The Everton Academy/Canterbury School of Football setups epitomise the downside of player development. Clubs are the backbone of the sport in this country and for years they have been told they need to focus more on player development rather than senior mens 1st team results (I agree with this). What pisses me off is the fact that Mainland, instead of concentrating on assisting clubs to develop player development programmes then went and set one up in complete opposition to local clubs then tried to attract the best players away from their own constituent clubs, how bad is that. they even got offside with NZ Football over it. Everton academy is not the same but still one guys idea of how he can do it better than everyone else. No surprise they had 5 in the U17's when they scour the country for the best players, complete farce when they behave like that. Similar with Rufers Wynrs academy, self interested and does nothing for the sport overall, creates division and petty mindedness whereas John Herdman's Whole of Football plan is the best thing to happen for the game locally in a long long time. Why? Because it is player focused and club based. the next thing they need to do is address the issue of the cost of playing then we will see genuine real progress in the game, where we are not only capable of getting the odd result at elite level but real contenders for age group titles.
