Pep Guardiola: Playing the Cruyff way

Academy.

Finally, the floor was given to the audience. Unsurprisingly it wasn’t long, considering Pep was mentioned several times in the talk, before talk of City’s academy came up.

Jordi was asked how his father would feel about the money spent at City versus the lack of chances going to the youth players at the City Academy.

Jordi was very honest in his thoughts stating that developing youth takes time, three to five years, to get the philosophy top to bottom.

In the Premier League Pep needed to get the first team up to speed quickly and he mentioned that previous nights game (home to Everton) as illustrating the style. Despite being down a man it was City who pressed, took risks and dominated, getting that vital goal and a point. He said City made it a beautiful game to watch.

Jordi continued that ‘from the outside’ he could see a growing pattern with the academy development but warned that it could be a few more years before you see real top class players consistently being churned out. Development, he argued, needed to start at around age 8. So, while we may have some players now aged 15, 16 and 17 who could potentially get in the side, it could be another decade before they flow from our academy.

He backed this up with the Belgium project. Implemented a decade ago, now we see the National side reaping the benefits. That could also be why we see a different DeBruyne returning to England than the guy who left Chelsea only three years ago. Matured for sure, but also a ton of game-time since leaving the Bridge.