Learning from the very best
Valencia trip hailed a success
The St Mirren management duo of Jack Ross and James Fowler followed in the footsteps of Tony Fitzpatrick... by making the trip to Valencia.
The pair teamed up with the club’s partner, inspiresport and head of sales for Scotland Jed McCabe to visit the sport tours’ exclusive club.
As with Fitzpatrick’s visit, the reason was for Ross and Fowler’s trip was to see how Valencia CF go about their business from the academy through to the La Liga side’s first team.
They were amazed to see the similarities between the two clubs – as this year Valencia have seven players in the first team from their world class academy. Spain and Manchester City’s David Silva came through the same ranks, with Valencia proud of their tradition of producing home-grown talent.
They had the chance to watch several academy teams from Under-6, Under-14, Under-15, and Under-19s train.
They also had access to watch the reserve and first team train.
One of Valencia’s top coaches, Toni Navarro, took the time to show the pair behind the scenes at the academy.
He shared the club’s philosophy and academy structure of how they go about scouting the best players in Spain and their pathway into the first team.
Due to the links initially forged by Fitzpatrick’s s visit last November – which has been strengthened by Ross and Fowler’s recent trip – the link between St Mirren, inspiresport and Valencia is becoming stronger.