SIMON DARCY CLIFFORD

Back when I did, which was in 1996 England had just failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the USA. On my Sports Science Degree, we had a look at the FA Prelim badge and I got involved in coaching at this point. What I was doing on the academic side seemed to be at odds with the way we were teaching football to young players and thought there must be a better way, there was nothing revolutionary there. In 1996 I met Juninho (then of Middlesbrough) and went over with him to São Paulo, Brazil and what they did there did seem revolutionary to me and it was an incredible experience and quit my job as a teacher and wanted to change things and positively affect English football.

I still think Brazilian Soccer Schools is a little bit ahead of its time in that regard because we put a huge emphasis on the ball, being competent with all surfaces of both feet and all body parts. Some of the things we introduced almost 20 years ago I still feel there’s room for in England. It was inclusive, it was fun, it didn’t matter what level you played at we would improve you if you put the hours in. If you are ball orientated and willing to work hard day in day out like some of our kids in the early days you’re bound to have some success.

There was a lot going on behind the scenes at Southampton before I eventually arrived in September of 2005, I didn’t really want to go and said no to them about 5 times and eventually they almost forced me to go. Myself and Clive Woodward were given the job of revolutionizing the Academy, revolutionizing the facilities and what we did on the training ground back then was a bit ahead of its time.

The plan for myself and Clive long-term was to be Manager & Assistant Manager of the club, but we had all sorts of problems with Harry Redknapp and Dave Bassett. The initial planning was great but it was difficult beyond that and ended up being more trouble than it was worth. I only stayed until November and could see we were on a hiding to nothing. We had the likes Gareth Bale & Theo Walcott as youth players at the club, we got these players training and thinking differently with the football and we had a morning session with them that used to begin each day at 6:30-7:00am. We made them look at how hard they wanted to work and how good they wanted to be. Although it was a short time I think some good came out of it. Most of what we wanted to do there is now happening in football, but in those days you had a lot of opposition.

You maybe need to have the Academy separate from the first team, including the youth player’s contracts. That has to be all taken away from the first team Manager, which is slowly happening and there should be separate departments. You have a lot of young players who are in their first of 2nd year of a Pro contract but some Managers are giving big contracts to older players for a quick fix rather than looking to bring on the younger players. These are the sort of problems that we had at Southampton, some of the coaching staff at the club thought the likes of Walcott and Bale weren’t any good and didn’t want them around, it was a battle to get them any first team experience and this is still a problem in the game. If a manager is going to give contracts to 2-3 17 year old he might be in the mindset of when these players come through he won’t be here anyway.

I believe at the lower levels things are improving in terms of the coaching and there’s a much more positive philosophy around England. Its big problem getting experience for 16-19 year olds and I’m not sure whether the Championship is going to become the main English League as the Premier League (especially with the new TV deal) can do what they want and don’t need the FA, they don’t need anybody, it’s a European League played on British soil.

We have to be realistic about that and look at how our young players are going to get opportunities, the U21 leagues (EPPP) in England aren’t of the required standard for players to develop. You’re never going to get a Germany situation here where everyone pulls in the same direction, in this country there’s a lot of politics and infighting and the Premier league has got to a position where they don’t need anyone or anything. There’s no way that youth players are going to get experience with the likes of Chelsea or Manchester City.

Tosh Farrell worked for Colin Harvey at Everton coaching the U8-U12 players. Colin asked for me to get involved with the Everton Youth Academy and passed me onto Tosh. I went down to Everton to meet Tosh and thought he was one of the best coaches I’ve ever seen in every respect. By late 1998 I was working with other clubs such as Manchester United & Middlesbrough and thought Tosh was the best of the bunch, as were his players. He got me involved quite heavily and wanted to use some of the drills/techniques I was introducing that I had picked up in Brazil. I coached with him a couple of times a week with the U8-U12 players and had a lot of interchange between Everton and BSS. He introduced the Futebol de Salão ball to all his sessions and its was nice to see him implement some of our methods that I had witnessed in Brazil into them as well.

If a player is 13 or 14 and has had a reasonable background in the game, at that stage they need to put all aspects of their life into Football first and put all of the distractions aside. At 15 or 16 if a player still isn’t associated with a Pro club it’s still possible to do that in 2015. If you work hard every day, eat right, sleep right and look at where you are in your strength, speed and power. All those aspects can be improved. At that age you should be specializing in terms of your technical work relevant to your position.

As in any aspect of life, hard work will beat anything and as long as it’s the right work and smart work. I always say to young players you’ll never know whether you’ll be a player until 23, a player anywhere in the system needs to keep working and dream big. At age 13 or 14 anything’s possible, 15-16 the window of opportunity narrows slightly but its still achievable if you’re willing to put mind, body and soul towards your goals. I know players that have been complete write offs at 10, 11 or 12 who worked extremely hard for 8 years or more and got themselves to the very top level of the game in England through sheer hard and smart work. When you’re not getting instant results people around you will say you’re wasting your time and will never make it, you never will if you listen to the negativity. As long as you believe and you keep going in this world, in 2015 anything is possible despite all the money and hype in the game. You need good guidance and to be doing the right work, if you’re willing to put football first, it’ll put you first in return.