FC Twente

I may only have just turned 21, but I have long since discovered that it is very easy in life, and some will say British life in particular, to just look at the negatives. Somebody’s failings, are more often than not, deemed more newsworthy than their successes. The courage to take risks is rarely recognised unless those risks work out.

When I was 8 years old I met a guy at Orlando Airport who was returning from a family holiday to take up a new role. He was relaxed and very polite that day and I have followed his career since.

At the time he was Assistant Manager at Derby County and a virtual unknown. His new role saw him become Assistant Manager to Alex Ferguson (not a Sir in them days!) at Manchester United.

In his two and a half seasons at Old Trafford the side won three Premier leagues, the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League.

He left this comfortable job where his visionary skill sets were highly lauded, to take a gamble and develop his career further. He took up his first managerial post as boss of Middlesbrough. His first season saw them reach the FA Cup Semi Final (beating Man Utd on the way!). Two seasons later and his side lifted the League Cup - the clubs first ever major honour - and thus guaranteed them qualification for a European competition for the first time in their 128-year history.

The difficult transition from coach to manager was complete. Jump forward a couple of years and a well-publicised gamble or two later and he turned up at FC Twente in the Dutch Eredivisie. In his first season they finished runners up in the league and also reached the final of the Dutch Cup losing on penalties.

The following season, they hit the top of the table in October and despite being chased by the much more fancied AFC Ajax and PSV Eindhoven, they held their nerve to win the league for the very first time in their history.

The ‘successful’ man is of course Steve McClaren, and when I was offered the opportunity to spend a few days alongside him and his coaching team at FC Twente I was ecstatic.

So one week after leaving AFC Ajax (see previous blog) I found myself on a train from Amsterdam going across Holland to Hengelo near Enschede, to the home of FC Twente. Once again, I had been afforded such fantastic hospitality and an itinerary had been organised for my visit that exceeded all my hopes. Here then is my FC Twente story…

Having believed and hoped that I'd left the freezing cold weather in England, I arrived at the Twente training ground fresh from a comfortable night at the local hotel to a blanket of snow covering every field, and the groundstaff working tirelessly to make training for each team possible. 

I was met by John van Miert, Head of FC Twente Academy, who welcomed me to the facility over a coffee in the players’ cafeteria and provided some insight into the academy set up, scouting procedures, philosophies and visions for the future. He explained that the club's philosophy was to play attractive and fast paced 'pass and move' football alongside creating highly technical and intelligent thinking footballers.

With this as their primary academy objective, John further advised that the club aspired to have at least 50% of the first team squad as products of the youth academy, within the next three years. To accomplish this, great stress is placed on ensuring that all coaches philosophies align with that of the club's, which is to encourage all players to play the way the club preach, building possession from the back rather than playing 'long ball' football. 

With this is mind, John emphasised that the academy and all its coaches possess a developmental mind-set, focusing on technical aspects until age 15, before developing tactical knowledge. Whilst they will endeavour to win all of their academy games, they believe that this shouldn't be sacrificed and overridden at the expense of player development. 

For them, winning becomes the main objective from the age of 19 through to first team level. Instead, at youth level it is deemed of greater importance that all coaches seek to progress their players onto the next stage of their development, building a cohesive unit that doesn't necessarily achieve winning results at the younger age groups, but does by the time they reach U19 level.

Until then, all players (excluding goalkeepers) are presented with the opportunity to play in multiple positions with equal playing time across the course of each season; to facilitate their development as well rounded footballers with excellent technical and tactical game knowledge. This, they believe, prevents them from becoming one dimensional in set positions and instead ensures that the roles and responsibilities of all positions are known and understood. What I found particularly interesting was when John explained that often, set positions for certain players are regularly unclear still at U17/U18 level. 

This is such a contrast to my personal experiences of playing and observing soccer in the UK and USA. There, I have witnessed many team managers coaching players as young as 7/8 that have already determined a players best suited position. These positions are often decided on physical attributes and will only be changed as a coach/manager looks to find his most successful line up.

