The future of Preston's player development strategy

Preston North End have announced details of a new scheme designed to ensure that the club has the best possible chance of spotting talented young players at the earliest opportunity.

The initiative, based in the Isle of Man, was intended to firstly get more youngsters playing the game with expert tuition, but also to provide a fast-track into professional football for players with exceptional talent.

North End's Youth Development Officer Darren Finch oversaw the project, and was in no doubt that the project will aid football in the Isle of Man and benefit Preston North End:

“It's great for us from both a community and a development point of view that the Isle of Man FA were happy to accept our proposal to go out there.

Development

“It allows us to spread our wings further and keep an eye on players that effectively don't have a local professional club,” explained Finch.

Finch underlined his enthusiasm for the scheme, as well as reiterating that the long-term focus is on player development for the future:

“I'm looking forward to getting started on the next stage with the development squads where we can start to see some of the best talent develop.”


View Preston's Development Initiative in a larger map

Springfields Training Ground

Springfields Training Ground has been the home for Preston North End's youth side for a number of years.

Despite the lack of youth team players breaking though into the first team fold in recent years, Springfields has played host to a number of promising performances in the Puma Youth League this season.

The team's biggest win on this ground was a 10-0 success, ironically over their bitter rivals Blackpool.

All home fixtures are played at the venue, with the site also hosting training sessions for the first team squad.

Below is a video of the training pitches at Springfields.

The sad state of North End's youth system

The disappointing reality at Preston North End is that precious few youngsters at the club are making it through to the first team.

Although a select few from last year's youth side including Dominic Collins, Danny Mayor and Tom Smyth have made the moderate step up to the reserve team, this is not an indication that the youth set up has been a blinding success.

North End's Director of Youth Football Dean Ramsdale is the man burdened with the responsibility of moulding the young players at the club into professionals who are ready to slot into first team.

Secret

His quest for knowledge recently took him to Ajax in Holland in an attempt to uncover the secret of why the Dutch youth system has been putting the English methodology to shame in modern times. His findings could not have been more damning:

“They follow what is called the TIPS system, it looks at the touch, intelligence, personality and strength of players,” Ramsdale explained.

“I was watching a game with an international scout on a Sunday and I was trying to write their team shape down and it is really difficult to do because people are interchanging between positions, it is good to watch,” he added.

Difficult

But perhaps the biggest challenge facing the coaches is the issue of lack of contact time with the youth side. Ramsdale explained:

“At Ajax the players are in contact with the coaches all the time, two and three sessions a day at every age group. At Preston we are fighting to get contact with players because we haven't got a facility that can cope with that.”