Gang Culture and Young Footballers

Young stars in trouble!!

How do we go about protecting our young stars?

We have knife and gun crime on our door step, young kids getting involved from the early stages and dragged into a life that seems to be unnecessary!

More and more we are starting to see young footballers being shot or stabbed from being associated to a gang or just happen to probably know someone in a gang.

Why do they believe that showing that they are a big man will achieve anything?

We have all if not majority of footballers come from deprived areas, Estates and inner city ghettos as some call it.

I know that when I was growing up in Portugal in a multi cultural estate, crime and drugs were the main issues, we had small gangs and got into all sorts of trouble, fights and stealing but it never was as bad as this and i was firtunate enough to have strict parenting and possibly a breain in my head, I have lost a couple of friends to guns and drugs along the years.

How about young footballers?

They are no more special than anyone else but many would think once they have achieved that step into an academy or into football they would most probably be mature and safe or at least be out of harm’s way.

Are parents or clubs doing more to protect these kids?

Are the parents doing enough to make sure that their children are not getting into these gangs or at least supervising part of what they get up to?

Over the years I have come across a lot of young players, from an early start in coaching in England I took my young cousin who was one the best young talents I had seen,  technically gifted but unfortunately falling into the wrong crowd seemed to distance himself from football. he started hanging with weed smoking youths and getting in trouble with the police. Despite a shoulder it seemed the parents didn’t have the control over him or the strength and that mattered a lot as it would fall on deaf ears and before too soon he just ended up doing little with his life. Today he looks back and knows he could have been a lot more

Around the same time A young player at Chelsea Academy and at Brent schools. He had a lot of talent, I had heard about him and as I lived and coached in the area, the boy had a stinking attitude and a lot of trouble around him. I remember coming across him on a bus, where he stood up and asked me for some money in an abrupt manner, to which in my days would have been met by a slap.. But he soon realized who I was and apologised, his gran by whom he was brought up with seemed to try her best, he faded into other ways.

More recently have had a player on the run to the Caribbean for something or other at the age of 15 and another who has been on court appearances for other stuff. Both have been raised well and parents can only hope they get up to good after school only to find out they just been in trouble or happen to be in a youth gang.

Is the way forward anywhere near?

How can we try and prevent our young players from getting into all this gang culture or association?

There is a mix feeling as some kids are well looked after and just happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, others are just there for the wanting to be seen as one of the gang.

Local communities are stretched and seems local clubs have no funding to offer more than a couple of hours per week with young footballers in their care.

Local constables provide some activities in my area and hold a football tournament once a year which is not enough to bridge the gaps needed to stop some of this.

We can’t expect to stop gang culture all together but I hope we can protect some of our young stars by identifying early what sort of crowd they hang with and offer them a way out with the help from parents leasing with clubs and schools and offer possibly an extra corriculum.

Amongst many of our fallen young stars recently due to association or not to what might have been prevented are Rio McFarlane, Kiyan Price, Etem Celebi, Jahmal Mason-Blair, Oliver Kingonzila, Sofyen Belamouadden.

And these are just London or surrounding players I am mentioning from the last year or two and accross the rest of England there is many more fallen future England or International players that could have been.

I hope and wish we could do more to stop and help with what is now a postcode war.

Sunday Youth Season Starts..Too Early?

September...
Sunday Youth football season starts.

A difficult time to get the squad ready as boys are just coming back from holidays or want to have a small break before getting back into training and school. Coaches and managers have been thinking through out the summer as to what they would like to achieve this season, but the lack of players available sure puts a strain on a youth manager. The thought of available players, new additions, preparation time, fitness, pitches, this all goes through a coaches head and not to forget having to sign a minimum amount of players by a certain date when half the squad is still away.

Then there is the Cricket season, it has just finish and the goalposts are down, the park keeper has not had word from the bosses about putting them up, so any friendly games would usually require an away game or a neutral pitch with no nets, which also means having pre-season games without some of the players.
I always had the difficulty of getting a full squad for the start of a season. Majority of players would be away, getting their signatures would be a problem as cards are only issued in August so at the start would be a gamble of paying fines or magically a signature or two would appear.

Lately I have been getting calls and Facebook messages from players and managers of youth teams asking if I know players for their teams as they are short, goalkeepers are missing, if any grounds I know are available etc etc...

So far being out of managing for a 5 week period has given me a bit of time to see that a lot of coaches struggle to get the season started, by this time a few seasons ago the struggle to get it all off the ground just seemed almost pointless. Are we really ready, is this worth it?

Perhaps if the season started in the last week in September, Coaches/Managers would have time to work with  players, have more time to see new players as kids spread the word when they return to school or college.

