This bit caught my eye :I'm not one to quote Jamie Redknapp, but I thought his latest piece for the Mail was pertinent to this thread:
"I was watching my youngest son Beau play for Chelsea against Manchester City Under 8s the other day. The standard was unbelievable, but what also stood out was the number of Scouse accents among the parents on the touchline.
City's recruitment drive for the best young talent is the talk of football and they are clearly trying to tie up the North West region."
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-right-son-Man-City-United.html#ixzz4TX3W0qDC
Players are taught to use both feet — and there are still so few English players in the league who are really two-footed. Off the top of my head, I can think of only John Terry, Michael Carrick and Adam Lallana."
This is something which is ingrained at our Academy. There was a clip of the U18s training with balls being fed in from the left hand side to Shayne Lavery and Antony Evans forcing them to shoot with their weaker left foot. It stuck in my mind because the same day we had a pre season game game where Gibson took the ball diagonally across the left corner of the box from right to left but was unable/unwilling to shoot because it was on his left foot, and I thought an Academy player would have shot. Players like Dowell can shoot with both feet and Connolly in particular is very good with his left foot, and playing on the left, for a natural right footer. Aspects like this are sometimes missed when looking at the work the Academy coaches do, they undoubtedly make these young players better, but unless they unearth a Rooney who has enormous natural talent they get poor re ognition.