ACADEMY AWARDS
Koeman: Kids in England have an incredible desire & spirit
young English footballers. They have an incredible desire. “I have no worries about their motivation and I feel I actually have to slow them down rather than push them forward. “Young British players have a spirit, which I don’t see in the Netherlands or other countries where I’ve worked. “There is a different culture here. The problem is that managers here wait a long time before they launch young players. “If a player has the talent, my motto is that you must give him the stage to show it.” Johan Cruyff recognised Koeman’s natural instinct for nurturing promise when he asked him to take Pep Guardiola under his wing while the Etihad boss was coming through the playing ranks at Barcelona, where Koeman was a seasoned star. When Koeman become the assistant manager at the Nou Camp, his brief was to monitor the talent being nurtured at the club’s famed La Masia academy. And as coach of Feyenoord he guided the Dutch club to finish second twice, and third, in three seasons despite not being allowed to spend anything in the transfer market.
Koeman proved at Southampton that it is possible to forge young stars in the heat of Premier League battle.
And he took extra pride in Everton’s recent 4-0 hammering of Guardiola’s Manchester City from seeing Davies, Holgate and Lookman play their part.
Koeman said: “The great thing about a young talent like Tom Davies is that the fans immediately take to them.
“They feel a bond with a young player when he is a boy from their hometown. Against City we finished the game with three players aged 18, 19 and 20 in the side.
“We won 4-0 and yet after that we sat down with Tom to show him on video where he could improve.
“I did not need to tell him what he had done right. The whole world had told him that.”
Koeman has spent £24m this month recruiting Morgan Schneiderlin from Manchester United. But he cautioned: “As a manager I feel I could be blocking the development of a few of our own youngsters if we sign certain players.
“I could go and get a few names, but in six months maybe one of our youngsters deserves to play every week. I want to give them support and confidence.
“My relationship with Morgan made the deal a bit easier.”