If we can keep Ben Dawson, Liam Bramley and Neil Winskill together we'll have a great core of coaches focused on coach development as well as player development. They won't allow standards to drop.
Liam Bramley new U23s Assistant Coach. All is looking good. Just need Neil Winskill to get the Head of Academy Development position now.
Have been reading Michael Calvin's 'No Hunger in Paradise' (which I'm sure you've read OCK). Seems like youth football has so much good stuff intertwined with the bad. If we go ahead and appoint an ex-player with barely any experience it really is a damning indictment of how we treat our youth process.
Youth Development in the UK has a lot of lip service, with little follow through. There are great coaches out there, doing a great job, but that's the issue - they're coaches. They still have people above them making the key decisions that don't have the confidence to give youth a chance. The balance between results and development is still heavily tilted towards results. We all know youth players only get a chance if a player above them is injured or suspended for the most part. If they don't impress above and beyond the expectation then they're dropped as soon as the established player is fit again. You can't just 'play well'.
I haven't read No Hunger in Paradise, I've only just started to gain an interest in football again in all honesty. I totally switched off for 2 years.
