A supremacy in peril?

Original text in French by Sylvain Sro, translated by Puchkin

Once again elected the best Academy in France, Stade Rennes is reaping the fruits of years of work, with the massive integration of quality young players into its professional squad. But the award should not let the club forget that behind, the competition is improving.

After 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, Stade Rennes has won again clinched the title of best academy in France at the end of this season 2010-2011. A reward which certainly isn’t surprising, considering the number of players trained at the club who completed a professional squad heavily rejuvenated by Pierre Dréossi and Frédéric Antonetti last summer.
Mainly focused on the chance offered to young players in Ligue 1, this ranking from the National Technical Direction (DTN) is indeed the reflects of efforts made years earlier. From the most senior (Romain Danzé, Sylvain Marveaux) to the youngest (Abdoulaye Diallo, Dimitri Foulquier), they were all recruited many years ago. In other words, action taken today clearly conditions the results of the future

The Academies, the future of French football

Although Stade Rennes can hope to fly over these rankings for a while longer, the club will also need to consider a reinforcement of the competition. In its communication, Rennes naturally tends to value the quality of its youth training and the trust put by the club in its young players. Some question the viability of this policy, consisting of a perpetual gamble on the future rather than on a clear present project. Without getting into the detail of all the advantages offered by a top-level Academy, it has to be admitted that many clubs are following sensibly the same way.
Because of the financial difficulty faced nowadays by many a Ligue 1 team, youth training remains indeed a safe placement… Even for a club like Marseille, whose reputation certainly isn’t this of an Academy-focused club. “If we are somehow realist about a modifying football economy over the next few years, we will regularly need talented players who will occupy a first eleven position at OM before, possibly, move abroad and bring a consequent amount of money to our club. This is probably the economic model we have to build the club’s future on”, Jean-Claude Dassier explained last January.

Only words ? Possibly. However, the Marseille management has certainly be encouraged by the examples of Samir Nasri and Mathieu Flamini in the past, or by the present emergence of the Ayew brothers. Insisting on the culture of a club spirit (which is always important to the supporters) and giving a positive image, youth training remains a fragile way to follow however, especially for clubs used to big name transfers.

A recent example is the PSG. Often mocked for its inability to retain the many talents growing in the Greater Paris Area [1] The club from the capital seems to have taken a new direction over the last few years, piling up titles and international caps in the youth categories. But the most difficult, yet most important part remains to be achieved: to make space for these young talents within the professional squad. Last year, several players trained at Paris Saint-Germain managed to make a place for themselves in Ligue 1, in the footsteps of an example such as Mamadou Sakho. But in the future, with the arrival of a Qatari investor, which coach would take the responsibility of launching a youngster, rather than give playing time to an element purchased for huge sums of money?
The months and years to come will show whether Paris continues trusting its youngsters, or if the club from the French capital forget about this new policy that early in the process. In the first case, the Parisian club could continue evolving as a heavyweight rival for Stade Rennes, especially when it comes to the recruitment of players from the Île-de-France region.

Nantes survives, Brest patients, Lorient rises

Even among its close neighbours, Stade Rennes experiences a rise of the competition. The former example, having gone through times of distress, FC Nantes has now started to revive its tradition in terms of youth training. This season, Landry Chauvin will be able to rely on a squad majorly coming from la Jonelière. But the FCN has been heavily hit, and the club will struggle to prove attractive again for as long as it will remain in Ligue 2, as the recent departures of Lionel Carole and Loïc Négo illustrate.
With the Nantes example collapsing, Rennes’ success in the field of youth training has become the model to follow for its neighbours and rivals, which Lorient president Loïc Féry admits without a problem. Despite the announced objective of a more regional team, Brest or Lorient have very few players trained at the club among their regular starters. Last year, Jérémy Morel was the only one for Lorient, while Brest didn’t even field a single player trained at the club. The task is huge for these clubs, far from the results of Stade Rennes, and its squad 50% trained on the grounds of the ETP Odorico.

