With two professional football teams playing in the MLS, both of whom extremely well supported with a passionate fanbase, this should be a good time for Canadian football.  Yet it isn’t, as a surprise (and humiliating) defeat at the hands of tiny Martinique in the Gold Cup so clearly proved.  Developing talent, it seems, is something of a struggle.

This, however, isn’t for want of knowledgeable people.  Take Victor Satei, for instance.  The author of the very insightful blog Satei on Soccer, over the past twelve years he has been deeply involved in coaching and the study of player development in football.  Along with an ongoing study of sports psychology, he is the holder of a UEFA 'A' license and the USSF 'Youth' diploma.

Recently, he had the opportunity to go to Coverciano to experience how youth football is handled in Italy, a visit that will inevitably shape his blueprint.
  
Blueprint for Football: Let's start with the basics: what got you into coaching and how long was that? 
Victor Satei: I was 18 years of age at the time when I had returned from playing overseas in Italy, school had not gone well for me while I was away and I was forced into making a return to Canada.  It wasn't a happy time for me, the love of playing football had been drained out of me and even though I played a couple of years with a CPSL side here in Canada it just wasn't as enjoyable anymore.  My uncle was coaching an under 12 side at the time, and he asked me if I'd be interested in helping him coach the team, I agreed and immediately gained a passion for working with young players.

BfF: Have you had any mentors in your career? 
VS: Yes, as I began to get more deeply involved with coaching I was hired to do part-time work with a soccer school here in Toronto.  The schools owner, Liam Power, would take me with him to coach various groups of players and he spent a lot of time mentoring me on his style of coaching and his philosophy which was very ahead of its time here in Canada.  His entire method was based on the use of small sided play and teaching within the game, I became very interested in this method and now it is a huge part of everything I do. 

I would also consider Bobby Lennox as one of my mentors.  I remember as a young coach watching Bobby as he ran sessions which were creative and fun and brought the best out of young players.  His philosophy allowed me to realize the importance of using enjoyment as a major learning tool in everything I do.

BfF: What is your coaching philosophy? 
VS: First and foremost I believe football needs to be fun.  Fun is the reason why every child starts to play football, and a lack of fun is often why a child drops out.  I like to keep things positive and I strive to set a positive tone in everything I do.  I don't mind a bit of banter and messing about and I think players like that as well.  Young players don't want to be in environments where things are too strict or serious, they want to enjoy themselves. 

Of course there is a big difference between having fun and fooling around, you can have fun while putting forth maximum effort in training.  Players that train with me realize that, they know they can enjoy themselves but understand that the enjoyment comes through the effort and work they put into training.  My training is made up mainly of small sided play, everything we do in training contains an objective and players strive to obtain a positive outcome.  I believe learning happens through this struggle, the struggle to achieve a goal, all decisions are made by players and the result of their decisions will lead to either positive or negative outcomes dependent on the decisions they have made.  I always keep an open mind and my philosophy has changed and continues to be modified with further education and experience. 

The game is always changing and I believe as coaches it's important to keep up with these changes.

BfF: How important is having a playing philosophy or style?  Why? 
VS: It's very important.  You need to have your beliefs in the style of play that you aim to achieve.  If you don't have a genuine belief in your playing philosophy your players will sense this and there will be difficulty in transmitting your philosophy to them.  You need a very thorough understanding of the style of play you look to obtain in the long term, so that you can plan and set your training criteria accordingly.

BfF: Does football in Canada have an identity?  If not, how would you suggest going about building it? 
VS: I believe Canada is going through a time of change right now.  The footballing identity is a bit blurred at the moment but there are people who are looking at ways to clarify our path and structure.  It is always an uphill battle when you are trying to make change happen, but I believe with time, patience, and continued effort we will make forward progress that will shape our countries footballing identity and allow us to achieve success at the international level.

BfF: You've been to Italy's Coverciano to follow their coaching courses.  Why Italy?
VS: I actually was lucky enough to stumble upon the opportunity.  I was due to return to Belfast to renew my UEFA A license and initially I was planning on doing club visits but the timing was not right and most clubs were shut down for their summer break.  As I was mentioning this to a friend of mine who had previously coached in Italy for over 20 years, he asked me if I'd be interested in going to Italy to observe the youth national finals instead. 

