Man City's Etihad campus helping to close gap on Barca
There is a wind of change at Manchester City and Brian Marwood is keen to ensure it blows the right way for the Premier League champions in a crucial forthcoming period.
The advent of Financial Fair Play, UEFA’s plan to ensure clubs are not spending beyond their means, has created a dramatic shift in the mindset of many of Europe’s leading sides.
A focus on youth is now replacing a previous yearning to spend big money. Shaping players with promise matters just as much as signing those with proven records. For City, that has always been the case, and will continue to be, according to Marwood, who moved from football administrator to managing director of the academy as part of changes on the executive leadership team.
The club’s £200 million (Dh1,178m) Etihad Campus, targeted for opening by the 2014-15 season, is what excites Marwood, along with his claim that there is such talent within the ranks that “we actually get more calls about youth players than we do about Mario Balotelli”.
“The goal, simply put, is to produce Champions League quality players,” he says. “That is not to disrespect the players that have gone before, but it is the clear challenge for all of us at the club to bring players through at that level.
“That is where Manchester City has to be. It starts locally and we have to bring the best talent in from our own city.
“There is such competition in this part of England alone – even with talented young players in the streets nearby, we have other clubs looking at them. From there we look within the country and then internationally. The world is a small place now and there is literally nowhere that we do not go. In time we will see the results of this effort.
“Of course one of the major challenges is that people will look at the amount of money we have spent and there will be cynicism.
“People will say, ‘you will never get in the first team because they will go out and spend £30 million (Dh176m) on a player’. The only way we can change that is by getting young players into the first team and we are all working hard to do that.
“A few years ago it was hard to sell this club to an international player who Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United were interested in.
“Now we can point to the trophies and say we have won the Premier League, the FA Cup and we are playing Champions League football. We have that success and a great story to tell.”
The club’s noted Academy, under the guidance of Jim Cassell, has provided many fairytales, turning dreams into a reality for many.
Before the takeover of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan in 2008, a number developed into Premier League players, including current City defender Micah Richards and Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge.
But, with the bar now set higher as they aim to be part of Europe’s elite, Marwood says there is a global vision and uses clubs such as Barcelona and Ajax as the templates to find the right formula.
“We will always compete with other clubs to get the best players and that does mean spending money,” adds the former player, who won the league title with Arsenal in 1989.
“But you have to get the right balance between that and bringing players through.
“Ajax has historically done it very well and they continue to do it. We felt some pain from them this year in the Champions League and they show it can be done at the very highest level.
“You must have an aspiration and if you look at Barcelona they had eight players in the Champions League final that came through their system. It can be done.
“We like to think in four to five years we will have a number of players who have come through the club in the first team. But the challenge is on us to make that happen.”
With great expectation and pressure often on young players in the glare of the Premier League, loan spells have proved the best way to help them gain experience to prepare them for the big time.
Swedish striker John Guidetti has reaped the benefit of this with his spell at Feyenoord last season bringing him 21 goals in 23 games in the Eredivisie. Defender Karim Rekik started against Reading last month, but was on loan at Portsmouth.
“There are players like him who have all the capabilities and we just have to keep developing them,” Marwood says. “People are saying ‘your youth teams are not doing well and one is bottom of the league’.
"But what they don’t understand is that we have a lot of talented players out on loan and a few 16-year-olds playing with the under-18s, so they really cannot be judged on results.
“The truth is that we actually get more calls about youth players than we do about Mario Balotelli.”
To help their progress, Marwood would love to see a similar system to Spain, where Barcelona and Real Madrid are allowed to field reserve teams in the Spanish Second Division.
“When you look at this I think the best system is the Spanish system of having a B team but I am pretty certain that will not happen in England – certainly not in my lifetime,” he adds.
“It allows the club to control what is happening in terms of all coaching and also allows the B team to play in a really competitive league.”
That is a big advantage to clubs like Barca, & we really need to push our reserve team football upto a higher standard in this country in order to reach the same level imo. Once the players reach that age, the team formation & tactics starts to be an important part of the development, to make the transition to the 1st team easier. So many English kids with decent basic talent, have no idea how to play football when they reach the top level (including most who came through our previous academy). I think some people, like Marwood & probably Trevor Brooking etc realise this, but many of the old dinosaurs will take some persuading, as they won't see the benefit of raising football standards when they prefer to lump it long & kick everyone off the park.
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