In Brest, the club doesn’t even have its own academy. Disappeared with the bankruptcy of the Brest Armorique at the beginning of the 1990s, it was never to be reopened. But finally, the return of youth training in the Finistère is a project that should become reality in 2012. An absolute necessity for Brest, who were forced to let go a player like Mathias Autret to Lorient without having a say, simply for not having the youth training infrastructures and the semi-professional contracts these can deliver [2]

In Lorient, the development of the Academy enters in the logic of making the presence of the club in Ligue 1 durable. In the top flight for the sixth consecutive season, the club from the Morbihan has earned most of its success this far in the managing ability of Christian Gourcuff, and also in its good recruitment. Satisfying, naturally, but not necessarily viable on the long-term.
Highly competitive, the Stade Rennais academy allows the club to constantly feed the professional squad, and rapidly cover for poor recruitments if needed, brushing away the perspectives of relegation in the same time. To achieve the same thing and make up for their delay, Lorient are going through the necessary step of modernising their infrastructures, as Stade Rennes did at the beginning of the 2000s. Alongside the renovation of the Stade du Moustoir, the “Merlus” will soon witness the erection of the “l’Espace FCL”, a complex which will become the training centre and Academy of the Morbihan’s club.

«We are not playing in the same category, but we are growing up»

Of course, the « Merlus » are not planning a mere duplicate of the Rennes project. They are rather taking inspiration, adding a playing touch proper to FC Lorient. On target, the perspective of setting up a common playing project from the youngest categories to the professional, as it is done at FC Barcelona, the reference for Christian Gourcuff. Work is also done on the process of recruiting youngsters, in order to compete directly with the Stade Rennais. “We are not playing in the same category, but we are growing up”, Hervé Guégan, the head of the Lorient Academy affirmed to L’Équipe affirmed in April. I position myself on the recruitment of players also chased by Rennes, which I wouldn’t have imagined doing just two years ago”.
Admired for its playing style, the FC Lorient benefits of a positive image, this of a family-minded club, the ideal environment for the blossoming of young talents. Although the “Merlus” are not yet a true Academy-based club, they are already managing to recruit young players desired by Patrick Rampillon and his team. And this, even for youngsters from the Parisian region. “We want to regionalise the recruitment, as per the advice of the DTN, Christian Gourcuff précises. But we don’t plan to be like the Athletic Bilbao, who only accept Basque players”. So far, few Breton players in L1 have avoided the Stade Rennais.

Directly involved in the recruitment of the youngsters, Gourcuff knows that his club’s ability to train youngsters will be a major issue for the future of FC Lorient. At the moment, the club from Morbihan should prove its ability in the domain, and show that it is capable of turning its youngsters into good Ligue 1 players.
Despite the growing competition, even among clubs that haven’t got an history of young players training, Stade Rennes remains the undisputed reference up to this day, starting in Brittany. But a reference with no time to rest on its laurels over the coming years, or it could fall from its throne.

Footnotes

[1] Amongst other examples in Rennes, Yacine Brahimi and Yassine Jebbour played for the PSG’s youth teams before choosing to continue their training in Brittany.

[2] Without youth training infrastructures authorised by the federation, a club is not allowed to offer aspirant or trainee contracts to its player, which would protect them from external interests. Also, no professional contract can be offered to a player under the age of twenty.

Pep Segura Explains Strategy Behind Liverpool's Academy

Rafael Benitez will always be a divisive subject even among Liverpool fans.  Those who point at his Champions League tend to be met by others with a list of mediocre players that he brought to the club.  He took the club to within four points of winning the title but he also oversaw their seventh place finish.  For every positive there seems to be a negative.


There is, however, one area where the criticism dries out.  For years Benitez had asked to be given control over the club's academy, something that he eventually got which allowed him to revolutionise the system.


He brought in Frank McParland to oversee the administration, Pep Segura to set out the technical strategy and Rodolfo Borrell to manage the U18 side.  The results that these men have managed to achieve have been nothing short of astounding.


A sign of this came at the recent U17 World Cup where Liverpool had seven players: Tyler Belford, Raheem Sterling, Matthew Regan, Brad Smith, Adam Morgan and Jack Dunn for England plus Tom King who was in the Australia squad.

Yet, although much has been said about the excellent work that has been done at the Liverpool academy, very little is known about the actual strategy behind their work. Everyone has been saying that they've brought over Barcelona's model without knowing what that model is about outside of vague concepts.

Yet there is now more clarity thanks largely to a presentation made by Pep Segura at a football conference organised by the Catalun INEF (a physical education programme) and RCD Espanyol.

What follows is a summary of Segura's talk, translated from the blog of well known Catalan writer Martin Perarnau and presented with his permission.

The 'target' of the Liverpool Academy is twofold: to implement a common style of play in teams through all categories, and to provide players for the first team. When Rafa Benitez hired Pep Segura as head of the academy, Liverpool FC had three areas that were working completely seperately from each other:

- Scouting
- Technical Staff
- Sports Science (doctors, physios, trainers)

The target was to implement an integrated model of the style that currently exists in many Spanish clubs, so that all departments work in the same direction.