I was delighted and jumped at the opportunity.  He put me in contact with members of the Italian football federation and they sorted everything for me, including my visit to Coverciano.

BfF: What were the main take-aways from the way that they do things vis-a-vis youth football? 
VS: The first thing that struck me while I was there was the amount of organization they put into everything.  Italians, like myself, tend to be quite laid back, but when it comes to football there is a level of professionalism and attention to detail that is extremely high.  The way they analyze players and teams is extraordinary, they put great thought into everything they do and everything is done with good reason. 

There is change happening in Italian youth football as well however, and they are looking at restructuring the way they develop players, with a main focus on de-emphasizing the win at all costs mentality that exists at the youngest of ages.

BfF: If you could change one thing about football in Canada, what would that be? 
VS: Well there would be a few things that I'd like to change, however if I could only choose one I would look to bring unity in a footballing country that is quite fragmented at the moment.  Change happens starting from the top, our National Association needs to be in charge of calling the shots and at the moment that doesn't seem to be the case. 

We are living in a football environment where people, clubs, and even teams work independently and follow their own agendas.  Instead, we need to look at football nations like Japan, Spain, Australia and Germany and how they have changed their structure with clear direction coming from their national associations. 

We desperately need a national curriculum that will help put everyone on the same page, we need to be unified in how we do things and we need to be put on the same track if we want to develop football players capable of playing at the highest level.

BfF: What do you want to achieve to be satisfied with what you have done in your coaching career? 
VS: That's a tough question as a career in coaching never really goes down a set path.  I think you just try to be the best you can be and as you move along you approach new opportunities which lead you down different roads. 

My main objective as a coach I would say is to be successful while going down any path my career leads me to.  I feel to be a good coach you have to be able to work with players of any age and any level and as I continue through my coaching career my aim will simply remain to be as successful as possible wherever I end up.

Victor writes on Satei on Soccer and can also be found on Twitter.

The Blueprint According To... forms part of Blueprint for Football Extra.

[Cross Cultural Communication Series] Training the Trainers

This is the third part in a series of six articles by Dr Ian Lawrence and is based on the work he did on his paper "The Sport and Cross-Cultural Communication: Applications to and from Professional Soccer in the English Premier League"

The theoretical components of national (FA) and international (FIFA) training courses provide managers with ways of applying their practical knowledge. Practical knowledge—the basis of our ability to perform successfully as participants in a social practice, is largely tacit and unconscious.  The reality however is that no amount of classroom experience could more than scratch the surface of the complex habits, skills, background information, and situational awareness that even a simple conversation requires, much of which cannot be articulated verbally. 

Practical knowledge is rather simplistically assumed by some theorists to be promoted only via the accumulation of direct experience. If this is indeed true, this would present a steep learning curve for the manager expected to work within a dynamic multicultural setting. Human experience is evidently organised through a multiplicity of ontologies and is bound to produce different interpretations of reality. It is not so much the experience of sport per se but the meaning we attach to this experience that helps us understand cultural differences. 

It appears that many managers, either implicitly or explicitly, are influenced by early role models and mentors as they feel their way into new positions, as such models provide “an initial road map into an uncertain future” (Kekale, 1998). 

Many ‘experts’ evidently are highly influenced by their own experience as players and managers who not only teach them the technical, tactical and physical skills but also shared philosophies, beliefs and values about coaching and dealing with people. 

This process is arguably a form of ‘organisational socialisation’ whereby trainee coaches, in addition to learning the technical aspects of the position, are inculcated with shared understandings regarding the ideology and critical aspects of the occupation. 

In order to illustrate the ways in which interpersonal communication may vary across cultures, two specific dimensions of interpersonal communication are outlined. These dimensions, which have been linked to the contexts of cultural differences in England and abroad, are: inclusion versus exclusion and egalitarianism versus respect.

Inclusion versus Exclusion
Inclusion is a style of social behaviour that emphasises a sense of belonging, membership or solidarity among people by incorporating them into a group. Acts of inclusion comprise behaviours such as greetings, welcomes, and invitations to join an activity. Group boundaries are generally flexible and loosely defined.

