By Ben Nicholson
November 25 – Although Southampton FC has yet graced the US shores with any commercial pre-season campaign, the Saints are now preparing to expand across the Atlantic with its soccer philosophy. Chairman Ralph Krueger (pictured) revealed plans to take the club’s coaching initiative to the US, prospecting that it will reach over 100,000 players.
Southampton has a well reputed youth system that has, in recent years, produced the like of Gareth Bale, Adam Lallana, Theo Walcott, Calum Chamberlain, Luke Shaw, and Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain, and so is likely a solid choice for the soccer enthusiasts in the US who are looking for some tried and succeeded educational techniques.
Krueger, a Canadian, made some interesting comments during the revelation, indicating a humble perspective of Southampton but a bold vision for the future.
He stated: “We just love to teach the game. Nobody in England outside of Hampshire wants to learn from us but in the U.S. they are very interested and we’ll jump into that opportunity.”
If true, it is startling arrogance of those non-Hampshire teams who turn their noses up at the methods that have developed so many domestic stars on the South coast. And it is perhaps foreshadowing an unhappy future for English football if the US is willing to learn from Southampton’s experience to its own national gain.
Though it may be, as Kreuger stated, “a win win for soccer here in the US and Southampton as a brand,” it may be a loss to the English national system who has its trade secrets shared with a competitor.
Kreuger further explained that their soccer education does not discriminate by age: “If you do any market research on the Premier League we are near the top, if not at the top, when it comes to teaching the game.
“If you come to Southampton as an eight year-old, sixteen year-old or twenty-nine year-old, you improve.
“James Ward-Prowse comes as a child and is now captain of the England U21 team, Morgan Schneiderlin plays a decade with us and is now the centrepiece of the Manchester United team and Graziano Pelle comes at twenty-nine and he’s the lead striker for Italy. It’s not about age, it’s about teaching.
“So we want to come to the U.S. with a clear development model that we’re going to bring to academies and development centres that have over 6,000 kids in them.”
Krueger lay out Southampton’s lofty intentions in saying, “We cannot claim to be a top club right now but we’re working hard on that – our goal is to be in the Champions League one day, that is our dream, and we will not let go of that.
“But we are at the top when it comes to teaching the game. That is where we will concentrate here.”
The initiative is set to launch at a Baltimore NSCAA (National Soccer Coaches Association of America) convention in January 2016.
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