The agenda for Jack over the next week is basically eat brekkie at the Schalke hotel, train in the morning for 2 hours followed by lunch, sleep, train between 4.30 and 6.30, eat dinner and go to bed.
The grounds here are different to Premiership clubs in that the hotel, training grounds, gym, goalkeeper square, stadium etc is all on one massive complex. There are about 8 pitches in all (one indoor) and 2 stadiums. The one which held the 1974 WC and the new one built for the 2006 WC. It is a phenomenally large complex with facilities second to none.
Jack came last year for a week to train with his age group but this is the first time I am here.
Most German clubs are set up in this way but Schalke is one of the largest with its 150,000 members (the second largest club in Germany) and has the best youth academy in Germany and arguably in the whole of Europe. The stats are insane:
1. In Schalke's current first team squad of 28, 15 have come through the Schalke youth academies. Premier League clubs are lucky to have 1.
2. After FCB, Schalke has produced more professional players than any other club in Germany. Bayern though buy a lot of teenage talent.
3. #4 of Germany's WC winning squad came from the academy here: Neuer, Ozil, Hoewedes, Draxler. Neuer apparently still calls his Schalke goalkeeping coach ahead of every game. Ozil's nephew also plays in the 11s academy and looked pretty good from where I was sat.
Ominously Chelsea are now mirroring Schalke's set up for their youth academy. They apparently tasked a management consultancy to find the best operator and Schalke (not Barca or Milan) was top of list.
Today Jack had skills training in the morning with Sam (one of the academy directors) and then had the session with the academy players in the afternoon. The afternoon session was intense with a lot of 1 on 1s and under time pressure. In fact the sessions were all about creating pressure to simulate game situations, 'how on earth are they expected to learn?' the coaches kept saying. There was hardly any idle time too.
There is a maturity about young German people which is directly borne out of their history and it is obvious in football too. At 4 o'clock when the academy kids turned up the first thing they do is say hello to all of the parents and coaches. They shake everyone's hand and the coaches also treat them like adults. I often say that German football teams have the upmost respect for their opposition. That is why they are so good. When the academy boys were asked to stop their warm up exercises the coaches hardly had to raise their voices. Before the coaches starting explaining how the session was going to go you could hear a pin drop (and this was in an indoor hall).
One funny story came back from the 14s when the gun player in the team point bank told the 3 new triallists that one was John Terry, the other Oxlaide- Chamberlain, the third Jack Wiltshire and finally that he was Ronaldo! Apparently he is the most sought after 14 year old in European football and that he is already on 4k a month. Tellingly he is the only kid at Schalke allowed to wear Nike boots (the pink sock ones no less!) as he is already sponsored by them.
No running today.
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