Chris McCart, our youth development chief, already has plans to spend the profits from the scheme. The money will fund teams for 8-10 year olds and will also go towards providing specialist training for young players, such as speed and athletic work and goalkeeping coaching. Some teams may also benefit from trips abroad and down south to broaden their experiences and learn new playing techniques.
Team manager Terry Butcher showed himself to be at the cutting edge of fashion by commenting that the bands were currently ‘all the rage’. I guess it’s good to know our esteemed leader does not walk around with his eyes closed! On a more serious note, Terry took the opportunity to stress how important the youth system was to our club although he did mention that some players were put into the first team too early. The upside of this is that they go in with ‘no fear’ and play well. He hopes that everyone in the team will carry that attitude into the cup final.
As usual, Terry was generous in his praise for others at the club, with the coaching staff and senior pros again receiving credit for their efforts in bringing through youngsters. He also said that everyone at the club was relaxed with the current league position; ‘being at the bottom, like
Finally, Terry also mentioned that we had been asked to move our forthcoming midweek games forward to this Saturday. However, given that we are carrying a couple of injuries, training is hard in these conditions and the players had been told they had a weekend off, he felt it was more beneficial to keep the weekend free and play the games when they were scheduled.
The bands used for the photo shoot are only prototypes and the real things will be available on sale from the club shop on March 1. Credit should also go to Gordon Young, the brains behind the operation!