From experience, this invariably relates to the coaches desire to win overriding player development, as assigning a position where a player performs best gives the team and manager a better chance of winning. Consequently, one dimensional players are produced that perhaps feed the manager's ego rather than creating players capable of fulfilling multiple roles on the pitch. 

John then invited me to view the training facilities, but not before he had introduced me to a few of his academy staff, Michel Jansen (Head of Development), Gerhard Wermink (Technical Director) and none other than ex-Barcelona and Dutch International footballer Patrick Kluivert (now Twente reserve team coach). Being a big FC Barcelona follower since a young age and watching Patrick at his peak, to say I was a little star-struck would be an understatement! Regardless, all were very welcoming and inquisitive about my reason for travelling, taking interest wherever possible to facilitate my learning and development and better my experience at Twente, of which I was extremely grateful.

Next was a short tour of the facilities: player cafeteria, staff offices, changing rooms, physiotherapy room and the football fields. Notably, all of the fields were in close proximity to one another, with a mixture of natural and 3G artificial turf pitches spanning the width and length of the complex, some covered in a blanket of snow, others not (thanks to the groundsman!). With the first team squad training (led by Steve McClaren and Youri Mulder) and reserve team training (led by Patrick Kluivert) about to commence, John left me to my own devices to observe some top quality coaching and final match-day preparations at first hand, an invaluable experience that I'll never forget.

It was evident that McClaren's entire focus was on the weekend's important top of the league clash with PSV Eindhoven rather than their Europa Cup fixture later that night; unsurprising considering Twente were unable to progress further in the tournament.

After lunch I was fortunate enough to be afforded what was supposed to be 30 minutes with Gerhard Wermink (Twente's Technical Director). However, two hours later and the conversation still hadn't come to an end! Gerhard described himself as a scientist and spoke about the game with great passion, the like I'd never witnessed or experienced before, opening up and sharing such invaluable knowledge in response to my questions. A common theme of our conversation was 'innovation'. Being a scientist, Gerhard applied his innovative personality to the game in virtually every aspect, for instance the style of play they seek to adopt, the formations used at each academy age group given their stages of development and physicality levels, coaching techniques to optimise player performance and general attention to detail.

I was extremely grateful for the time spent with Gerhard and thank him for his fantastic insight and eye-opening stance on the development of the game which will undoubtedly influence my future approach to coaching. 

I was then greeted by Tom van der Laan, organiser of my superb programme at Twente and Head of the Player Guidance department that coordinates the integration of predominantly young foreign players that are brought to the academy. With the numerous young players within the academy, it became evident within twenty minutes of meeting Tom that he possesses an incredible rapport with all at the club. All players would greet him with great warmth, confidence and ear-to-ear smiles, and many described him as an invaluable member of the Twente development team. Any concerns that a scholar had especially settling-in in Holland or homesickness, Tom was your man!  After discussing Tom's role it became clear that he works tirelessly to meet the needs and demands of everyone at Twente, a man who "walks the walk" rather than "talking the talk", and whilst I didn't want to be obtrusive during my stay, Tom included myself in that too, for which I express deep gratitude. 

Tom then introduced me to two more people: firstly, Frank Tempelman, the academy's U17/U19 head coach and secondly, a temporary academy staff member who was currently working with their U16 side. That person was ex-England U21 manager and for the past 18 months Head Coach of the Bahrain National Football squad, Peter Taylor. Once again, I was fortunate enough to be afforded a further half an hour in the company of Peter this time, who after realising I was from God's country (Essex!) like himself, took a great interest in my coaching and educational background and the reason behind my travels. Obviously I had a few questions to ask him too, to which he happily obliged, providing some invaluable knowledge, useful coaching tips and assurance in my coaching potential.

