Winter Sports
- Create more time for players to play and be coached
- Implement a system of effective measurement and quality assurance
- Positively influence strategic investment into the academy system, demonstrating value for money
- Seek to implement significant gains in every aspect of player development
The plan aims to improve youth development by focusing on the following:
- Allowing clubs to have more coaching time with their young players
- Helping clubs foster links with local schools in order to help young players get the best out of their football education as well as the academic side
- Allowing clubs that have earned a top category grading to recruit young talent from further afield than is
permitted under the current rules
- Working with the Football League to review the current system used for determining compensation
Manchester City’s ambitious project, dubbed the Etihad Campus, was recently unveiled. The state-of-the-art complex, which will include the main stadium and SportCity complex, has been two years in the planning and is unprecedented in scale. The new facilities, to be built on eighty acres of land owned by the football club in Openshaw West, include sixteen pitches - four for the first team, including one indoor artificial full-size pitch, and twelve for academy players. There will be a 7,000 capacity (5,000 seater) youth team stadium which will also be available for community use. The cutting edge training facilities will massively boost the club’s capacity to nurture local talent, with space for four hundred young players, and with a
significant focus on developing home- grown stars. However, for now, the club’s
Carrington training ground remains their focus, and it was here that Ben and Laurence first went, to meet Head Groundsman, Lee Metcalfe. Ben takes up the story.
“Ipswich Town has fallen behind in
recent years, with little additional development of the training ground since it first opened in 2000. This is mainly due to being relegated from the Premiership in 2002. With the club cutting their cloth accordingly, a return to the Premier League is the most likely time for investment into our facilities. Although this looks unlikely this season, there is no harm in being prepared! During my training grounds tour, I had a hit list of areas I was wanting to look at; training centre layout, backstop netting, portable and statics goals, banks
“Undersoil heating would be great to have at Ipswich, but it’s not just the installation, it’s the running costs as well, which are beyond the reach of clubs in our situation”
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