The second week of the Easter school break saw the younger age groups - U8, U9, U10 and U11 - travel up to the Northwest of England for their second year running to play Tranmere Rovers and Crewe Alexandra, with the addition this year of fixtures against Wrexham.

The tour is the first time that our new intake of U8 players gets to play together at a Centre of Excellence level, with the squad also containing two U7 players. Whilst this may seem a daunting prospect to many reading this, our youngest players often cope best with these situations through their sheer enthusiasm and carefree attitude. This is matched with a professional football environment where no fear and individual expression is the main aim, enabling our young players to showcase their skills and give the coaching staff a chance to see their exciting potential.

Tom Pell, alongside our Development Squad and Development Centre coaches, has worked extremely hard to grow a foundation level of players who have risen through the pyramid of the scheme. We now have more U6, U7 and U8 players within the pyramid than ever before and we are still looking to enhance this further.

As with any tour, being away from home in a football environment allows the staff to observe the players at their best (and their worst!) in terms of behaviour, organisation and preparation, to give players responsibility for themselves and others. It also gives us valuable time to talk and have an input into moulding their character. We feel this is crucial in developing the players within our philosophy and allows us to show the players that what happens off the field has a direct relationship with what happens on it.

The first day's travel up the motorway ended with fixtures against Tranmere Rovers, with whom we have formed an excellent relationship since our FA Youth Cup fixture a few seasons ago. They have very competitive players and pushed our players to their maximum. Most pleasing about the fixtures was that after a long day's travel the players were able to perform at their best with a very positive start to the trip.

The second day saw us meet up with Wrexham, a club who empathise with our plight as they find themselves in a similar predicament with their youth set up. After their first team's relegation from the Football League, despite having a superb youth scheme that has produced numerous professional players, Wrexham's funding has been cut in half. If their first team are not promoted next season they will find themselves in our position, with no funding at all unless the authorities change their current position. This also means they will have no compensation rights for any of their youngsters.

You can easily understand the frustrating conversations that we had with their staff whilst watching some superb performances from both sides with four great games in progress! Surely good schemes should be protected by the rules and not put at risk?

Our final day began with the Northwest's Got Talent and our touring players performing 'on stage' in the local park near to our lodgings. With different acts displaying a range of jokes, songs and dance routines the winners were Lee, Owen, Alex and Jordy for their rendition of 'Billie Jean' in a very well choreographed routine to the delight of the gathered audience. Lee celebrated with the same enthusiasm with which the winning goal in the World Cup usually receives! Special mention must also go to Adam's Soccer AM 'Tubes' impression.

The afternoon took us to the very impressive training ground of Crewe Alexandra, with whom we have also forged a positive relationship since our FA Youth Cup meetings in the past couple of seasons. The Crewe Academy players provide a huge test for our players, especially with it being the final day of the tour and their third performance in as many days. It then becomes a real examination of character for the individuals within the group and how well they cope with the situation.

The players responded in fine style with a number of superb displays across the age groups in closely contested matches. This was a real sign of our progress within the scheme.

Myself and the other age group coaches on the trip were very proud of how a number of players conducted themselves, not only on the pitch but also within team meetings, general behaviour over the three days, and also in the lunch purchase test in the local superstore - one U8 player did buy himself a lump of cheese for his lunch, not a bad first effort!. The trip reinforced to us yet again why these trips have such value in identifying strengths and areas to improve within players in working with them in reaching their potential.

However the value of the trip can only be measured by the long term effect that the information given has on the players in their long term progress within the scheme. In the short term it will be interesting to see how much information has been retained with the upcoming games.

Matt Walker
Centre of Excellence Manager

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