Exclusion is a style of social behaviour encompassing solitary activities or a one-to-one intensive interaction or relationship between two people. Exclusive patterns involve ignoring or rejecting other people. Often the ‘suitability’ of someone who might join a group must be assessed.

In sports settings, inclusion is evident when new participants are welcomed into a team or game; ensuring newcomers are introduced to others, extending personal invitations to attend social events. In contrast, exclusive styles are evident when newcomers are not acknowledged or welcomed when they attend events, when they find it hard to meet existing participants, and when they are left out of the information networks which are used to announce informal social events.

Attracting and retaining participants in sport settings will be facilitated if emphasis is given to inclusive social behaviours that make newcomers feel welcome. Newcomers from cultures that emphasise inclusiveness may interpret a lack of inclusion behaviours as distinctly unfriendly, and may consequently feel that they are unwelcome. This has been responded to by a variety of Premiership teams in recent times with a dedicated staff of ‘human resources’ whose responsibility is to integrate new players and families into their new culture.

Egalitarianism versus Respect
Thomas and Thomas (1994) outlined some of the key features related to the dimension of egalitarianism versus respect. Egalitarianism is a style of social interaction where the communication patterns of participants have two characteristics. First, they tend to reduce the use of, or ignore, status markers during the interaction. Second, they tend to reflect informality and resistance to the use of status markers when participants have become familiar with each other.

Respect is a style of social interaction where status differences among participants are acknowledged during communication. This can occur through the use of clear status markers (such as players using titles such as ‘boss’ or the ‘guv/governor’ when referring to the manager of the team). It may extend to the use of the status markers even when the participants are very familiar with one another.

It is common for people in Britain to emphasise egalitarian styles of social interaction. In this style, differences in social status are downplayed or ignored. An example of the egalitarian style is suspicion or criticism of those who strive for achievement or who are different from the egalitarian ‘gatekeepers.’, criticism of those who are seen to be high achievers is referred to as the ‘tall poppy syndrome’. 

‘Tall poppies’ are those who stand out too much above the others and need to be cut down to size. This pattern is most likely to be initiated by people whose status or power is equal to or lower than the person addressed. The most appropriate rejoinder (to maintain the face of both parties) is to give an insult which belittles the person initiating the insult in a humorous manner. Taking insulting greetings seriously (e.g., responding to the insult with other than good humour) is seen as setting oneself apart from the egalitarian ethos of the group and may lead to that player feeling ostracised by their team mates. 

In a soccer context, egalitarianism might be shown by expecting first names or nick names to be used by junior players to senior players. In egalitarian styles, players expect equal treatment, regardless of length of time as a team member or level of expertise. In contrast, respect communication styles might involve behaviours that acknowledge the skills of more experienced players and those who have been members longer. 

Additionally, respect styles are likely to include some recognition of the responsibilities and status of club managers and coaches. Participants from cultures that use ‘respect’ styles may be uncomfortable in settings where egalitarian behaviours and rituals (e.g., using ‘humorous’ insults) are expected or emphasised. 

Not participating may be interpreted as unfriendly or as a lack of solidarity by people immersed in egalitarian styles as a ‘normal’ part of interpersonal communication. In situations of this kind, sport managers can help ease the transition into sport settings for participants from cultural backgrounds where respect styles of interpersonal communication are expected.

Culture evidently presents a complex challenge for the soccer manager. It requires recognition that each player has an intertwined system of values, attitudes, beliefs and norms that give meaning and significance to both individual and collective identity. This requires ‘indwelling’ and tacit knowledge for understanding and absorbing, and consequently there may be many aspects that escape the notice of an outsider. 

Soccer culture can be understood by the manager as a pattern of ‘taken for granted’ assumptions about how a given collection of people should think, act, and feel as they go about their daily affairs. Every soccer team has a defined culture or system encapsulated by its manager and underpinned by its own internal coherence, integrity and logic, which differentiate it from another culture and which may not make sense to those who are not members of the same club. For a newly arrived player this can be defined as ‘culture shock’ and by virtue of this experience necessitate fundamental changes to their value system. It is theoretically the manager’s insider’s knowledge of the experience of living within a group that facilitates and develops the shared cultural perspectives and communicative codes. 