I am sure most teams are in the same boat and if that is the case it should balance itself out.
It depends on how the manager manages his players to deal with the situation, in the last 15 years of managing I have learnt to deal with it and always got it right as it progressed.

But for someone just starting out is it a big challenge or a put off?

Queiroz the babysiter

There are probably a few good Goalkeepers who make good managers!

Queiroz is not one of them, in his entire senior managerial career he has not achieved anything.

Ok so 1 Portuguese cup and 1 Spanish cup and Youth championships...barely spending longer then a season as a coach/manager hardly shows characteristics of a national team manager specially when he tried and failed previously!

Queiroz is more suited to coach youth teams or as an assistant as he was great at this role at Man Utd, Failed in Spain, Portugal (sporting) and national coach.

He is piss poor at managing, whether that’s down to his arrogant attitude and lack of attacking knowledge only the people paying his wages to walk around and scratch his head will know.

Given the fact that he is from Nampula my mother’s birth town in Mozambique and about the only football he has played is at youth level there, Portugal Federation President should think hard in the morning about the man he has chosen to babysit our children.

If queiroz was replaced by one of many farmers coaching in the portuguese league teams there would be a decent enough chance to start afresh

Oceano, Portugals Own Stuart Pearce

I remember Oceano (meaning Ocean in Portuguese), Strong and in many similarities to Stuart Pierce as a leader and also a bit dirty. Opponents were sure to back out of tackles as he swept anything coming through the middle, he was a favourite of mine even though he played for Benfica’s rivals Sporting.

Now plying his trade as Portugal's U21s manager, and good to see a black manager in the Portuguese set up.

Here is a brief write up-

Oceano Andrade Cruz was born on the 29th of July 1962
The ex-Portuguese international was appointed U21 manager at the beginning of the 2009/10 season , to the 47 year old it was a new professional challenge, initiating a journey as main coach after a season working in the technical structure of the National Selection – Clube Portugal. (Portugal's selection policy)

After a long career at the highest level as football player, fundamentally playing for Sporting Clube Portugal, where he played for 11 seasons, and Real Sociedad, where was for three years, the ex-Portuguese international accepted the challenge of coach the National U-21's.

Oceano started his career as a football player when he was 13 years old at Almada AC and his first senior, season was the 1982/83, representing Odivelas FC. In the following season he headed to the Funchal where he represented National da Madeira, where showed qualities that brought the attention of Sporting who then signed him in the following year. Between the season 1984/85 and 89/90 he represented the Lions of Lisbon. Followed by a transfer to Spain where he had his first experience abroad playing for Real Sociedad,where he played for 3 seasons before returning to Alvalade.

The 1997/98 season he finished his Sporting career– after having worn the green and white stripes for 11 seasons – and headed to France to represent Toulouse in 1998/99, where he retired from playing at the end of that season.

He has won the Portugal Cup (1994/95) and two Supertaças Candido Oliveira (1986/87, 1995/96), the main titles achieved at the service of Sporting.

His farewell was on the 22nd of April of 1998, 13 years after he made his debut, was against England. The farewell of Oceano in the Seleccao coincided with the last meeting played at the old Wembley Stadium.

During his journey with the National team he played the final phase of Euro96 in England and played four qualifiers ( World Cup 98 [8 games], Euro 96 [6 games], World Cup 94 [9 games] and Euro 92 [8 games]). He captained Portugal six times, Scored 8 goals, Won 23 games, Drew 21 and lost 10.

Oceano Finished his UEFA PRO Licence in June 2009.

we will wait and see what will follow after the U21s where he is sure to be a success

Portuguese Youth Grassroots

Youth Grassroots Portugal!!


When i grew up grassroots in Portugal were much different to the English grassroots.

In Portugal young players from the ages of 11yo played in small stadias similar to what you get here at non-league except that there was no grass, pitches were of beaten sand, a fence around. This was the local community club, I happened to live right opposite ours with only a road separating us.

Most the local players usually attended trials at our local club and the main coach was a local fusilier corporal who’s discipline was bar non. Rain or shine players turned up for training & matches muddy pitches when the odd downpour happened, no shippads? some pads just about to hold were used.

Match days were attended by parents and local people, with local pork steak, Minute steak sandwiches etc all on the grill and at very reasonable prices.

I remember kids on top of the dugout that was black and Green, hanging for a better view, only to be told for the 6th time to get out.

Old Sand Pitch

The type of league they played was the only league available at the time, it was a county/district league, (still the same until today) teams would play similar standard clubs and travel as far as 50miles to play games.

