Director Koevermans

Wim Koevermans has a job on his hands, of that there was never any doubt. Tasked with position of developing young Irish footballers to an elite level is a big ask. Since Brian Kerr's days as youth team manager, the Republic of Ireland haven't tasted much success at underage levels. The U-21's failed to register a win in the European Championship qualifiers, and the general consensus is that we just dont have the quality coming through, the next Robbie Keane or Damien Duff.

Which is where Koevermans comes in. Two years ago, The FAI launched the Emerging Talent Programme, and in September 2008, the big Dutchman was unvieled as International Performance Director. It is his job to develop Irish stars of the future at international level.

At the time of the appointment, FAI chief executive John Delaney said; "The appointment emphasises our determination to bring the best talent to this country to develop Irish players. Wim will work closely with the managers of our male and female teams from Under-21 down and also the senior women's team to help them achieve their objectives. As head of the new national academy he will look to improve the quality of our young elite players and build on the work being done by the emerging talent programme."

The programme is now in full swing, and Koevermans has stamped his authority, not only on the elite levels of underage football, but right down to the grass-roots. On Thursday night in the wind and rain, Koevermans was joined by a team of FAI coaches at Knocklyon United, where they led a coaching session followed by a question and answer session for the club's managers.

Because underage football has moved on, gone are the days of clueless management and coaching. Clubs, like Knocklyon, are proactive in having their coaches coached, so they can run energetic, entertaining, strucutured, knowlegeable training sessions. And it shows on the pitch. Knocklyon now have 38 teams, including a nursery for five and six year-olds, right up to senior level. They won seven leagues and two cups last season, and are always expanding.

Every coach in the club, as a rule, must complete the Kick Start courses, and most continue on to the Youth Cert, with one completing his UEFA B Licence with a view to the A Licence. This, according to Koevermans, is where every club should be. He wants parents to become coaches, and emphasises the value of a parent coming in to coach a team; "Its so important, because working with a large group of kids isn't easy. We are very very happy that parents come in and want to help with clubs, and we can help. By having them attend the Kick Start courses or by putting on sessions for the coaches is great for the club, because this is how young players develop.

"It is so important to give that litlle bit of awareness to the coaches, so they know how to organise a training session, let the kids play, and make sure most of all, that its fun. The players must be kept interested because we need to keep them in the game. And thats why the Kick Start 1 and 2 are crucial. Like what we did tonight, to show them how to deal with certain situations, and it will only help them. On the training ground, and at the weekend, they will see the benefits. Because the main objective is to develop the kids as players."

With the lack of money in the League of Ireland over the last number of years, Ireland has fallen behind the powerful nations of Europe, many of whom boast elite training centres such as the French setup in Clairefontaine, which produced the likes of Anelka and Henry.

Many professional teams in Europe have acadamies, where the best players are sent to develop into superstars, which is where the Emerging Talent Program comes in; "We haven't got the structures in place in our professional clubs that you see on the continent, and thats why the Emerging Talent Programme is so important.

"We dont only care about the elite players, we care about all of football in Ireland, which feeds into the programme. Yet, the programme is helping to develop the next generation of Irish stars. We have the best players from within an area playing together, and if you have the best players playing together being coached by top coaches, players develop so quickly.

"I can see it happening already. The levels are already getting higher. These players are being trained to be international footballers, so we approach it that way. We coach it and analyse it with international standards, to tell the players that this is what needs to be done, and I hope to see the benefits over the coming years.

With the structure in place at the moment, numbers in many schoolboy leagues around the country begin to wane when they reach U16 and U17 levels, and Koevermans emphasises a need to alter the structure so that the top schoolboys who haven't travelled across the water arent lost from the game. He says; "We need to create the best competitions for players around the age of 16 and up. They need to be playing at a high level, regularly. These players should be playing 24, 26 games a season.

"A lot of hours in training and on the pitch in order to ensure that the development is continued, especially at such a crucial age. In Europe, in these acadamies, players are playing 5 days a week, putting in the hours needed to become top players, and thats what we need to be doing here, because we are already playing catch-up. We have to work on the system, and in the meantime, develop the elite players."

"We are working hard, with the regional centres and within the leagues we can identify the good players, get them together, but we only have them once a week and they go back to their clubs. It would be great to have them for longer, like in the acadamies but it would be great to have that setup here. That's what we are looking to do and there is still a lot of work to be done in organising good competitions and good player pathways, but its getting there.

"We need to also make sure that the coaches become better and better, because its them who can make all the difference. You can train kids five times a week, but if they dont learn, there is less effect. Coaching makes the difference, thats why the courses are so important within the FAI. We need to get our coaches to the level of the A Licence and B Licence for them to make an impact.

Local clubs need to start taking the initiative in Ireland if we are to become a force on the international stage. The Irish performance in France was encouraging to say the least, but we need to kick on from there, to improve on that performance, to qualfiy regularly for major competitions, which that starts with the local clubs, the grass-roots. And Knocklyon are an example of how a club can take the necessary steps to improve their players so the might produce a future international.

Craig Ryan is the aforemantioned coach who holds a Uefa B Licence, and he will be working with the rest of Knocklyon's coaches regularly in order help them develop, which of course has such a massive knock-on effect. Koevermans believes that this is the ideal, saying that "Of course I would love to see a "Coaching Director" within every club, but at the moment its not possible. What is possible is that every area has a coach who has the qualifications who can coach the coaches."

On local pitches week in, week out, you can see and hear advice coming from the touchline, be it from a coach or a parent, and sometimes it can turn sour. Young players berated for a mistake, with winning becoming overemphasised. According to Koevermans, young players starting out shouldn't need to focus on the result; "Kids should be allowed to play, if they make a mistake, they should be advised on how to make it better next time, its a learning curve. I dont want to see them just kicking the ball forward trying to get a result, I want to see them playing the game the right way, because when they are so young they need to enjoy it or they'll lose interest in football and we lose them from the game, which is the last thing we want to happen."

His job is a difficult one, but the impression is that Koevermans is up to the task. His enthusiasm on and off the training pitch are there to be seen, and the Emerging Talent Programme is in full swing. Only time will tell if Koevermans is the man for the job. The DDSL's U17's flew out to South Africa on Saturday afternoon, its not quite the acid test, but their progress wil be interesting nonetheless.