Dr. Ian Lawrence is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Business Management and Marketing at the Leeds Metropolitan University.

[Cross Cultural Communication Series] The Art of Management

This is the second part in a series of six articles by Dr Ian Lawrence and is based on the work he did on his paper "The Sport and Cross-Cultural Communication: Applications to and from Professional Soccer in the English Premier League"

Over the last two decades, male athletic and non-athletic cultures and subcultures have received some attention in, especially, pro-feminist academia. However, despite the global popularity of the game, the culture and subculture of football and the reproduction of dominant masculinities has largely been taken for granted.

The newly emerging societies within professiona

l soccer clubs tend to be multi-ethnic and multicultural, necessitating subsequent changes in the organization and management of their clubs. Sport migrants in general have to perform in various locations and cope with a broad spectrum of cultural settings.

As a group, they could be a subject of exploitation, dislocation and cultural adjustment. Even so, popular, wealthy and admired players, do not have complete control over their professional life (and in consequence over their personal life, too). They could be ‘sold’ from team to team even without their explicit approval. The new manager is then faced with incorporating a player into their club who may in some case be experiencing a form of ‘culture shock’.

The most successful managers in English professional soccer, and the ones with the greatest longevity, appear to be those who have perfected the art of communication amongst their players and staff. It would be simplistic to assume that because all cultures share the same communication practices.

It is not a foregone conclusion that every culture has a normative concept of communication.  Therefore the norms and practices of English culture are not necessarily appreciated by a generation of foreign players. The dynamics of how both parties from different cultures interpret one another’s communication messages is potentially a key ethnographic variable.

Within each of the ‘management disciplines’ there is a significant literature which assumes that each nation has a distinctive, influential, and describable ‘culture’.  As Hickson and Pugh declare: “it shapes everything” (1995).

Sport management has been defined, among others, as a profession and an area of study, process and coordination.  Our view is that professional soccer management is a social process involving a series of events in context.

The title of ‘manager’ in English professional soccer is distinct from that of coach and is closer to that of the responsibilities held by a Head Coach or Athletic Director in the United States. The process of managing people whether in sport or business is undoubtedly a complex task and requires a sympathetic appreciation of the multi-dimensional roles required.

Traditionally, a coach had a prescribed number of roles, which typically included a planned, coordinated and integrated program of athlete preparation.  In contrast, the modern soccer manager must acknowledge the importance of his role from a business or financial perspective.
   
While some theorists have attempted to distinguish the difference between a manager and a leader by emphasizing the organizational role of the manager and the vision and direction provided by leaders, the role of the soccer manager clearly encompasses elements of both: whilst management implies leadership, leaders need not necessarily be managers.

Intercultural misunderstandings within soccer may occur where individual players from different countries come into contact and form new dynamic multi-ethnic communities. Intercultural factors, therefore, create the potential for numerous communication problems and intercultural conflict. Communication, both verbal as well as non-verbal, is critically important in cross-cultural competence. As language and culture are inextricably bound, cross-cultural communication is complex and potentially problematic.

The American Experience
In the United States, Major League Baseball has had to address management failures arising as a consequence of poor ethnic relations in the sport’s administration. There is a body of work in sport studies that has explored between culture and sport. The findings clearly indicate the importance of cultural considerations when managing sport. This is due, in part, to sport’s distinctive capacity to symbolise national, cultural, sub cultural, and ethnic identities.

Further, sport performances are often interpreted by those who watch or who participate in ways that dramatise ongoing cultural issues. Consequently, sport is capable of enhancing or worsening intercultural relations – the effect depending on the ways that sport programs are designed, marketed, and managed.

Cultural Differences in Interpersonal Communication
When asked about how foreign players settled into Liverpool F.C., then manager Gerard Houllier replied; “the players country is Liverpool Football Club and their language is football”.

