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September has been a tough one for us. Last season we had more players signed by pro-clubs than ever before. Four by Gillingham, a player by Millwall, a player by Sutton and so on.
The back-end of last season was especially tough, looking at your team sheets and losing so many of your starters. That has carried on into this season.
Lots of players have been on trials in our pre-season so it’s been difficult to navigate.
With that said, we played Charlton in pre-season which did set us up well for September having good results across the board.
We had over 300 players come in over the summer for trials so although we lost players, we had a lot of strong recruitment. The new players that come in have to get used to how we do things.
We expect a lot from them in training, we have very high standards and it can be a bit of an adjustment for players.
This is actually our first season without our head of recruitment John O’Sullivan as he retired so we have started off with a different setup.
The management team have taken on the role and I feel like we have done a good job and are coping well.
It’s always difficult when a colleague leaves but for me it’s nice to be able to get more of a connection with parents and the players.
My two leads Zach Bowden (Youth Academy Development for 12s-16s) and Zack Hamid (Youth Academy Foundation for 7s-11s) have been brilliant.
They know every single player, every stat, every postilion, they’ve done a really fantastic job as have all of our coaching staff.
Results-wise, some of the squads have started off really well, the under-11s have had a couple of wins on the bounce. The under-10s, too, have made a great start. They got to the nationals twice last year and have made a really good start again this year.
Off the back of last season, the 10s expectations are really high. They have a lot of tough games and are managing themselves well.
For the 9s first year in competitive football, going to a new venue, with a new manager, they’ve shown real maturity to start off the way they have.
They’re starting to develop a real playing style, confidence on the ball and are looking really good.
The 13s won the national cup at Doncaster Rovers stadium last year and were JPL league winners. They’ve started off this season tremendously despite having new players come in and some of their key players out on trial.
The under-12s and 15s have started in the JPL leagues and have had a good start too.
Our under-16s who finished runners up in the JPL last year started out in the National league cup as well. They’ve had a frustrating time but that’s expected at this age. They are playing some very strong teams in high leagues. Their cup group especially, has been tough.
September is always a mixed bag results wise. It’s important for us to have this pathway from 7s all the way through to the first-team with staff who belong to the club and are aligned with the club’s rules and philosophy. This then gets instilled into the players and has given us a lot of success.
Sam Odaoudu has been a first-team regular for a few years and came from us, starting in the under-15s, George Whitefield came all the way from under-7s as a youth academy captain. Most recently Deano (Dean Nayler) as well, who joined us at under-8s.
Having boys with us from seven or eight going all the way to the first-team is fantastic and shows what we’ve got going on is quite special.
Looking to October, on the 31st during half-term we have our 9s to 16s playing Southend’s academy in friendly matches and Gillingham’s under 7s and 8s will be playing against ours.
That will be held at Princes Park all day and it will be nice to have so many people there and will be great experience for the academy.
Riley Finch