http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/everton-fc/everton-fc-news/2013/03/25/alan-irvine-excited-about-producing-the-next-crop-of-everton-s-home-grown-heroes-100252-33052452/

Alan Irvine excited about producing the next crop of Everton’s home-grown heroes

    by Greg O'Keeffe, Liverpool Echo
    Mar 25 2013


HE IS the man charged with the crucial task of producing Everton’s next crop of home-grown heroes.

The Blues world-renowned academy has long been considered a production line of top talent; with stars such as Wayne Rooney, Jack Rodwell, Leon Osman, and Victor Anichebe to name a few, passing through its doors.

Alan Irvine has already served the club as a player, and assistant manager to David Moyes – but now he is more than a year into his toughest challenge yet – ensuring there are more starlets who are ready to save Everton millions of pounds in transfer fees over the coming years.

But Evertonians can rest assured, the job is in the best possible hands.

In November the academy was awarded category one status in line with the FA’s Elite Player Performance Plan or EPPP.

It capped 12 months of hard graft for Irvine and his staff, and the Scot is now ready to concentrate on emulating some of Europe’s best academies.

To do that Irvine has been prepared to travel, and he admits he found inspiration in some of the least glamorous corners of the continent.

“I went to a presentation at the Emirates which was by the European coaches association and I was really impressed by what I saw from Dynamo Zagreb,” he says. “It made me curious to find out more so I went over to have a look.

“It wasn’t anything revolutionary but it reinforced my own beliefs. Their attention to detail in terms of the technical development of players was outstanding. I left academy football in 2002 to come to Everton with David, and at the time all the talk was about how the continental players are better technically than we are.

“I came back just over a year ago and people were saying the same thing. That surprised me. I was disappointed. I thought, ‘What have we been doing for 10 years?”

“Zagreb have got a lot of players playing in the top leagues around Europe. They said in their presentations they’ve got 25 ex-players in the top leagues in Europe. Their academy is run for a different reason than ours. Ours is to produce players for the first team, theirs is to produce players to sell.

“They tell me they’ve got the next ones lined up as well, and having seen them I can believe that. They’re way ahead of where we are. I looked at them from under-19s to under-9s. There was nothing I saw that I hadn’t before.

“I didn’t see circus acts either. I saw functional footballers, performing techniques in the right way with an intensity in terms of the tempo and concentration.

“If I went to Barcelona I’d probably see that happening. Techniques don’t just happen.”

Irvine believes English clubs must readdress the importance of practise – and quickly if they are to catch up with the rest of Europe.

“My feeling is that we need to improve technically and how do you do that? Practise,” he says. “Our mentality in this country towards practise isn’t good enough. We love a game. We like a competition.

“By the very nature of that people want to win – and while that is important – it’s not everything. Sure, clubs in Germany, Holland or Spain envy us in terms of our never say die attitude and competitive spirit and we should never lose that but we need to get what they’ve got. They’re looking to get what we’ve got and vice versa.

“Funnily enough it may be harder for them, because it’s taken us generations to develop into the fighters we are. But there’s no reason why anyone can’t improve technically.

“We need the buy-in of the parents too. If they come along and think, ‘they didn’t even have a game’ it’s going to be an issue for us unless they realise why. Games have to be played, but they should be a test of the techniques you’ve learned.

“You want to see that technical work reflected in a game and hopefully see the decision making improve too.