This romantic idea ignores the reality that individuals (both players and managers), their families and the clubs suffer from inadequate cultural integration. Both Hernan Crespo and Andre Schevchenho allegedly felt the impact of ‘culture shock’ as high profile players at Chelsea FC.  Crespo left Chelsea due to the inability to settle after finding mundane everyday activities difficult because of language and cultural barriers.

Speaking of his time at Chelsea he stated “it was a problem for me to sign a contract for a house. It was even a problem trying to use my phone because I couldn’t explain what I wanted. If the electricity bill came, it was a problem as well. Those things would occupy my mind every day. There was nobody to help me. There was no one to tell me whether to live near Chelsea or the training ground. And when you change your country, don’t speak the language and you feel alone, it’s the worst thing”

He was not alone. For every player such as the French international Thierry Henry, who settled at Arsenal with great success, there have been high profile relative failures such as  Colombian Juan Pablo Angel.  Soon after Angel joined Aston Villa FC his wife fell ill leaving him shocked at the lack of support he received from the club management.   Angel also grew long hair - but not by choice - he didn’t know how to ask to get it cut. Finally, Welshman Ian Rush’s infamous description of his short-term career in Italy, “It was like playing in a foreign country”.

Such instances clearly highlight how players can be equally ill-equipped for the change in lifestyle and culture that playing in a foreign culture entails.

Dr. Ian Lawrence is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Business Management and Marketing at the Leeds Metropolitan University.

[Cross Cultural Communication Series] The Globalisation of the Premier League

This is the first part in a series of six articles by Dr Ian Lawrence and is based on the work he did on his paper "The Sport and Cross-Cultural Communication: Applications to and from Professional Soccer in the English Premier League"

The English Premiership League has become arguably the most cosmopolitan sporting organisation on earth in the last decade due to the influx of foreign players into the professional division. Having exported soccer to the world in the nineteenth century, England then spent more than 100 years being institutionally opposed to foreign players. Historically this scenario dates from the ban imposed upon foreign players by the English Football Association (F.A) between 1931 and 1978. The philosophy that motivated the ban was arguably an underlying ethnocentric belief being that foreign players were inferior to those of British origin. 

The ban was eventually lifted when the European Community forced the FA to appeal its legislation as unlawful. Yet it was not until the landmark ‘Bosman’ ruling in 1995 by the European Court of Justice that overseas markets become the primary source of talent for domestic English and other European professional clubs. 

The implications for this piece are that in theory, an English Premiership game could be played by eleven French and eleven German nationals.  The cultural shift in the traditional composition of teams that emerged from the structural changes to the professional game was possibly best demonstrated in England by Arsenal F.C on February 14, 2005 when they named the first all-foreign match squad in  English Premiership history. 

The intense globalization experienced by soccer and its business environment has an endless number of possible outcomes. A mischievous look into the future may reveal a scenario where assistant referees have to check notarized passports instead of the soles of the shoes of substitute players. 

The resulting diversified workforce brings a variety of perspectives and approaches to work that can challenge the pre-existing culture in place. Professional teams that wish to compete fully in the marketplace for players inevitably have to consider recruiting and retaining what is a highly diverse workforce. Diversity in this context may manifest itself in a variety of ways to managers. This may include the presence of many religions, languages, cultural norms and expectations. 

Managing a Culturally Diverse Team
Managing a culturally diverse team, as in any workforce context is a complex issue. Therefore, a team manager who can demonstrate skills and experience in a cross-cultural setting is potentially in demand in today’s dynamic soccer market.  Therefore the nationality of the team manager no longer appears to be an issue as long as they can produce the necessary results.

The degree to which a manager offers ‘human capital’ to a team (the level of previous success and experience) may be crucial in determining which managers are appointed by clubs to new positions, but this might not always be the best selection procedure if managers have a dominant style that is incongruent with players’ preferences and situational factors. It appears that effective management behaviour necessarily varies across specific contexts as the characteristics of the players and the environment change. 

The ability of the club to recognise that culture diversity can be synergistic is significant if they are to optimise the strengths of their playing staff. Such clubs create new forms of management and organisation that transcend the individual cultures of their members. 