The Liverpool training centre consists of four large age groups:

1) Year 1 > Playing games, technical skills
2) Year 2 + Children + Cadets > technical skills, tactical work starts, physical work starts
3) Youth + Amateur Year 1 > technical skills, tactical work, physical work, psychological work
4) Amateur + Reserves > technical skills, tactical work, physical work, psychological work

The second group participates in the Under-15 Championship, the third group includes the U-17s and U-18s, and the fourth group plays in the Under-20s tournament and the Reserves. This team has been included in Pep Segura's area of responsiblity during the season just ended. The Academy focuses on organising the boys' training, education, and family accommodation in Liverpool.

Pep Segura's Academy work is divided into five major areas:

1) Facilities
2) Selection of players
3) Coaches
4) Program (Syllabus)
5) Management of the player

For reasons of time, he could not detail each of these areas, but he did mention aspects of several of them.

Facilities
LFC have twelve training camps, ten on natural grass and two with artificial turf, plus one indoor for winter work. The facilities, according to Segura, are excellent, and not more physical infrastructure is needed.

Selection of players
Scouting is the responsibility of the department. Keep in mind that English law is very strict. Some examples:

- Players up to 14 years can't be signed beyond a radius of 150 kilometers from the club (Liverpool competing in the same environment as Manchester United, City, Everton, and so forth)
- The player is owned by the player’s home club /first club forever, this is the main reason why any price tag rises up.
- You can't sign players outside the community (150km) until they are 16 years old
- All games U-16 and U-18 are played on Saturdays at 11 am and from other categories, Sundays at 11 am This avoids the coaches come to watch opposing players of interest. Another peculiarity: the U-15 takes place on Wednesdays, which is almost unfeasible to train more than two days a week

Liverpool work the Academy for sporting and economic necessity and because "we want to work with our players, but do so with our style of play." Segura found, after some time, Liverpool was repeating a pattern that he had already lived in the Barcelona: "Most youth players came from a particular geographical area and, especially, of a particular school."

For scouting the club uses three essential parameters: selection from very young age, constant monitoring of all of them, and determining the precise moment of joining the club. The relevant department raises three questions: a) What is the player profile? B) Is player for Liverpool; c) will he make us grow as a team?

We analyze four factors:
- Technical: We appreciate the passing game (passing game)
- Tactical: Your ability to play without the ball
- Psychological: Your willingness to be professional
- Physical: We value speed, strength and size (English football)

Teams from different categories are structured in the form of a double pyramid

- Between 8 and 11: 3 teams per category
- Between 12 and 14 years: 2 teams per category
- After 15 years: 1 team per category

In the two years since Pep Segura as technical director, the Academy has doubled the number of players at his disposal. In the selection process, all are subject to a battery of physical and technical tests. These tests are also done to those at the Academy itself at sever instances each year to establish internal and external comparisons.

Liverpool FC have identified three types of targets in the catchment:
- Focus A: 14. Local Players
- Focus B: 16. The 2 best in England plus 2 best foreign
- Focus C: 18. Best English and / or foreign to compensate for the shortcomings identified in the Academy

Program
"The program is a great tool to implement and not just having a good criteria for selection of players. It's the idea and style that make an organization strong." Segura says an idea of strategic thinking is needed and from then on a basic understanding of principles of play and style, and an idea to work efficiently and consistent with the philosophy of the club.

Segura says in this regard that the success of Spanish football are based on working with the Academy, which has created an excellent selection pool of players and it has put Spain at the top of European youth football, followed by France. However, he also believes that there si something wrong with Spanish football since that success does not correspond with the actual number of youth players who are actually getting a chance at senior level.

The technical program of the Academy is based on a 4-2-3-1 system of play implemented by Rafa Benitez "although I would have preferred a 4-3-3, but England has historically used the 4-4-2 and we had to adapt." In the case of Liverpool, "using it as a key tool because our style is the passing game, where os our greatest impact".