There was no stand but there was fences and admission was free for youth games. A senior game was at the time equivalent of £3-5 but we used to just jump the fence to watch these.

Players not playing for the local club would have smaller pitches and play occasionally in small 5-a-side tournaments, there was no astro turf, the grass in Portugal was rare to parks only and where we played was on 5-a-side concrete pitches or have a kick around on the park when the park keepers were off, so you would really mostly pick players from watching them or from trials, mostly were raw talent or from word of mouth.

But for our local clubs there were always the best players, the standard was very good, the level of play was always decent, and 11 year old knocking 35yrd passes with no problem, A good number of players would get picked to go on trial to Sporting Lisbon, Benfica or Beleneses aswell as the local 2nd division Barreirense.

There was always problems with our youth sides and adult sides mainly being we were from a multi ethnic neighbourhood, mostly kids from the Portuguese colonies (Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde) the racial abuse was always heard and as much as you tried to ignore it, it was not for everyone’s liking.

New Generation Pitches and Players

But from my experience of youth football in England and in Portugal its that it is a more organised set up, what you get here at academies you get in Portugal at local clubs.

There was no parents running teams and the community was involved in the running of the club, social clubs play a big part in this and events and local grants make sure that it helps run the clubs.

England have a more relaxed way and Sunday Youth Leagues although help players in greater numbers the quality is different, as an 11 year old is good in 1 team in a Sunday Youth league in England, in Portugal there are a possible 6/7 in their local clubs and 4/5 will go on to professional teams as they are clubs who feed the bigger professional teams.

From what i have encountered in England is the opposite at a lot of clubs. Some Sunday teams will try to stop players from going on trials, or refuse to allow scouts to speak to players parents because they believe that they will not have a balanced team if the player signs for a pro club.

http://vimeo.com/10499263

This might be one of the reasons a lot of players fall under the radar in England and possibly the question.. did we just miss the next Theo Walcott?

Ricardo Soares

Scouting

My brief Scouting!!!

I am now 33 and scouting was never something I thought I would do.

It’s not a full time job; it’s not even a part-time job... unless you are one of few big players at pro clubs.

I first Started scouting as I believed I had talented young players in the club I was working with, I contacted a few pro clubs, and set up a few meetings.

My first club happened to be Charlton Athletic, a brief chat with the then head of scouting Gary Karza we got the ball rolling. He was interested in a U17 player I had, the boy had just arrived from Beleneses FC in Portugal, the kid was 6ft3 and had showed good football for the standard we were playing. He was finally invited for a trial at Charlton which never materialised and neither did my offer from Charlton so was time to seek other avenues.

After taking some time off and just concentrate on coaching I was soon approached by Reading FC about setting up a base in west London. Trial dates were arranged and I soon picked 2 players to take down, 1 was my brother in law (not at the time) who had shown a lot of promise in his 2 seasons with me and the other was a young player called Stefan Bailey (went on to play at QPR) whom was playing his first match for Willesden Constantine 1st Team, at the age of 15, I rang up Reading FC straight away and told them they had to get this boy in. On the same match i saw a young Enoch Schwommi (now Tranmere and 18 at the time), both Stefan at 15 and Enoch at 18 were by far the best players on a Middlesex County Premier clash. Stefan who was outstanding in his trial and by far the best player on the pitch until he injured himself, Reading tried to sign Stefan as they told me, but news from Thea bailey camp they opted fo QPR as closer to home. Danny Silva (bruv in law) was also injured during the trial but not offered a second trial.
I carried on doing some scouting for Reading but it proved hard to commute from London to Reading and players found it hard to get there also.

I approached Chelsea about a getting involved in scouting and a very interested man (who’s name I won’t mention) gave me a date to come down to one of my sessions so we could talk it over. Little did I know the wife would give birth the day before. After the hospital without any sleep I attended my session, to my disappointment no Chelsea representative showed up or bothered to call which bothered me for a while.

Soon after my contact at Reading Keith Stiles moved to Fulham FC and contacted me about working with them.

Fulham’s Eugene Dwaah came into one of my sessions and we worked out ways of getting players into Fulham...I spent 2 and a half years with Fulham and have had a good scour for talent from north to south west and east London, some good and some average players, butatthe omet most too young to mention names.

Recently as from late 2010 I have been asked to Join Brentford FC, an old contact who had been trying to getme to work at Arsenal had moved over to Brentford fo a higher position. With the changes at FFC academy I felt the time was right to move on and join a club with a tight and organised programme, Working along with Shaun O'Connor and Miguel Rios.

Along the years I have sent and recommended players to clubs and some have slipped through the net and landed in other places, but so long as they get the chance it’s all I care.