At this point I could've happily returned to my hotel room with the satisfaction of a superb and insightful day. But that wasn't the end. I was then invited to observe various academy teams train, to watch Gerhard Wermink, Peter Taylor and Frank Tempelman at work. Better still, having expressed my desire to learn as much as possible for my own professional development as an aspiring coach, Frank Tempelman repeatedly made the effort to approach me on the sideline to explain his session plan, his session objectives and to constantly translate his Dutch instructions and commands. I learnt a lot. 

Whilst observing, Michel Jansen (Head of Development at Twente) also ventured outside to brave the bitter cold weather on the training fields, taking the time to accompany me in viewing Frank's session, where we conversed about all things football; styles of play, coach mentalities/philosophies in other nations and personal experiences to name a few. Much like everyone else at Twente, Michel also took great interest in me, especially in my own coaching philosophy as well as my commitment and dedication to learn by travelling around to various academies. I was made to feel unbelievably welcome by all and after just eight hours since arriving at the academy, my experience had already surpassed all expectations.

Still, my day wasn't over. Tom had arranged for me to be picked up from the training HQ by Herman Voogtsgeerd, a Twente scout (among other roles) within the academy, where we would drive to the Grolsch Veste stadium, the home of FC Twente. Herman was a bubbly character with a spring in his step and seemed to know everyone as we arrived at the stadium! Clearly, a very approachable and welcoming guy - I'd come to expect nothing less from Dutch people in this and my Ajax trip! I was handed my complimentary ticket for their game against Helsingborg IF (from Sweden) for their Europa League tie that evening, and was further treated to complimentary beer (Grolsch of course!), hospitality and comfy leather seats in their VIP area!

After fielding a youthful side, the majority of which were Reserve team and U19 players I'd observed in practice earlier that day, Twente unfortunately went down 3-1. Maybe not a fairy-tale ending then but my spirits could not be dampened by my first day at the academy! Nobody was too despondent as aforementioned the tie was a dead rubber and all focus was on the upcoming weekend fixture against PSV Eindhoven.

Roughly nine inches of snow fell overnight, meaning that training for all academy age groups was cancelled the next day. However, I was still to be kept busy as Tom and I were off to the Grolsch Veste Stadium for a press conference. Steve McClaren would be facing various Dutch TV Channel reporters and media outlets, ahead of the table topping clash on Sunday and here was an opportunity for a front row seat!! At the stadium I was introduced to Richard Peters, Head of Communications at Twente, who had been instrumental in arranging my trip to this fabulous club. 

As I took my seat in the press conference it suddenly dawned on me that this could all be in Dutch which would have been quite surreal but thankfully it was all in the mother tongue of the Head Coach. I sat amongst a flourish of reporters with their numerous recording devices and simply listened as questions were fired at Steve regarding all aspects of the game; match preparations, player welfare and fitness levels, thoughts and ideas on previous games/future games etc. A fantastic new experience for me and one that I was grateful to be granted access to. 

As the press conference drew to a close I was approached by Richard who informed me that he had organised for me to spend thirty minutes one to one with Steve himself, an incredible and invaluable way to end my trip. 

I am indebted to Steve for the time he afforded me after recognising my presence at the previous days training and commending my efforts and desire to learn. I had prepared some questions for Steve, to which he took great time to carefully think about his answers in depth, to give me the best advice possible and impart some of his wisdom and knowledge onto a young coach. 

Furthermore, Steve also demonstrated great interest in my future coaching plans and travels having inquired into the reason behind my European trips, as well as my hopes and aspirations following graduating from University in 2014.

Before I could leave Richard insisted that he give me a stadium tour to round off my time at Twente. I was treated to walking the tunnel onto the pitch, sitting in the dugouts, viewing the boardroom and sky press boxes as well as the royal press box, should anyone famous visit. 

I really cannot thank all at FC Twente enough for their incredible efforts to accommodate me and ensure that my experience at the club was not only memorable but invaluable. I am extremely grateful for the organisation of such a fantastic couple of days’ worth of activity and have nothing but excellent memories of the kindness and warmth of all the personnel I made contact with.
Dank U Twente!!