Bryan Klug doesn’t believe the Blues having applied for Category Two academy status will leave them at a disadvantage despite Norwich and clubs in London aiming for Category One. This summer sees a reorganisation of youth football with the introduction of the Elite Player Performance Plan.
Klug, who was appointed academy director yesterday, said: "I don’t think it will actually. The same things will still apply, forget the EPPP, forget all that. The same things will apply, I think, if you’re running a good scheme.
"I think Category Two will actually be very, very good. The top tier, where they’re going for the really big clubs, I think there are issues there because they’re going to make it a national league and things like that.
"It’s going to be very expensive and I’m not sure it’s necessary, in fact I’m certain it’s not necessary. I think Category Two will have a lot of good football in it.
"If we have a good academy with a good philosophy and nice style and we look after the kids and there’s an opportunity, that’s the main thing that’s really attractive. This club now has a long-term plan that really is going back to being involved with the academy. The opportunity is there.”
He says that this was key to him taking the job: "The manager’s really interested in it, the owner is committed to it, both of them are.
"When I was talked to, I thought that that long-term plan was so abundantly clear that I was going to leave a really top academy to go to an environment which is promoting that again.
"There’s never been a timescale put on it, but the owner and the manager are now looking on a long-term basis and this is part of it. I wouldn’t have left Tottenham if I was coming into a situation where there was no value put on the work that we’re doing here. I think that’s a massive change.”
He says manager Paul Jewell wants him to bring through young players to go into his first team: "The discussions I’ve had with the manager have been on that basis.
"As long as we’re producing players who are good enough, he wants to promote them. But we’ve got to produce the quality.
Klug doesn’t know Jewell well but that they had in-depth chats during reserve friendlies between the Blues and Spurs: "His last game at Derby was actually my last game with Jim before I changed roles as well, when we beat them 1-0.
"The only time I’d met Paul before was in that capacity on the touchline. But we had a couple of really good football chats on the touchline when he brought teams over to Tottenham. I don’t really know him that well but I’ve had some really good football chats with him.”
One man he does know well is current U18s coach Russell Osman, who he confirmed will remain with the club: "The titles are all changing, you’ve got to be a ‘professional development coach’ or whatever.
"Russell and myself go back. Russell was just breaking into the first team when I started as an apprentice here, so I saw his rise. We’ve stayed friends and in touch since then and I’m looking forward to working with him.”
Klug will start interviewing for seven new positions within the reorganised academy today, while a replacement for retiring recruitment officer Malcolm Moore probably the most important appointment: "Going through it with Simon, I don’t think there are too many gaps.
"The football coaching side looks after itself with the people we’ve got here. I think we have to make one or two additions lower down with the youngsters.
"They’re also insisting that you have sports science and video analysis, which are great add-ons and we’ve got to develop that side of the football club.
"We’ve got to replace Malcolm Moore, which is a big, big job. I gave him the job when we first started the academy all those years ago and he’ll be a big miss. He’s done a wonderful job.
"If you ask me what you’ve got to get right, it is recruitment first and foremost. In this area we’ve probably got a lot more competition than we probably had before with a few of the other academies kicking on.
"We’ve got to nail that down and have every good player in this area coming here, and we’ve got to find the right man to do that.”
He says he doesn’t know too much about the academy’s current young players but was impressed with them in their recent games against Spurs: "In the last two or three years we’ve played quite a few games against the boys and I’ve clocked one or two of them. But I don’t know enough about them yet to really judge.
"They always played well against Tottenham. When you’re at a club like Tottenham every team wants to play well against you, that’s part of the thing there, everyone raises their game when they play Tottenham with the profile they got when they were in the Champions League.
"Every game was every team playing at their maximum, which is good. Certainly when we brought teams here, the Ipswich teams did really well.”