Every club will have a different approach to youth development as there are still some who would rather prioritise winning at all costs instead of actually preparing players to play professional football.
The priority is slightly different when you get to U21 football at international level because that is the final step before going into the senior setup, and it was the failure to get positive results that say Aidy Boothroyd lose his role as England U21 manager.
The Mail have reported that one of the frontrunners to replace him was Justin Cochrane – He was part of the current setup and had worked as the academy boss at Spurs before, but it appears that he’s going to join Man United instead.
His title at Old Trafford will be Head of Player Development and Coaching in the youth setup so it’s one of the most important roles in the academy, but it’s also interesting to hear the suggestion that he was being lined up for senior management roles at other clubs so it’s clear how highly rated he is.
His remit will be to work closely with the managers of the U23s and U18s to develop the players as much as possible, so it will be interesting to look back on this in a few years to see what difference the shake-up has made.
Good news