brad
08-03-2011, 09:46 PM
Great article from the NY Times about the Ajax Academy, and talks about how it compares to US player development.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Soccer-t.html
A couple of things really stood out for me.
First is that the article really makes it seem like the purpose of the academy these days is not to develop players to make Ajax a better team, but to develop players to sell for a large profit. It sort of makes sense why an organization like MLSE would be interested in following such a model, as at the end of the day money is all that matters to them. I wonder if part (or all of the equation) is exactly this, with developing players to make an impact on TFC being a secondary goal.
Second is this quote talking about bringing a youth player up to the level of playing for the first team got me thinking about what we have seen in the first half of the season with some of the odd player selections.
Jongkind had been working with this player for several weeks and said he had progressed to “consciously able but not subconsciously able” to run with the desired form, meaning that in the heat of competition, he reverted to his old form.
Sort of makes me wonder if Winter was seeing things in training that were positive, but the players were reverting back to old ways in the "heat of competition". Could also point towards a lot of the earlier season being trials for a number of our players to see if they could do in games what they could do in practice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Soccer-t.html
A couple of things really stood out for me.
First is that the article really makes it seem like the purpose of the academy these days is not to develop players to make Ajax a better team, but to develop players to sell for a large profit. It sort of makes sense why an organization like MLSE would be interested in following such a model, as at the end of the day money is all that matters to them. I wonder if part (or all of the equation) is exactly this, with developing players to make an impact on TFC being a secondary goal.
Second is this quote talking about bringing a youth player up to the level of playing for the first team got me thinking about what we have seen in the first half of the season with some of the odd player selections.
Jongkind had been working with this player for several weeks and said he had progressed to “consciously able but not subconsciously able” to run with the desired form, meaning that in the heat of competition, he reverted to his old form.
Sort of makes me wonder if Winter was seeing things in training that were positive, but the players were reverting back to old ways in the "heat of competition". Could also point towards a lot of the earlier season being trials for a number of our players to see if they could do in games what they could do in practice.