Manchester City's new £150m academy: The English 'Milan Lab' from which they aim to rule Europe
Patrick Vieira, being groomed as a City manager of the future, has a key role at lavish training facility which has been six years in making
Brian Marwood, the Manchester City academy director, at the club's new City Football Academy
By Henry Winter, Football Correspondent
3:20PM GMT 06 Dec 2014
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Manchester City have paid such extraordinary attention to detail with their magnificent new £150m City Football Academy that sleep experts were called in to design the players’ bedrooms, selecting wallpaper with light circular patterns. “It’s very soothing,’’ said Brian Marwood, the academy director who has dedicated six years to making the club’s training and player-development centre is as close to perfection as possible.
City have left nothing to chance in the pursuit of excellence. Ambition is everywhere. On what Marwood calls “Patrick’s pitch”, Vieira continues moulding his Elite Development Squad as the club works towards a target of a first team of “four to six” home-grown players. Vieira himself continues to be nurtured as a future manager.
Linked to the Etihad by a bridge across Alan Turing Way, the CFA is a footballing field of dreams that also serves the community, with a new college and park space, as well as extensive employment, but is primarily there to give City a sustainable, successful future. In the EDS changing-room, Denzeil Boadou, a prolific playmaker for the Under-18s, was in the CFA early on Thursday morning, doing some extra training, chasing the dream. He walked across, shook hands with Marwood and this visitor, and went back to work.
Down the curved corridor, Boadou walked past a huge photograph of Sergio Aguero covered with the iconic “93:20” time of his title-sealing goal against QPR in 2012. He strode past pictures of a fan with “13.05.12” on the back of his City shirt and Vincent Kompany lifting the Premier League that year and again this. “We want players constantly reminded of the great moments,” said Marwood.
As Boadou headed into the gym, he was faced with the words “CREATE THE FUTURE” emblazoned on one wall. “When we talk to players about coming here, we say: ‘Come and be part of something special. Come and be part of creating history’,’’ continued Marwood.
The CFA is unashamedly aspirational, challenging the young players like Boadou. One room houses banks of computers where players can analyse their own performances, and study their next opponents. “We made the windows of the room large so that any other player walking past can see ‘he’s in there, I should be too’,” said Marwood. “The younger ones can see the first team, sense them. We want them to think: ‘I want to be next to Vincent Kompany.’ It’s aspirational.”
From the age of 12, when players are almost full-time already, they come in after morning school, train, and can do homework in one of the CFA classrooms. “The only distraction is the first-team pitch through the window!” said Marwood. Blinds are in place. They can glimpse but only dedication and talent gets them there. “We have a full-time psychologist for the Academy,’’ said the former England winger as he continued his guided tour. “We are creating a better person. We work to take the pressure away so they have no fear on the pitch and can display their abilities.’’
To gain the best ideas for the CFA, Marwood visited clubs like his old Arsenal home and New York Knicks as well as places like the Australian Institute of Sport and Aspire in Qatar. So the CFA rehab area is designed very specifically; the closer a player gets to full fitness, working on more demanding equipment, the larger the windows so they can view better Kompany, Aguero and the rest of Manuel Pellegrini’s men on the first-team pitches.
In the first-team dressing-room, the players’ kit, drinks and supplements were all laid out in readiness. The players chose who changes next to whom so Aguero, David Silva and Jesus Navas are in close proximity as are Fernandinho and Fernando. James Milner and Frank Lampard are side by side. The defenders are together.
Aleksandar Kolarov was already in, totally unimpressed by the presence of visitors and growling “why are you here?” City open the CFA on Tuesday and are so proud of the facility they want to get the message out. There were 19 drafts of the plans before this final one was agreed on. There was no “blank cheque”; all outlay had to be justified to their Abu Dhabi owners.
More than 2,000 trees were planted to screen against wind and photographers. “If Manuel wants to work away from prying eyes, we have an enclosed pitch,’’ said Marwood. The indoor pitch has a high ceiling so “Fifa would allow us to play a game here”.
One building houses the sports science, research and data centre. “It’s our version of the Milan Lab,’’ said Marwood, comparing it to the famed operation at Milanello. In the pool area, a lifeguard was on duty. There’s a hydro treadmill with underwater cameras to analyse the running gait of those recovering from injury.
The players have a sofa-filled social area for when they stay overnight at the CFA before games. There’s even a large terrace with a view of the Manchester skyline. “We wanted to avoid them staying in their rooms,’’ said Marwood. “They can get stir-crazy.”
In the first-team stretching area, where some players spend an hour warming up before training, there are bikes and a court for head tennis. There are rooms for yoga, Pilates, cryotherapy and a hypoxic chamber with treadmills where a player can tap “Rio in July” into the computer on the wall and the room heats to the required temperature. City even looked at sealing the indoor pitch so they could replicate conditions in Moscow in winter or Melbourne on pre-season tour “but the cost was prohibitive”, said Marwood.
In the recruitment room, they discuss targets not only for City but also their other clubs. “This is the central fulcrum, the heart of Manchester City, New York City and Melbourne City,’’ said Marwood, understandably proud of the vision becoming reality. Many sceptics mocked City.