Stratification of training is as follows:
- 8 to 12 years: 35 weeks of competition / weekly sessions 3
- 13 to 15 years: 35 weeks of competition / weekly sessions 4-5
- 16 to 18 years: 40 weeks of competition / weekly sessions 7-8
- 19 to 21 years: 42 weeks of competition / weekly sessions 7-8

The structure of a typical training session is as follows:
1) Warm up
2) Technical skills: especially in the passing game and to be offered before the pass
3) Tactical skills: Automating offensive and defensive work, possession, Gale Related (reduced situations: from 1 to 1-5 against 5)
4) Part games: Application of the stuff they've worked on
5) End section: Gym, pitch work and stretching

Automation: Work in all phases, from starting to move the ball in defense to the last pass, creating a meaning and order of play. "The small details are the ones that make them grow as players: body position, speed when striking the ball, the timing of his move at the right time ...." Games of position, with special incidence in the circulation at high speed, knowing the positions of the companions are defined and known.

Recordings: The Academy records every game and every practice session with a very interesting point added: they also record the coaches' voices giving advice during sessions. It was a research conducted by the Liverpool University who took up the oral communication, which has yielded great results: "We have seen the deficiencies of the coaches and have corrected the messages. Some always corrected the same concepts and not others more important, or were fixated with some players."

Finally, for Pep Segura the criteria to improve tactics are:
- Everyone must do the same work
- We must be inspired by street football
- Street football is gone and we have to work hard to make up for it
- We must use rectangular surfaces to work on depth and breadth
- We must always breathe offensive spirit
- Explain to children the meaning of 4-2-3-1 to understand it
- Develop the game from the defensive line
- Teaching the collective game based on our system
- Emphasize creativity: the English player is disciplined and easy to learn automation and order, but Spanish is more creative and we must move in this direction
- The Game Related is difficult to apply to players and coaches because they are awaiting orders. When they do receive it, they work hard, but they suffer when they have to bring own creativity

Although centered around Barcelona (and in Spanish), it is highly recommended that people follow Martin Perarnau's blog even if through Google Translate as it is a mine of thoughtful pieces about football. There is a good discussion about this topic going on over at the Red And White Kop forum or, alternatively, you can let me know of your thoughts both through the comments on this blog and on Twitter.

Success of a Different Nature

In football, success is almost always determined by whether you win or not.  Yet there are (many) instances where the result is immaterial and what really matters is the social impact that the game has as this unusual story of a group of kids in Thailand proves.

Toying with Youth

Michał Zachodny

When the league board decided to set up youth league for clubs competing in Ekstraklasa few years ago, it was regarded as a good idea, an example taken from better leagues. In the fourth season of Młoda Ekstraklasa, as it is called, many still are uncertain whether plan to make it easier for clubs to bring up young players, has any chance. In fact, some are suggesting that league board handed Ekstraklasa clubs toys but forgot to show how to play with them.

Although that comparison may not be the best one, it surely shows how part of the clubs feel about having their reserves in this league. In the very first season Widzew Lodz refused to take part in this competition feeling it is a waste of money but, since league made it obligatory to play in it, nobody stepped out and complained about it like they did. Surely there must be some unhappiness in the league – especially those poorer ones that would get on with spare few hundred thousand to spend on their first squads rather than team from which only three or four will be good enough to make it to senior Ekstraklasa. At best.

Grzegorz Sandomierski

But that, again, depends on clubs approach. Legia Warszawa, Lech Poznan, Wisła Krakow, Ruch Chorzow and Zagłębie Lubin all took their chances well and now can take some positives from the decision to invest and rather than simply wait, expect them after even such short period of time. As league board points out, some decent players came through the Młoda Ekstraklasa – Artur Sobiech, Maciej Sadlok (both bought from Ruch Chorzow by Polonia Warszawa for over 1,500,000 Euro), Ariel Borysiuk (now first choice midfielder in Legia) and Grzegorz Sandomierski (the only keeper from Polish league in our national team) - they may be just a lucky fluke but could the decision about the future of youth league depend on opinion rather than fact?

Unfortunately, it is a war of opinions, as always, but I agree that there are some arguments against Młoda Ekstraklasa and problems needed to be solved – the sooner the better. But if the debacle will ever be set up, nobody should let in the voices saying, for example, that contracts handed by clubs to their youngsters are spoiling them. Once again, I’m not saying there is no such problem but it’s rather headache caused by the whole lot of older professionals that set up bad example, not those who are at the start of their careers and look at them for inspiration.

As I said, there are bigger problems ahead of league board but there is no point of stopping the project that already is running and, not without troubles, taking the very first positives, not necessarily just in examples of players progressing to the main Ekstraklasa. Finally clubs, or at least part of them, knows that there is sense in investing money in the background, creating youth systems, create scouting webs in and out of Poland, send coaches for training courses abroad, learn from better organized and more experienced marks in football. Also there are fans – the growing interest in youth league among them is something I wouldn’t expect if not the creation of Młoda Ekstraklasa, really. That pushed one of sports channels to even sign a deal for broadcasting single games from it.

