At this moment in football a lot of clubs are privately owned. This not only means smaller clubs became big because of only the input of money but also the former clubs with a good history are under control of new owners.

When a smaller club becomes big, I think it means that they would like to stay on the top of the league and not be there for a few years. The clubs that only invest in the first team will be clubs that will be unstable in their performances. It is almost a fixed item that clubs that pay attention to the total club development, meaning foundation, marketing, fan development, academy and first team, are most likely to stay on top of leagues for a longer period.

If you look at the current top clubs or clubs that were top clubs but are now mainly delivering players to these top clubs because of financial difficulties, they have in common that they have a culture, tradition, a philosophy and a development line.

Culture

The culture within a club is something that has been build over decades and not within one year. This culture is recognized in the style of football the club plays, the style or type of player the clubs develops and the way people are communicating with each other in a more familiar way.

Tradition

Barcelona, Ajax, Manchester United, and other clubs have had traditions of developing their own players. They also have a tradition of playing creative attacking football with all of their teams. The traditions with these clubs are now continuing that they want former players in the management of the club or in their coaching staff.

Philosophy

The philosophy to develop a club according traditions and culture is not new but has become recognition of quality. This means in quality of planning, quality of player development, quality of scouting, quality and style of the team development and all is done according to one philosophy that is recognizable within the whole club.

 Red Line

The three things above; culture, tradition and philosophy are what makes a club into a good club that is able to stay on top for a long time. It will never have a big collapse because of their stability and believe in their plans for the long term.

What I have written above are the things that I always recognize and try to detect within a club, and now a day in my work as a football professional in a club or academy try to implement.

These are the things top clubs have in common and which can be done without a big budget.

by Sportsdirector on 05/04/2015 in Blog, total club