Town’s U15s beat their Northern Ireland counterparts 2-0 in a game jointly sponsored by TWTD and Suffolk New College at Playford Road on Sunday morning with Andre Dozzell and Max Melanson scoring a goal in either half. Academy recruitment officer Steve McGavin, who arranged the match in order to take a look at the province’s best youngsters, spoke to TWTD about the match and the job he took on at the start of the season.
McGavin says potential recruits look at Town and see youngsters given a chance, something which happens less and less often at bigger clubs these days: "Ipswich Town historically has always been a club which has produced players through its academy and people in the game and parents are well aware of that.
"It’s a bit more prevalent in the modern game that talented young players will sometimes look at a club and wonder whether there’s a pathway for them to get into the first team.
"At some Premier League clubs they’ve got 70 players between the ages of 17 and 21. We don’t carry those squads, so the boys here will get opportunities.
"The U16s will play in the U18s and the U18s will play in the U21s and they’ll get lots and lots of football, and ultimately, like going into any other trade, when you’re an apprentice or a scholar you want to learn your trade.
"I keep saying it, but it’s so important that we’ve got the right learning environment for all the boys to become first team players.”
He doubts Matthew Clarke would have progressed into the U21 side while still a schoolboy at bigger clubs: "He’s making very good progress for a young player at his age, he’s played in the U18s all season. That’s the sort of thing I mean when I’m talking about opportunity.
"It would be doubtful if he was at a big Premier League club that he would ever be playing U21s until he was 18 or 19. There’s lots of things we can’t offer, but that’s one that we can.”
Curry says his Northern Irish boys will be aware that they there is a quicker route into senior football at a club like Town: "Look at Josh Carson’s progression, for example.
"He came across here as a fresh-faced 15-year-old and was playing international football inside three years. That can happen for a young player.
"The philosophy and the methodology of Ipswich Town has always been about developing their own players and developing them through to the first team.
"The players are very knowledgeable now. The young boys know their football, they know about tactics, they know about the technical ability they have to have.
"A club like Town, they know there’s a tradition of bringing young players along, and they want to be part of that.”
McGavin, 44, was a young player at Town as a teenager before moving on to Sudbury and then back into league football with Colchester and his says youth development has changed enormously since his time as an apprentice: "Incredible. I remember my first week at Ipswich, I spent it cleaning the stands, I didn’t even see a football!
"I can remember my dad saying to me, ‘How’s it going?’ and I said, ‘Dad, I haven’t seen a ball!’. The first week was literally spent cleaning the seats of the Pioneer Stand. Lots has changed.
"Lee Howie was in my year, Chris Kiwomya was a year below me and Jason Dozzell was the year above me.
"Peter Trevivian was my youth team coach, Ron Gray was chief scout and Brian Owen was reserve team manager.”
He says back then there was less of a concentration on local players: "Back then, if we took eight or nine scholars or apprentices, there would be two local boys and the rest would be from all over the country.
"Now it’s the complete reverse, we’re trying to take more boys locally and fill the numbers up from boys from different parts of the UK.
"Since I was an apprentice the whole system has changed dramatically. We used to train on a Thursday night, once a week with a few local boys and that was the extent of it.
"If you come here on any night of the week and see how many boys we’re on contact with in all the age groups, that’s changed dramatically, as have the facilities.
"I think now the boys are getting fantastic opportunities, they’re getting fantastic coaching and, hopefully, the end result is first team players.”
TWTD has already agreed to sponsor the matchball for the academy showcase at Portman Road on Wednesday 1st May when an U15 side will take on Tottenham under floodlights.
If you’re interested in sponsoring some aspect of that game or anything else relating to the academy, email Simon Milton or call him on 01473 400942.