In 2000, researchers Martens, Mobley and Zizzi advocated for increasing the knowledge of cultural groups among consultants who work with players from multicultural backgrounds. Arguably this concern is likely to become an increasingly sensitive topic with the number of foreign players working in the EPL showing no evidence of decreasing. 

Researchers have consistently acknowledged a lack of understanding on the behalf of those individuals charged with optimising the talents of their players. This is acutely demonstrated in sport psychology, an area in which soccer managers are expected to demonstrate high levels of knowledge and application.

In many professional soccer settings it is likely that managers do not share the culture of their players and may have what could be described as a parochial or ethnocentric approach towards their work with the team. In the context of this series of articles, misunderstandings based on cultural differences in interpersonal communication are likely to affect exchanges between managers (other support staff) and their players. 

Dr. Ian Lawrence is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Business Management and Marketing at the Leeds Metropolitan University.

Book Review: The Way Forward

by Arnar Steinsson

If you care about football in England this is a book that you have to read. The author  Matthew Whitehouse has managed to cover from A-Z  the failures that have had an extremely negative effect on the game and generations of footballers. It also puts forward a wide array of solutions and ideas that can bring out the very best results for the game in the country and develop the most skilled footballers on a global scale. 

Youth development might not be a subject that every football fan has taken interest in but this book gives you an excellent opportunity to learn about one of the most important aspects of the game if not the most important aspect of football and enjoy the process at the same time.  

This is a must read for coaches. Some will without a doubt be familiar with the contents of the book to others it might be a wake up call. And if so a necessary one.  I would say the same for parents whose children have chosen to play the sport and want to give their child the very best opportunity to thrive at it and enjoy what they are doing. The knowledge in this book will give you a very good idea of how to meet those requirements for your child.
   
In the past those in charge of setting out a blueprint for the English game have been following a method that can only be described as the definition of insanity. Which is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Decades of forced implementation from the FA of the  kick and rush method style of play has had terrible effects on the game. It has served as a net which catches the skillful technician and tactician who turns the game into an art-form which football fans marvel at for making the game truly beautiful. 

Some players have escaped that net and on to the pitch and into professional teams in England over the past decades and have thrived in teams which have used methods that  suited their skills. If they were picked to play for England however they mostly suffered and were left chasing shadows and were mostly ineffective. 

Which is not a surprise when they enter a team which does not follow the methods of most successful teams. As Matthew put so well in his book is that England have not learned from teams that lift trophies . Even when they are lifted by domestic teams. 

The stubbornness on display for such a long period of time is almost unfathomable. And I shudder of the thought of all the talented players that never escaped that net and  the positive effect they would have had on the game.  You can only imagine how different the history of the game would have been if more of the so called magicians of the game would have been able to make their mark on it. Of course these players are not magicians as we often call them but a product of correct coaching methods and dedication to their craft.

I´m by no means condemning a direct method of playing football but using it as a sole method of coaching players is extremely detrimental to the their development. Ignoring so many important aspects of what the game consists of is foolish. It ignores far too many attributes which make a good all around footballer. It´s like building a race car which has speed and power but has major difficulties steering on a track which is curved and requires great  maneuverability of it´s steering mechanism in order to not go off track time after time in the middle of a race.  The car that England built was designed to go mostly in one direction and it has driven of the track far to many times  without to many adjustments being made to the design. The  FA and the Premier League are trying to make some alterations to the design however with the implementation of the Elite Player Performance Plan which aim is to put the players development as the number one priority and giving them a higher standard of coaching as we see in many other countries.  This effort is very positive one which will of course take some time to bear fruit before the players developed in that plan will make it to a professional level.  

In this period the people in charge of implementing it will have to take great care and consideration into the planning in order for them to be as successful as they want it to be. As for any long term project there will always be new challenges  to overcome which cannot be foreseen at the start of such an ambitious project. There is at least one aspect which has to be addressed and that´s that the changes don´t deal with these issues outside of the academies. And if these measures are not applied to football which is not at academy level  I fear that the project will not be effective enough. 

I would strongly recommend that The Way Forward would act as a guide for the Elite Player Performance Plan as the variety of issues it addresses all need to be carefully contemplated. 

