“Every Boy’s Dream – England’s Football Future on the Line” (A&C Black) Chris Green’s hard-hitting book on England’s youth football development system is in the running for a prestigious national award.
It is one of six named in the best football book category in this year’s British Sports Book Awards, run by the National Sporting Club.
The [...]

Gilterlan Ferreira is a professional fitness coach at Brazilian league side Mossoro, in Rio grande do Norte. He is a graduate in fitness education and post-graduate in sport training.
I asked him about the player development system in Brazil and how his country managed to create so many top-class footballers. The answer is perhaps not as [...]

Andy Hilton is the Head of Football Development at Sport Trafford and a youth talent scout for Manchester United FC. Over 20 years of coaching he has led training sessions for players of all abilities, from U5 beginners to preparatory camps for U16 trialists.
Here are some of the key points from our extended interview:
On Inclusive [...]

Following the discussion of small-sided games and how they develop better footballers, I thought I’d post this video interview with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger in which he explicitly links the football heritage of Arsenal with that of Johan Cruijff and FC Barcelona.
It’s well worth a watch as Arsene discusses the importance of developing a [...]

The following is a fascinating guest post from Paul Cooper of ‘Give Us Back Our Game’. It’s a must-read for any coaches who deal with U9 or younger players, but it’s also a worthwhile story for any soccer coach who believes in a child-first philosophy.
If you enjoy this post and would like to find out [...]

Chris Green’s latest book tells the story of the 10,000 boys in the Academy system in England, and particular of the 9,990 who will never make it as professional footballers.
Through interviews with all the leading stakeholders in the modern professional game, Chris delivers a detailed analysis of the current system and exposes it’s dramatic failings [...]

**UPDATED** The sign-up form on the original post was causing an error so that addresses couldn’t be added – the new form has fixed this problem. Sign up below to get future Premier League masterclasses for free (or continue reading to see the first issue of Julian Dicks’ Defensive Masterclass and the original post):

Peter Glynn is an FA Tesco Skills Coach Team Leader and an expert F.A. Coach Educator. He is currently rolling out the F.A.’s new age-appropriate qualification the Youth Award Module 1 across the country. He took a little time out of his hectic schedule to talk to us about the new qualifications and how the [...]