Preston North End - The English De Toekomst

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Season One

Youth Intake


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The moment I'd been waiting for - youth intake day. Arriving at the training ground I was full of optimism but that soon faded once all the players had been assessed which led to me going around the country to find other players to bring in. The top three players from PNE's youth intake are listed below:

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A few calls later and I was down at St Georges Park in Burton to scout a number of players recommended to me by a former coach of mine, Arsene Wenger. Four of them were English lads that failed to get in at a professional club, one with Turkish roots, and the other was an Italian lad that had failed trials at Chievo Verona and Parma. Luckily all five players were on the same team so I was able to scout them with ease and after the game I approached the agent of each player to agree a package for them to join up with the PNE academy immediately.

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Further to the St Georges Park trip, I sent out a couple of my scouts and backroom staff around the world to watch games of players that were brought to my attention by former colleagues of mine from my time coaching at De Toekomst. The following players will join up with the club at the start of the next transfer window on 9th June.

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In addition to all of that I signed a new contract..

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and Josh Brownhill was called up to the England U19s squad!

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How do you find these players to put into your youth team? When is the trial day and how do you find the other players? I always struggle to find good young players who haven't already been snapped up by clubs already.
 
What a read...amazing success you've brought to Preston, out of curiosity whats the average age of your squad??
 
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