Oh yes, problems, haven’t forgot about them. The biggest issue for me is that this league is in constant balance between being reserves or youth teams, not turning into one direction which is confusing at least for bigger part of the league participants. Some decide to run simultaneously reserves that play in lower divisions and other youth team that plays in Młoda Ekstraklasa (like Górnik Zabrze), while there are examples where managers uses those teams only as the place where unused footballers from the senior squad get minutes on the pitch or are sent there as a punishment (like Polonia Warszawa). It is about time to decide which way to take and I’m almost sure there is only one right direction for Młoda Ekstraklasa.

As prime example of problems in English reserves football and the growing importance of youth teams there shows, it is wiser to make Młoda Ekstraklasa a real background for players that are up to nineteen and they have the privilege to compete against top sides in the country, not only the ones in their region. Centralization of youth system, at the top for a start, should be good move for the clubs as well – squads overcrowded with players in mid-twenties, in hang between first team and reserves, are stealing not only place but some part of wage budget in every club. The preferable choice would be to have only twenty senior players in the squad and the background – team in youth league where players are up to the age of nineteen. That should be the rule in my reckoning.

Even those clubs that would create reserves side, like Górnik Zabrze is doing now, would quickly see the advantage of this solution. If not, then maybe, when the money and club management will be much better in Polish football, think about separate league for reserves but not earlier. There is also possibility of creating Youth Cup, to let other teams compete against the elite of Młoda Ekstraklasa, but knowing the will inside Polish FA that refuses to do anything even for the sake of the domestic senior cup, there is more than a single doubt over this idea.

Those decisions should not wait as maybe not the youth/reserves league called Młoda Ekstraklasa is harming talents itself but the attitude of some clubs is the problem and biggest for the idea. With my constant believe that finally clubs that can afford to look at western examples of well run football marks do so, the youth system is one of most important issues that is crying out loud for a solution. I’m fully aware that the youth league I’m writing about is just a top of the whole pyramid and that the basics should be build before but at least something is being done in that area – we simply cannot afford to toy with another generations of talents that end up reaching only half of their maximum potential.

Thanks for this article go to Michał Zachodny who kindly allowed us to reproduce the piece that  initially appeared on his Polish Football Scout blog.  Any views about this article or blog can on Twitter 

The Product Line Methodology - An Introduction

As a professional geek (I'm an IT Business Analyst), there are certain books and concepts you encounter that have a profound impact on your career. One such book is this one - "Software Product Lines: Patterns and Practices" by Paul Clements and Linda Northrop.

The two authors are gurus from Carnegie Mellon University's "Software Engineering Institute", and they have a handy way of making what could be a complex and overwhelming concept easy for people to understand. That's not to say everyone would find the content interesting, you understand - it's specific to organisations who generate software products after all. Chances are your eyes would glaze over pretty quickly if you weren't looking for something specific in the first place, so hey - I might as well summarise the useful stuff right here eh? I mean, how the @*^k has this got anything useful to contribute to a debate about football?

Well, as you start reading, the book quickly shows you how generally applicable the concept is. It does this with the help of a Mexican restaurant (and as you read, it brings to mind a Billy Connolly routine that says pretty much the same thing).

You see, in most Mexican restaurants, things are pretty simple. You get a menu that lists several dishes on the premise that they're somehow fundamentally different. But unfold the parcel and it quickly emerges that, for the most part at least, your average Mexican dish consists of much the same component ingredients as pretty much every other item on the menu. What's different about them? Well, the wrap's folded differently. Or the veg and salad are sat on one side. And maybe the grated cheese and refried beans too. But then again - maybe not.

Clements and Northrop set out in a simple diagram how the raw materials of meat, vegetables, cheese, beans, sour cream and salsa sauce can be combined in various ways to produce what seems like a varied and exotic menu. And here's the point - your average Mexican restaurant operates what's known as a "product line".

Now - it's important before we start to make one key point: a Product Line is not a Production Line. A Production Line is what Henry Ford set up to produce identical finished products, of reasonable quality, at relatively low cost, and in huge quantities. In a youth development context, that might appeal to some people, but unless every player is Pele, chances are you won't want every single kid who graduates to be identical. You need a blend of qualities with a core set of shared skills and strenghts, don't you?

