Kruecken: Everyone in the Academy should be proud of what we’ve achieved | OneFootball

In his review of 2024, Academy Director Thomas Kruecken hailed all the Academy staff for their efforts over the past 12 months and stated how everyone has had a huge impact on the success of the department.

In a a year full of player development, demanding matches, injury challenges and success across multiple age groups, our Academy Director said he was incredibly proud of everything all our young, aspiring players had achieved.

One moment in particular stood out to Kruecken - our success in the 2024 FA Youth Cup final against Leeds.

For the Academy Director it was an achievement that epitomised not only the accomplishment of our Academy system, but which also rewarded the ongoing hard work by players and the staff who oversee their development.

“The FA Youth Cup is a very prestigious competition in this country with a great history and it was fantastic for me to see our boys perform in front of 20,000 fans in the Etihad which is an incredible number for a youth game,” Kruecken said.

“The beauty of it was that six players from the starting 11 started their journey aged eight so lots of people out of many departments were involved in their development and that’s what everyone was so proud about.

WATCH: Watch: Academy Director Thomas Kruecken reviews a successful 2024

“To win silverware is very important for us at Manchester City but for me it’s always the results of hard work and long-term planning with our players, making sure they reach their maximum level and that’s what they did in terms of their performance on that day against Leeds.”

Kruecken stepped into the role of Academy Director towards the end of 20023 and over the past 12 months he has been at the forefront of our new Future Player Programme which has seen the Club focus on specific attribute development for players based on age, position and the progression of the modern game.

Another key aspect of the Future Player Programme is the growth of the players as people, a key component in the work of the Academy for both Kruecken and City.

And the Academy Director also highlighted that through the programme, and support from City’s first team, more young talent from the Club’s Academy were experiencing the pathway to senior football.

“Pep Guardiola said a couple of months ago ‘better people make better players’ and it counts a lot to us in our programme,” added Kruecken.

“The high standards and behaviours, focusing on education and making sure that players have their individual development sessions week by week and I’m really proud that the idea of the Future Player Programme is that we offer, now weekly, 42 sessions to our players that are delivered by 26 different staff members out of seven departments and the number is really great.

“And it’s just the beginning because we now start to develop in more detail the content and I’m really really proud about it.

“And there is pride of so many people because these mentioned players [Jacob Wright, Nico O’Reilly, Kaden Braithwaite and Jahmai Simpson-Pusey] started their journey at the Foundation Phase,” Kruecken continued.

“So it’s a memento of hard work over recent years.

“Lots of people influenced the pathways of these players and for me it’s also a big thank you to Pep [Guardiola], Txiki [Begiristain] and Carlos [Vicens] in the transition from Academy to first team.

“Because it’s them who trust us as an Academy who trust the players and give them the opportunity to play, to train every day and to play when they deserve to play to give them the opportunity to great and this is great and we all don’t take this for granted.”