Academy director Bryan Klug says there is a lot of good in this summer's oft-criticised Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) restructuring of youth football in England. The 51-year-old took control at Playford Road yesterday after two and a half years away from the club.
Klug said: "There’s a lot of good in it, without a shadow of a doubt. What it does ensure is that people deliver what they say they’re going to deliver and over many years at a lot of football clubs, they haven’t done that. Here, we have.
"At a lot of clubs it’s been about putting on a scheme because they get paid a certain amount of money for it and the kids have been short-changed.
"Now, while the audit system isn’t perfect by any stretch, it’s going to mean that if you say you’re going to give a kid a good education, you’re going to have to deliver it. It’s over-fussy and it’s over-egged but the principle behind it has got to be right.”
The new plan means youngsters will spend more time working with coaches, but Klug warns that that’s only beneficial if they’re being taught the right way: "You can spend as much time as you like with players if you do the wrong things with them it’s going to mess them up. The intent behind it is good but it will always come down to quality in the end.”
He also feels the EPPP has been introduced too quickly: "We were talking about it earlier. You start one day and you’re getting an examination a week later or at the same time, so it doesn’t make much sense to me.
"They’re making all these changes and they’re going to audit you straight away. You can’t possibly be perfect within the first week, can you? It’s just human nature.
"It has been rushed, without a shadow of a doubt, but it needed to be changed. It needed changing because as a nation we’ve not been producing enough good footballers.”
There’ll be no easing into the new job with interviews for positions within the academy taking place today as the not inconsiderable task of implementing the new structure begins: "About an hour and a half ago, Simon presented me with the biggest box of papers regarding the EPPP and now I’m going to wade my way through that.
"There’s been a lot of hard work to get the club ready, now we’ve got to make it a living document. We’ve got it written down, we’ve got to make it work and get it out on the training field.”