Enter the Product Line methodology - the whole point of which is to deliver exactly that. Over to Clements and Northrop, who I'll take the liberty of paraphrasing (cos the products we're talking about aren't bits and bytes).

"A {product line} is a set of {products} sharing a
common, managed set of features that satisfy the specific needs of a
particular market segment or mission and that are developed from a
common set of core assets in a prescribed way."

Now - this definition, while intriguing, presumes the existence of certain 'building blocks' - pre-requisites if you like, that must be in place before things start.

1. You must understand your market segment or mission.
2. You must understand the features that satisfy the market segment or mission.
3. You must have some idea of how to develop products that deliver those features in a 'managed' and 'prescribed way'.

In the football context, I'd argue that translates as follows: you need a clear idea of how your organisation will play the game, and you need a blueprint that describes how your finished products will deliver according to that vision, mission, or philosophy.

Sound familiar? I'm guessing it does, as it's been a hot topic over recent months and years in this country. What we've lacked, arguably, is a structured analysis of the underlying domain. Sure, we've seen interesting interviews with people like Fernando Hierro at the Spanish FA and the coaches and management involved in developing the set up at Barcelona, but while we've seen evidence of the need for a clear defining philosophy, it's not clear how they go about implementing that philosophy, at least not beyond the idea of "la rondo" being repeated ad nauseam. Barca may do that training drill until they're blue and red in the face, but there's a lot more to it than that, even if it's not clearly defined anywhere. That club, and the footballing establishment in Spain, have a clear recipe, and indeed a superstructure of recipes, that enable them to produce the kind of football - the product - we've seen from their club and national sides in recent years.

We'll look at the detail in later posts, but the goal of our analysis is this: we'll understand our business domain, then we'll think about the kind of players (products) that satisfy that domain, and last but not least, we'll think about the coaching and management architecture best suited to developing and 'deploying' those players.

That's it for part 1 - there's a lot of stuff to chew on in that snippet, after all. More to come as soon as I find some time to write it!

Gambardella 2008, stronger than Gambardella 2003?

Original text in French by Sylvain Sro, translated by Puchkin

Let it be known, 2010-2011 is the season in which the “Gambardella 2008” generation took over at the Stade Rennais. In the stride of M’Vila and Brahimi, will they be able to do better than their predecessors of 2003, led by Briand and Gourcuff? This is what the club seems to think, building an important part of its short-term future on their talent.

Yohann Gourcuff

The same Stade de France, the same triumphant victory, the same joy on the pitch. Five years apart, the Stade Rennes U18 won the Gambardella Cup, the most prestigious national competition for youth teams. 2003 or 2008, each promotion had its stars: Briand, Gourcuff or Faty on one side; M’Vila, Brahimi and Souprayen on the other. And above all, the promise of a golden generation expected to feed the professional squad with both quantity and quality.

The 2003 winners blossomed under Bölöni’s management, and most of them are still making their way at the highest level nowadays. Meanwhile, the 2008 winners are progressively settling in under Antonetti’s guidance, and constitute the base of this young team beginning a cycle, so much vaunted since last July.

Integration to the first team: Draw
Both generations have got one thing in common: Almost all of the players that composed them have turned professional. This is anything but usual for teams reaching that level. As a proof, from the Strasbourg team encountered by Rennes in the 2003 final, only Habib Bellaïd and Éric Mouloungui have remained to professional football.

Jimmy Briand

In Rennes, thirteen of the fourteen players used during the final eventually turned pro [1], with midfielder Fabien Dugaz the only exception. Even better, nine of these professional careers have been launched at the Stade Rennais, with four of the dropped players looking for their fortune elsewhere, such as Sébastien Le Toux in the United States. Naturally, all of them did not manage great professional careers, including those kept by the club: Only four made a real impact in the professional squad (Bourillon, Briand, Faty and Gourcuff), two more being limited to moderate success with the “Rouge et Noir” (Mvuemba et N’Guéma) while the last three failed to deliver (Jonathan Bru, Chaigneau and Arthur Sorin).

On this aspect, the 2008 generation seems to follow a very similar way. Out of the fourteen players used at the Stade de France by Laurent Huard and Régis Le Bris [2], eleven have turned professional in Rennes, one did it elsewhere (Louhoungou) and two were force to abandon, at least for some time, their dreams of professional football (M’Laab and Pivaty, both gone for CFA teams)

Several new professionals have already left the club however (Lasimant, Le Marchand, Le Tallec and Petit), and the Rennes future of two other remains uncertain (Caro and Pajot will see their contract expire at the end of the season). At this moment, only five of them have made their way to Rennes’ professional team (Brahimi, Camara, M’Vila, Souprayen and Théophile-Catherine), not far over their 2003 predecessors.