“We’ve had a vision but people just laughed at us, dismissed us, wrote us off, knocked us down. People said: ‘foreign owners, they decimate the game’. People talked about us ‘ruining’ English football. Have I been hurt? Yes I have. They’ve been grossly unfair but it’s borne out of ignorance. I’d like people now to come and see what we’ve done six years on.
“I’d like them to actually understand what we’re about, what we’ve done to the local economy, how we’ve regenerated East Manchester, how we’ve improved unemployment, how we’ve grown the economy locally because 80% of the work-force has come from within the Manchester area and 70% of the material used on site has come from the local area. I’d like to see people actually try and decimate that.”
One cleaner at the CFA remarked: “My son used to play in the streets here and found a syringe. I’ve lived in this area all my life and we’ve been let down by Governments. It’s taken a man from the desert to help us.”
The “man from the desert” is Sheikh Mansour, who has invested the £150m in the campus. “We have fantastic owners, people who want to invest not just in a football club but in a city,’’ continued Marwood, referencing Mansour's commitment to invest in local housing. “They’ve never had the credit they deserve. We tend to see Khaldoon (Al-Mubarak, the chairman), who has his finger on the pulse. He knows everything that’s happening at this club. He’s been so supportive. Amazing guy.”
There is understandably endless talk of the owners’ motives, ranging from PR for their oft-criticised Gulf state to sporting passion. “It’s not a conversation where I’ve sat down with Sheikh Mansour and said ‘what are you pouring all this money into the club for?!’’ reflected Marwood. “They’ve had a huge amount of enjoyment out of what’s happened. When we won the league the first time, we went to Abu Dhabi and Sheikh Mansour said: ‘I’ve had 2,000 texts from all of my friends in this part of the world, congratulating me, saying ‘this is great news, this is changing people’s lives’.
“It was that moment where you go ‘wow, this is much bigger than Manchester, this is truly global’. The whole of the Middle East is engaged with this because they know his involvement with the club. He said this was a really proud moment because it created history. We live in a world where everyone wants people to fail, and this was a wonderful moment where somebody had gone in to a club with a reasonable history and was building something successful. For them it was incredible.
“I was listening to the radio this morning and Manchester United could have this war-chest of £150m and everyone’s getting all excited by that. We were ruining English football five years ago by spending money. I would defy anyone who says Sergio Aguero wasn’t value for money (at £38m) or David Silva (£26m) or Yaya Toure (£24m) or Vincent Kompany at £5m.” City say they are budgeting for profit this year.
When the money first started pumping into City, mistakes were made from the crass handling of the pursuit of Kaka to problems with characters like Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli. “That type of soap opera has ended,’’ insisted Marwood. Things are smoother now with a collection of low-maintenance, high-yield players and a plan to bring more quality through the ranks. “We are very close to the Patrick Cobbold statement of ‘a crisis is when we run out of wine in the boardroom’,’’ laughed Marwood, referring to the legendary, languid Ipswich Town chairman.
“It was always going to be a bumpy ride early on here because we were taking the club from one level to another. We were also taking the fans on a journey. Their journey beforehand hadn’t been particularly pretty. They always felt the jilted brides, getting to the altar and never getting married. Now there’s a greater trust and an understanding about what we’re doing. They can see it, touch it, feel it. They go to the Etihad and pass this and go ‘wow’.
“They can see (Jose) Pozo and Angelino on the bench or Marcos Lopes (on loan at Lille) playing or Jason Denayer playing at Celtic. We’ve always had an ambition that at least four to six players in the team would come through this Academy. In the team. It’s an ambitious target. We are working every day to achieve that.” The Portuguese Lopes cost £200,000 and the Belgian Denayer £150,000. Roughly 70% of the Under-18s are English.
But what of the home-grown Micah Richards now at Fiorentina? “Micah had a year left of his contract,’’ explained Marwood. “He didn’t want to stay. It was kind of his choice. He originally got offered a contract. He felt he wanted more pitch time. Micah was loved here and will always be loved here because he’s such an engaging character. He was unfortunate. He had a lot of injuries which held him back. He was also fighting against someone like Pablo Zabaleta, who has developed into one of the best full-backs in the world.’’
Marwood believes Pellegrini will pick home-grown. “This is a manager, don’t forget, who put two kids on the bench (Pozo and Angelino against Sunderland), who’s not been frightened to put Dedryck Boyata in the team, a younger player who’s come through this system. This is a manager who gave Santi Cazorla an opportunity (at Villarreal) and Isco an opportunity (at Malaga). If they are good enough, he will have them around. Our job is to give him the right product and say: ‘Manuel we think there’s one here, what do you think?’ Manuel is a big believer in the work that Patrick is doing and that the Academy is doing.”
Vieira is clearly viewed as a future manager. “I will say yes,’’ replied Marwood. “At what stage I don’t know because he still has to get more experiences. But we believe in succession planning here, whether it’s players, staff, non-playing staff. We believed in Patrick from the beginning because we felt he could become that person one day. Patrick displays the behaviour, values and the abilities to become a top manager.