Each chapter highlights something that needs to be corrected and offers an idea or ideas of how to find a solution so it can be corrected. How to improve the technical skills of players by putting emphasis on how to control the ball from an early age. Technical skill development is something that England lacks and various suggestions are made in the book on how to improve that. From street football, futsal to the philosophy of Wiel Coerver  for example.

How to stamp out the results above creativity and development mentality.  The questions of early specialization and if diversification might be the more sensible approach to making a more well rounded individuals.  Developing game intelligence which can make the difference in developing mediocre players and world class players were the ideas and methods of Horst Wein and John Cartwrigth are introduced.

What academies are neglecting which includes the introduction of Anders Ericsson and Michel Bruyninckx ideas on putting more emphasis on cognitive development along with individualized training, physical development and the art of defending. 

How England need to invest in coaching as it´s probably one of the most important aspects of youth development  to have as many highly qualified coaches for every level to get the most out of the pool of players who are in the game at any given time.

Bridging the gap is another excellent chapter about how not nearly enough players from academies are taking the step up to the professional  level. From hoarding talent to poor development loans. The academies have to improve so much on their decision making on whether and when they bring a player into their academy and which club they choose to loan them to. A system has to be developed which puts the players needs as the number one priority. 

Finding the talent is another very interesting part of the book where the issue of how important the environment which a player is in is for his success. Malcolm Gladwell and Matthew Syed have made some excellent observations on how much opportunities and environment will play a big role in a players future success. The age advantage is also very well tackled along with how important a scouts work is. This is a demanding job which requires a very analytical mind with a great attention to detail. And far too often physical attributes have been chosen over talent and maybe most importantly intelligence . Sometimes to the point where it becomes a depressing farce. Mental toughness is one the most important attributes that a footballer needs. Carol Dweck  and Dan Abrahams idea´s are introduced in these regards and shed a good light on the subject. The attributes that scouts look for need to be given more consideration from every scout  in order to find more well rounded players.

The author also points out how the FA and the Premier League have failed English football. The lack of many combining factors like a clear vision, organization and trust. And to much greed, self interest and almost total disregard for youth development  have damaged the game greatly.

Many nations have acted to ensure that their youth development is well managed, Holland, Spain, Germany and Belgium are good examples. There have been calls for a change in direction in the past in England like the Charter for Quality when Howard Wilkinson was Technical Director but the implementation was not successful due to a number of reasons mentioned in the book.  

The Elite Player Performance  Plan is now being implemented along with that the Future Game proposals having been approved by the FA which are very positive steps. The Future Game makes small sided games mandatory for youth teams up to the age of 13. Youth footballers will no longer be allowed to play on full size pitches, teams will play with fewer players on the pitch(5V5 and 9V9) and the goals will not be adult sized goals. The madness of youth players going out on the pitch playing 11v11 on a full size pitch will be a thing of the past. And the rule changes will be more focused towards development rather then winning at all costs. 

Most of the money made from football in England is distributed to the top level  of football and only a small fraction goes to youth development which makes little sense as it´s the foundations of football. While I find the changes that the FA have started to implement to be very positive and I have come across many coaches with the right mindset to make these changes .  More needs to be done and I urge coaches, parents and football fans in general to read this book and become aware of the situation in English football. To provide more then just hope that these changes will be implemented but pressure if it will be needed. Being aware of the situation will help a great deal.

It will be a real shame if a league based in England will be void of players from it and the league will have to rely almost entirely on purchases from abroad where nations are developing world class footballers and the league game looses it´s roots to the nation.  

I would like to thank Matthew Whitehouse for the time, effort and care he has put into writing this book and I hope as many people possible read it. 



Arnar Steinsson writes about youth development for The Tomkins Times.  A review copy of this book was provided by the author.

For more about Matt Whitehouse, read an interview here.

Some Quality Feedback

Even though it is solicited in every issue of Blueprint for Football Extra, very rarely do I receive any feedback (hint, hint!).  On the plus side, when I do it is usually  very good.  Which definitely was the case when Craig Easton sent in his views on the issue which dealt with .