Gambardella 2003 : A lukewarm success
What summary could be done, in terms of the generation 2003’s contribution? It was very important, and highly frustrating at the same time.

2002, the club is in full doubt, still bogged down in the monumental and costly recruitment errors made during summer 2000. Christian Gourcuff’s spell was a complete failure, and Rennes was struggling to deal with its nouveau riche club image, setting European targets but fighting against relegation. An obvious fact is raised: The Academy, which already produced very good players during the previous decade, is under-used. François Pinault made the choice to offer it a quadrupled budget, and the club’s objective clearly became to lay the foundations of the professional squad on it, with a policy aiming to see 50% of the playing staff trained at the club’s Academy.

Laszlo Boloni

For that purpose, the 2003 victory arrived in ideal time: Even though the players in this generation were all recruited before 2002 and therefore not the result of this new policy, their victory was making their integration in the professional squad even more legitimate. Recruited in part for his ability to launch youngsters, Laszlo Bölöni had full latitude to launch a new cycle, quickly based on this wave of youth. The rise of this generation remained progressive however: Although Faty and Bourillon were soon used to starting in Ligue 1, it took a bit more time for the others, such as Briand, or in a lesser extent Gourcuff.

In the latter’s wake, this generation’s input reached its summit between 2006 and 2007, without managing to reach anything else than UEFA Cup qualifications. At the end of summer 2007, only one of the players remained at the club: Jimmy Briand. The 2003 generation had given a great contribution to the revival induced by Bölöni, but the club failed to gain full profit of it, as Gourcuff’s rushed departure to Milan AC symbolises.

Gambardella 2008 : A slower emergence
As opposed to its 2008 successor, the team that won in 2003 had already gathered much experience. During the 2002-2003 season, Philippe Bergeroo and Vahid Halilhodzic had not hesitated to throw Grégory Bourillon (21 games in L1), Jacques Faty (9 games), Stéphane N’Guéma (5 games) and Jimmy Briand (1 game) at the deep end.

Damien Le Tallec

In 2008, nothing like that : Sure, Damien Le Tallec has already been a professional for a year, but none of the players involved has been given any competitive experience in “senior” football. This would not stop the Rennes team to manage its game to the perfection, just like M’Vila, already displaying his serene leadership at midfield.

The following season, while Bölöni had decided to rely on the rising generation, Guy Lacombe left it completely on the side of the road. In 2008-2009, only Théophile-Catherine made a bit of a breakthrough in the professional squad, with two starts in the Coupe de la Ligue. Camara and Lasimant were also offered a few minutes in the season’s last match in Marseille, as the manager’s departure had already been confirmed.

To Lacombe’s credit, he was not facing the same context as his predecessor. Bölöni, searching for a competitive team, could easily take the time for tries and introduce youngsters to Ligue 1. In 2008-2009 however, Rennes was a well-oiled formation, able to manage 18 consecutive games without a loss, and therefore not as easily modifiable. The patience of Rennes’ youngsters was severely tested, too severely for one of them, Damien Le Tallec, who decided to quit Rennes’ Reserve to join Borussia Dortmund’s

The loans as an indicator
One could think that Frédéric Antonetti’s arrival, in June 2009, was opening the generation 2008’s era. It is both true and false. In 2009-2010, only two players were introduced to Ligue 1: M’Vila, who appeared immediately as a future international to Antonetti, and Théophile-Catherine who, as under Lacombe’s management, was only offered limited time on the pitch. Nothing too exciting at first sight.

But this time, the solution was to loan. For the 2003 generation, that strategy had been used in diverse ways, to relaunch N’Guema, to offer Arthur Sorin some playing time, or to try and sell Mvuemba or Chaigneau.

Encouraged by Sow’s spell in Sedan, the management made a massive use of loans in Ligue 2. A successful strategy, which allowed the youngsters to gain experience without fighting the competition in an overcrowded squad, which only M’Vila’s talent and maturity could overcome without resistance.

