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It had to be Leeds standing in the way of Ben Wilkinson and the Youth Cup trophy - a title the City head coach describes as the 'pinnacle' of youth football. To get his hands on the biggest...
Nov 28, 2023 · We talk to a promising young Scot about seizing opportunities, breaking records and getting a message from Mo Farah. It has been an eventful year for Angus Wilkinson. During the Monument Mile...
May 10, 2024 · Ben Wilkinson’s side secured the prestigious trophy after a 4-0 victory over Leeds United in Friday’s showpiece final which was staged at the Etihad Stadium. It marks the fourth time the Club have been crowned FA Youth Cup winners following our triumphs in 2020, 2008 and 1986.
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Howard Wilkinson was sacked as Leeds United manager on 9 September 1996, and it would set in motion a chain of events that would lead to England reaching their first European Championship final, a quarter of a century later. Back then, England still had a particularly old-fashioned approach to football. Former managers and coaches can still remembe...
It required an entire cultural shift and many say Wilkinson was crucial in that. He created and wrote the blueprint that became the modern academy system, named the Charter for Quality and published in 1997. Now, while putting their own stamp on things, clubs largely all work in the same fundamental way. Academy managers meet at St George’s Park th...
Wilkinson, a former teacher, is considered a disciple of coaching and took the first group of aspiring coaches through their Uefa badges in 1998. Alan Smith, the former Crystal Palace manager and Fulham’s first academy director, was part of that group and remembers visiting Bayern Munich to see how they operated. “It was clear we were so far behind...
Initially convinced by Wilkinson’s dreams, the FA bought 330 acres of east Staffordshire national forest for £2 million in 2001. A year later Wilkinson presented an architect’s model of what St George’s Park would look like. But as costs of the new Wembley rose and the opening was repeatedly delayed, St George’s Park had to be postponed until the s...
All that changed at the start of the 2010s. As the academy system continued to improve, Southgate was appointed as the FA’s new head of elite development. It was here that he grew an extensive network across football, could be found in a high-vis jacket and hard hat having input at St George’s Park as construction finally got underway and was a key...
Two things came together a year later. St George’s Park finally opened – a decade after Wilkinson had left – and Dan Ashworth was employed as director of elite development. A £6m government grant meant the nation was heavily invested in the project, but when it was officially opened by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, St George’s Park chief execu...
“Today I’m going to set the whole of English football two targets, the first is for the England team to reach at least the semi-finals of the European Championship in 2020 and the second is for us to win the World Cup in 2022,” Greg Dyke said in his first speech as FA chairman. It was a statement that would be derided often during the next three ye...
Clarke wanted the clock taken down, but it was saved by Sam Allardyce, one of the major achievements during a 67-day tenure ended by a Daily Telegraphexposé. Southgate, by then the England Under-21s manager, turned down the main job before Allardyce took it, but was offered it again and changed his mind. In much the same way St George’s Park revolu...
Feb 24, 2024 · Head coach Ben Wilkinson hailed City’s strength of character and togetherness after our dramatic 2-1 FA Youth Cup quarter-final win over Tottenham.
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Jan 13, 1999 · HOWARD WILKINSON is on a collision course with club managers who fear he will pick their top young players for two competitions during a crucial part of the season.
Apr 2, 2024 · Head coach Ben Wilkinson expressed his delight after seeing his City charges book our place in the FA Youth Cup final after a tense and hard-fought 1-0 semi-final win over Bristol City at the Joie Stadium.