In truth, for me, Craig's views always carry more weight.  After all, he has played football at a very high level - 22 appearances for Scotland's U21s and more than 450 league appearances in Scotland as well as England (here he is scoring a great goal against Fulham) - for the past 17 years and has the kind of insight that is very difficult for an outsider to gain.  

Naturally, it was comforting to see that he was in agreement that there are no guarantees in youth football and interesting to see how those arguments tied into what he has seen happening in the game.  After all, he started playing for Dundee United's reserves alongside established players like Dave Bowman, Christian Dailly, Owen Coyle, Billy McKinlay, Jamie Dolan and Scott Crabbe.  On top of that, those were highly competitive games against Celtic and Rangers that included players that weren't playing in the first team but could walk into most other first elevens in the league.

Here, then, are Craig's views:

As usual, very well written and thought provoking and I think you've almost answered your own question there. 

"Little does it seem to matter to them that their inability to give games to these players will hinder them from fulfilling their potential."

I think that's a massive factor.  How many of these players who don't get regular games and fall into that void of being on the fringes or in the development squad actually get developed or have their game worked on?  And are there enough competitive games for these players without the need for them to go out on loan?

The problems I find with players of this age in the lower leagues (especially in this country) is that there are very few proper competitive games for them to play in and also not enough coaches (and time dedicated) to take these players and develop them further.  Maintaining match fitness/sharpness therefore becomes an issue.

A decent reserve league bridges the gap and can make the transition easier, but with clubs trimming squads, there are often not enough players to make it viable even if they could afford to have a reserve team. 

The amount of first team fixtures means that once the season gets going, the squad players/subs who don't play regularly find it very hard to keep up their match fitness. The volume of games means training might be lighter than usual and unless there's a coach willing to put on extra sessions (which he should be) the other lads' fitness is nearly always left in their own hands. These players then face the dilemma of doing too much or not enough. They're then expected to come in and be bang on it when they've not had a decent run of games. If they don't do it in the 20 mins they might sporadically come on for, then they fall back down the pecking order.

To hear more from Craig Easton, you can follow him on Twitter.

Blueprint for Football Extra on Gmail

Gmail recently added a feature called Tabs to your inbox. This feature is designed to make your inbox easier to manage by using different tabs to automatically organize your incoming mail into categories There are some great resources out there on how to set up tabs and what they do. 

However, can lead to Blueprint for Football Extra ending up in the Promotions tab, rather than in the Primary mailbox where it might get lost and forgotten.  So, if you like to read our bonus offering first thing on Saturday morning and have been wondering why they're not being flagged up in your in-box, here are some tips to ensure that the email is delivered to the Primary tab.

Place email in Primary tab
The best way to ensure that your emails appear in the Primary tab is to ask your subscribers to manually set this up in their Gmail account. There are three different ways your subscribers can ensure that an email will show up in a specific tab.

Drag and Drop
The easiest way to move an email in your inbox is to left-click and hold on the email to drag it from the Promotions tab over to the Primary tab.

Releasing the mouse drops the email into the newly selected tab. Once dropped, Gmail displays a yellow box asking if you want to make this change permanent. Click Yes to ensure that all messages with the same from address will appear in the Primary tab going forward.

Mark as primary

Right-Click
Similar to the drag and drop option, you can right-click on the email in some browsers to bring up a small list of options. Click the Move to tab option and select the tab you want to move the email to.

Selecting the tab moves the email and displays a yellow box asking if you want to make this change permanent. Click Yes to ensure that all messages with the same from address will appear in the Primary tab going forward.

Search and Filter
This option is a bit more advanced, requiring you to search for the from address in Gmail. When the results populate, click the small grey arrow to the right of the search bar to bring up the advanced search criteria. Click the Create a filter with this search link at the bottom of the results.

Near the bottom of the advanced filter window, you'll see a Categorize as section with a drop-down box where you can select the tab you want. Once you've created the filter, all the emails from that address that are currently in your inbox will be moved to the Primary tab. Any new emails from this address will be delivered directly to the Primary tab.

Images and portions of text taken from a blog post on this subject over at Mailchimp, the host of Blueprint for Football Extra.