Yacine Brahimi

The five loaned players (Brahimi, Camara, Lasimant, Le Marchand and Souprayen) totalled over two hundred games played in one season. A good inspiration, especially since the strategy also helps defining which of the five could become key players in the first team. In summer 2010, Brahimi and Souprayen had become candidate to starting slots, Camara was left in stand-by provisionally, while Lasimant and Le Marchand, not as convincing during their respective loans, where left to find a new team. Vincent Pajot, on loan at Boulogne this season, knows ehat he has to do in order to cement a place at the Stade Rennais next year…

Today, in terms of high-level experience (Ligue 1 or Ligue 2), the 2008 generation has nearly caught up with his 2003 predecessor. Cleverly, Stade Rennes also managed to avoid a sometimes difficult period of integration for its young players. Arnold Mvuemba or Florent Chaigneau could witness of the difficulties inherent to professional beginning. The first took years to affirm himself, before finally blossoming in Lorient, the second sought completely after a string of catastrophic games.

Note : The graph above represents the evolution of the number of games played by the two generations over time, after their Gambardella Cup victory. In 2003 (blue curve), some players had already gathered some professional experience. The progression in the number of games is consistent, before gaining in intensity in 2005-2006 (2 to 3 years after the final). After Gourcuff’s departure, the curve returns to normal, before lowering strongly at +4 years, when Bourillon and Faty quit Brittany, leaving only Briand behind them.

In 2008 (Red and Orange curves), the arrival in the first team is happening later, with the players only reaching in Summer 2010 (+2 years) the total already played by the 2003s. A misleading assessment: By including all the Ligue 2 games played during their loan, the players have nearly caught up, in one year, the experience that their 2003 predecessor had acquired in three seasons. The projections made (in dotted lines) according to the number of games played since the beginning of the season, show a constant increase, and nearly equal to the 2003 players’ best score (2005-2006 season). An increase which is destined to be accentuated even more, if Souprayen or Brahimi were to become regular starters.

An difference in emergence, as a good omen?

Yann M'Vila

Finally, except for the only M’Vila, players from the 2008 generation are playing their first full season at Stade Rennais in 2010-2011. An emergence that comes with a two year difference with their from 2003 launched very (too?) early in the first team. If Stade Rennes manages to keep its youngsters – and the club did work this way by extending most of their contracts until 2014 -, they should only be giving the full measure of their potential next season, or during the 2012-2013 season.

Older, and strenghtened by one additional year of Ligue 2 experience, they give much more guarantees than their predecessors. Samuel Souprayen, who is still to complete his breakthrough in the first team, had already shown that he could be a key player in Ligue 2. Enough to create relation of mutual trust between the player and the club, which would have been difficult to instate if he had remained with the reserve squad for one more year.

« I think we are reaching a real turning point, Jérôme Leroy affirmed on 21st December. The potential is there. […] If you keep these youngsters, they are the future at Rennes. Look what Lille has done, they have kept a lot of players since three-four years, and they have become key-players”.

Off to a good start in the League during this 2010-2011 season, everything seems to be shaping up well for Rennes and its «Gambardella 2008» generation. Better, it seems that this generation is far from having shown all its potential yet. A sign, maybe, that glorious tomorrows are well on their way…

Footnotes
[1] The squad for the 2003 final: Chaigneau, Le Toux, Macé (Sorin, 84’), Bourillon, Faty, Dugaz, Mvuemba, Bru, Briand, Gourcuff (Benchenaa, 75’), N’Guéma (Stanger, 84’).

[2] The squad for the 2008 final: Petit, Théophile-Catherine, Louhoungou, Souprayen (cap), Le Marchand, M’Vila, Pajot, Brahimi (Caro, 77’), Lasimant, Le Tallec (Pivaty, 86’), M’Laab (Camara, 64’)

With thanks to the very kind people at Stade Rennais Online who have allowed us to reproduce this wonderful piece.

The Secret of Barca's Success

One of the finest pieces of football writing to appear this year is Sid Lowe's interview with the Barcelona midfielder Xavi which, unlike most interviews, happens to be entertaining and insightful.  It really should be read in full but, from the perspective that interests us - how clubs develop players - this bit particularly stood out.

Some youth academies worry about winning, we worry about education. You see a kid who lifts his head up, who plays the pass first time, pum, and you think, 'Yep, he'll do.' Bring him in, coach him. Our model was imposed by [Johan] Cruyff; it's an Ajax model. It's all about rondos [piggy in the middle]. Rondo, rondo, rondo. Every. Single. Day. It's the best exercise there is. You learn responsibility and not to lose the ball. If you lose the ball, you go in the middle. Pum-pum-pum-pum, always one touch. If you go in the middle, it's humiliating, the rest applaud and laugh at you.

 Full interview can be read here.