http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... rwood.html
Manchester City are flourishing without Wayne Rooney thanks to Brian Marwood
All week Manchester City have been linked with Wayne Rooney. All week City have continued working hard behind the scenes, seeking to nurture Rooneys of their own at their Platt Lane Academy.
By Henry Winter
Published: 11:00PM BST 22 Oct 2010
Fields of dreams: Brian Marwood surveys the impressive
set-up at Manchester City's Platt Lane Academy
Over at Carrington, Micah Richards learns from Patrick Vieira while Adam Johnson is encouraged to acquire the life skills of David Silva. Overseen by Brian Marwood, an impressive rebuilding job goes on apace. City will do fine without Rooney.
Barring tactics, Marwood’s remit as football administrator is effectively access all areas, using Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan’s money to create an environment of excellence so that Roberto Mancini and his first team can flourish. “We are slowly but surely building a club with people in the right areas,’’ Marwood said. “It was like the Dog and Duck here before.
“We now have one of the most comprehensive databases imaginable of players from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, built up through good people we trust. And we don’t call them reserves any more. Reserves sounds flat. We call them the elite development squad. We’ve created this one House of Football.
“In the old days, when the manager went, the whole club changed. What we’ve tried to do is get excellence in all areas so if the manager does go, the whole thing doesn’t just collapse.’’
Talking at Platt Lane, Marwood outlined the type of players City want, partly drawing inspiration from Sunday’s opponents, his old club Arsenal. “I’m a big admirer of Arsène Wenger. Recruitment in his eyes is pretty simple: pace, power and technique, and if you’ve got all three, great!’’
What about personality? “You don’t have to be the most expressive person in the world off the field; it’s what do you do with that ball. If you were building a brand map for Paul Scholes, and we did this at Nike, if you are looking for personality off the field, it doesn’t come with Paul. Personality comes when he crosses that white line, because he has that in abundance.
“You have to have a blend of people. Wayne Rooney is a different character but you would probably always take Wayne Rooney. Carlos Tévez and Gareth Barry are different characters and complement each other. We are trying to build the squad, putting all the pieces together that brings success.’’
The academy is crucial. “We will still sign players. James Milner could be here 10 years and £24 million over 10 years doesn’t look so bad. But there’s nothing greater than producing your own player, seeing them at a very early age, then becoming a player in your team, seeing them grow up and becoming wonderful adults. We may not see the benefits for five to 10 years of our investment but that has to be the way ahead.
“Now that we want to be a club in the Champions League we are trying to create an even better player with good habits on and off the pitch. But we are dealing with a lost generation. Some young [academy] players are well-adjusted but with far more players we have to do lifestyle skills on them. If you look out that window, we have some boys over from Africa, who are so far advanced of our boys technically and in terms of behaviour.
“We are looking at deregistering our boys from school at 14 so we educate them here, coach them here, show them how to cook, how to fill in a form for a passport. Our apprentices and scholars will spend half a day a week working in the community. They should grasp what less privileged people are going through and make them grasp they have something special.’’
Probably the most gifted teenager in the country is Ravel Morrison at Manchester United, but he has had considerable off-field issues. Marwood nodded. “I signed him at Nike at 15. I know the baggage there. United will work hard to get him back into line. A lot of other clubs give up on that side and indulge him because he’s a talented footballer.’’
Marwood wants well-balanced, driven, media-literate academy graduates capable of surviving football’s challenges on and off the pitch. “Gazza and Maradona underachieved because they didn’t have longevity. They didn’t play until 35 because they didn’t have the life skills to deal with all the stuff that comes around. I go and watch Landon Donovan. All the US players are very articulate. Ours shrug: 'Why do I want to speak to him [a journalist]? But they are portraying themselves and the club.
“Frank Lampard’s a wonderful story. This is the schoolboy that everybody was writing off. But this is the boy with perseverance, professionalism, pride and passion. Lampard has all the qualities we talk about for the values of our club. He’s very professional, articulate, sensible.
“We are not looking for people with a wad of A-levels. Steven Gerrard has had his tough moments and learned. He’s in a good place now. He’s responsible. He’s been through some difficult moments at Liverpool. Do I stay? Do I go? He’s grown up a lot. He’s very passionate and very driven.
“One of the things I love about Patrick is that he wants to mentor young players. We’ve seen a difference in how Micah is since Patrick came in. We’re changing the mentality of the club. We are trying to make Carrington more professional with the way Roberto wants them focused and working hard.
“Some players have bought into it quicker than others. Some things caused a massive stir, headlines news on TV: 'Shock horror – footballer trains twice a day’! Players need to wake up. They have to eat, sleep and drink football. Roberto’s not going to get over his ideas if you are sat in your front room.’’
Mancini quietly criticised Johnson recently. “Roberto is just trying to keep his feet on the ground. Adam’s world has changed dramatically and we have to help him through that. We’re asking players that when they go out, go out at the right time. Not drinking 48 hours before a game. We hope they live their life the right way.
“I don’t worry when James Milner goes out because I know it will be to the pictures, going bowling, and he’ll be in bed with his Horlicks at 10pm. We have other players who want a drink but they need to be responsible. It impacts on their performance. We do saliva tests on them all the time.
“Foreign players have educated our players. Kolo and Yaya [Toure] are Muslim. They don’t drink. I’m hoping young players look at that, and think they’ve played in the Champions League final and there’s a player with Spain in the World Cup [Silva]. He doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, rarely goes out. Maybe I should try a bit of that.’’
On the field, Johnson has proved an inspired signing. “I knew the family but I want to kill this myth that Adam Johnson is a Brian Marwood signing, Brian Marwood’s love-child! If I’m imposing players Roberto doesn’t want to work with it falls down straight away.”
Marwood did the background work on Johnson. “I took that to Roberto and said: 'It’s your decision’. We weren’t sure what was going to happen with Robinho. We had a contractual dispute with Shaun [Wright-Phillips]. Craig [Bellamy] was coming into the latter stages of his career. Vladimir [Weiss] is going to be a real good talent but is not ready yet. We were deciding between Victor Moses or Adam Johnson so I went and watched both. Fortunately we got Adam and he’s been terrific.’’
Marwood is keen to address certain enduring questions about his own role, particularly in Mark Hughes’s exit.
“It might feel quite hollow but I have respect for Mark, who worked incredibly hard. We went on a period of results which didn’t work. The decision was made and we have to move on.
“I find Roberto very engaging, very warm, an extremely nice individual. Roberto is very disciplined; he’s about organisation, shape. He’s like George Graham. People looked at George as a [stylish] player and thought he’d be the last person to be a manager but he was one of the most successful managers.
“Football came very naturally to Roberto. He had a good touch, great awareness, smoothness of running and was always very strong-minded.”
And what of the huge salaries City pay? “I would be lying if I said any of us were not concerned about wages in general. I have no problem morally. Nobody gets uptight about the morality of Julia Roberts getting £20 million for a film or F1 drivers earning incredible amounts. But football has to look at wages. We need to say, 'How do we change that?’
“But people forget about the money we’ve spent on the fans, on City Square and the Family Stand to improve the fans’ experience. This is a club that hasn’t had any investment for quite a time. It’s not the Dog and Duck any more.’’
