out to be good enough for their first team – as a way to live within these rules. Already, Feyenoord have suffered considerably. Jeffrey Bruma and Nathan Ake (Chelsea), Karim Rekik (Manchester City) and Kyle Ebecilio (Arsenal) all left Feyenoord after spending their formative years with them with the Dutch club getting only risible fees, if any at all. It is a subject that causes anger and frustration, yet most of those players were forced to return to Holland in order to find regular football; they, like many others, have discovered that regardless of how good they are in youth football they’re unlikely to get an opportunity at senior level in England.
Their stories should act as a warning to any young player thinking of leaving Feyenoord established tradition of giving youth an opportunity to go into a system where very few youth make it. For all the fear and uncertainty this creates, when that question was put to Jansen his reply was a rather pragmatic one. “In that sense, nothing has changed. Twenty years ago, PSV took Giovanni van Bronckhorst, while he was still playing in our youth.” “What Feyenoord have to do is increase the supply of talent. If there six talents and three of them opt for overseas, then there are still three who can eventually make it to the De Kuip.” The unavoidable reality, however, is that Feyenoord must find a way of breaking the cycle which they can only achieve if they manage the transform themselves into a destination, rather than a stepping stone. For that, they will need success of the more tangible kind. Feyenoord last won a trophy in 2007-08 when they won the Dutch cup. Their last league success came fifteen years ago and they have not played in the Champions League proper since 2002-03. Over the past three seasons they’ve finished second twice and third on the other occasion but they need to make that final step forward. That could come once the De Kuip is enlarged to fit in 70,000 fans rather than the current limit of 45,000, something that is scheduled for completion in 2018 and which would make it the largest stadium in Holland. Perhaps then, the stars coming out of the Varkenoord can have their dreams of success fulfilled at the De Kuip rather than having to move elsewhere. This article originally appeared in Issue 6 of The Football Pink. For similar writing, join Blueprint for Football Extra, our free weekly newsletter.