“Patrick had a year where he just learned the business. That was one of the most valuable experiences he’s had in his whole professional career. It gave him an appreciation of what else made a football club, the hard work so many people are doing to try and make this club special. He has such an interesting mix of characteristics in terms of football experience, life experience and there’s a humility about the man, a respect, a calmness, a thoroughness in terms of his preparations. I’ve seen the detail he works to. He’s tough but it’s done with a velvet glove.
“I’ve watched him very carefully, and stayed close to him, because I really believe he has a fantastic future in the game. The respect he has in this club is not just borne out of an illustrious career. It’s also because this is a guy who’s humble enough to come and say hello, have a cup of tea with us, chat, and understand what we do. It’s the same with Vincent, with Pablo, with Joe Hart, with James Milner, all of these guys. That’s something I love about this place: the people are fantastic.”
Marwood walked past a room saying “manager’s changing area”. There is certainly no intention of changing the manager. The club back Pellegrini “absolutely”, Marwood emphasised. “This is a guy who has great experience. He's very measured, very calm. He’s not someone who goes and looks for confrontation but he’s not frightened of confrontation. He has got enormous respect here from everybody at the club. Everybody I speak to outside this club has a respect for Manuel. To come in and win two trophies in his first year is an amazing achievement. The brand of football, scoring over 150 goals, was incredible.
“We’ve worked very hard to develop a philosophy: we’re playing a brand of football where we like to be attacking, playing good football from the back and working hard when we’re not in possession. You can close your eyes, think of Barcelona and get a style. The same with Bayern Munich and Ajax. I hope in time people can close their eyes, think of Manchester City and get a certain style. Manuel is very much in keeping with the style and philosophy and where we believe we want to go.”
Marwood put the slow start to the season down to the World Cup. “People underestimated that we got a lot of our players back almost the week of the Community Shield. There was a real fragmented pre-season, international week, and players coming back in a different mindset because they had different experiences at the World Cup.’’
Even if City vacate the Champions League in Rome on Wednesday it will not stop the momentum built off the pitch, according to Marwood. “If we don’t qualify, we’ll go again. It won’t be the end of the world. People will be disappointed, absolutely, but you have to deal with these things and move on. We’ll look to become better and still search for the Champions League.
“But let’s not hide the fact that we’ve not done as well as we should have done in Europe. That’s frustrating for everybody. If you look at the players we have, you’d like to think we would be doing much better. But we have to find the answers why that’s not happening.” Too open? “There will always be some part of your team that will be open because people tactically will always try and outwit you. But it’s taken a number of teams a number of years to deal with Champions League football. It’s still very new territory to us. We are learning. Has it been disappointing? Yes. Are we saying that’s the end, that we can’t go on?! No!’’
City do not fear losing class acts like Aguero, a player hungry for Champions League glory. “You’ll get always clubs who will want the best players in the world and Sergio’s amongst the best players in the world. But you only have to look at Sergio’s performances to see he’s enjoying life at Manchester City.
Sergio appreciates the team. He doesn’t look at football and say ‘this is about me’. He’s a very humble guy. He just wants to improve and become the best he can possibly be.
“He’s engaging, quiet. His football makes him very happy. He’s very settled here. He lives for his football. His game has gone to another level this year. He’s even better than when he came and he was very good then. There was a deep intake of breath when we brought him here because it was a lot of money but he’s provided incredible value.”
Although there is frustration over Yaya Toure’s birthday cake “moment” whipped up by his agent, City feel the midfielder is totally committed to the cause. “He’s fine, absolutely,’’ said Marwood. “We had that little bit of shenanigans in the summer. Unfortunately, he had the death of his brother (Ibrahim) that unsettled him a lot.
“You’re always going to have those moments whether it’s Yaya or Joe Hart getting left out last year. The important thing is the group is strong, bring them back in and put an arm around them. What we had in the past was we’d have a Mario moment or a Carlos Tevez moment, and they were completely outside of the group. That’s not helpful for the group.’’ And Marwood’s reaction when he heard Liverpool had signed Balotelli? “Good luck!”
On Hart’s imminent new contract, Marwood added: “Nothing’s been announced yet but we are in a good place. I spoke to Joe’s agent a few weeks ago and even Joe was saying ‘why would you want to go anywhere else?’ He’s getting what he wants here. He came here as a young goalkeeper (from Shrewsbury), went out and learned his trade, had a wonderful loan spell at Birmingham City, did really, really well, came back here and became first-team goalkeeper and in my view, he’s the best goalkeeper in the country.”
City want to retain and reward excellence. That’s what the CFA is all about. “It’s about people working hard to create something special, a real hunger and desire to take this club forward,’’ said Marwood. “We are just the current custodians of this operation. We want to train and develop the next generation. I want one day to hand that over to someone else and say ‘take it to the next level’.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-city/11277373/Manchester-Citys-new-150m-academy-The-English-Milan-Lab-from-which-they-aim-to-rule-Europe.html