LinkedIn, combat sports and one-on-one sessions

LinkedIn, combat sports and one-on-one sessions - how Man City are planning for the future

Manchester City academy director Thomas Krucken speaks to the Manchester Evening News about the next steps for players and staff.

Nico O'Reilly and Pep Guardiola after City's FA Cup win at Bournemouth (Image: 2025 Harry Murphy - Danehouse )

If you want to help mould the Manchester City stars of the future, you might want to get over to LinkenIn. There, the academy director is advertising new coaching roles designed to take the club to the next level in a revolution that shows no signs of slowing down.

Personal development has been at the core of everything Thomas Krucken has tried to do since he took over from Jason Wilcox in 2023. Younger age groups have been given taekwondo, karate and other sports in their curriculums to help improve their football skills and Tuesdays and Thursdays have had set time for individuals to have one-on-one sessions where they can simply focus on how to make them a better player.

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The results have been mightily impressive, with the Under-21s winning their league and knockout competition last season and the Under-18s enjoying a 26-match winning run in all competitions before losing their league and cup finals. The Under-21s were the youngest team in their division with an average age of 18.7, and the Under-19s reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Youth League with the youngest average age (18.2) in the competition as well.

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Teams have shone, and individuals have stood out. None more so than Nico O'Reilly - who took his chance superbly with Pep Guardiola in the final months of the season - but there has also been pride at Jahmai Simpson-Pusey; after helping the first team in the most challenging part of the campaign, the fact that he then claimed an individual first is seen as a success not just of his hard work but also the new regime.

"At the end, it's about people and their pathway and true potential," Krucken tells the Manchester Evening News. "Each of us has a true potential.

"Jahmai is an example. He's the first defender ever to win the Premier League 2 Player Of The Season. We're so proud about that. He's a defender! Normally it's about forwards or 10s but he's a defender!

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"He's shown this season he can close the gap to his true potential and that is another motivation for the staff. That is how I try to lead this academy always with the expertise of the people and needing every single team member in each department to make the next step because I have not their knowledge."

Having seen the progress in players as part of the 'future player' programme he put in place, Krucken is stepping up his plans with staff. If you can get more out of the staff, they can get more out of the players and then everyone looks good.

Over the past five months work has gone into designing a bespoke 'competency model' tailored to all the different roles. Krucken animatedly explains how there are 14 functional competency models for each department designed by the experts within them, and will lead to what will become known as the CFG Certificate as the ultimate stamp of approval in the building.

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As well as improving current staff, Krucken's mission for this summer has been to hire more (hence LinkedIn). Jose Luis Rueda has arrived as the head of a new department specialising in individual performance development with the aim of ensuring there are enough coach analysts and physical performance coaches for every squad to be able to work on specific individual needs even in group training.

Those needs haven't changed in being what is required to make the first team. Hugo Viana will continue Txiki Begiristain's eye for the academy of watching every Under-18s and Under-21s game but has also been responsible for signing four new players already this summer; it is not getting any easier to get into - or stay in - the City first team.

Simpson-Pusey experienced this last season when he could not believe the pace of the football compared to what he had been used to. That six weeks of a tough initiation may have had a large hand in the way he went on to play for the Under-21s when he looked like he had a few seconds to spare.

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There is a partnership with Stockport County where City's young defenders can train there to experience senior football and many are called to help Guardiola prepare his sides, but Krucken wants to close those gaps using data to make or break the anecdotes. There will be screens put up on the training pitches to give players live feedback during sessions and more analysis will be done to try to bring them up to first team level before they are needed.

"Tracking data is another important aspect for us, that we get more training data and compare them to close the gap between first team football and academy football in terms of physical performance," he said.

"What are the needs of a winger in the Premier League? To compare with data, to close the gap mesocycle by mesocycle and make it even more objective.

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" It motivates the players when we set the targets. We have to close the gap to a Premier League player and these are the steps to close the gap and this is the methodology.

"If we are not happy, we reflect on what we can do better because life is learning from mistakes. I think it's important to get objective data - not just I feel it is faster or decision-making is better. We need clear data around it and this is the next big step for us."

If those are the targets, it is the people and the stories that bring it all home. Krucken talks like a professor and employs academics to inform his academy strategy, yet here is a former player and coach who has been blooded in not just the game but City - he still talks wide-eyed about being taken on at Platt Lane by former academy boss Jim Cassell in the early 2000s when the Blues had no money to spend.

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For all that data leads the approach, it is still the people and the experiences that keep Krucken excited about the direction of the academy. Whether or not O'Reilly turns into Josko Gvardiol, the fact that he was able to take his left-back spot and thrive was enough to keep everyone in the academy hungry to be part of the next success story.

"The first team is the role model for us so when you see the development of Gvardiol, who came as a strong centre-back and now he is so flexible and that tactical flexibility is one of the future player aspects. It's on us then to have that close relationship with the first team and prepare players for that level.

"Nico had a difficult time with injuries but he showed that resilience that he deserves to get these moments and these amount of minutes. The way he performed, everyone was so proud.

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"This is why we stand up every morning, to be part of these moments and to see those boys performing at that level. For me, it's the beauty that Nico is one of them.

"When you see more or less all the players who started their journey at Under-9, it's a big achievement for so many people who were part of their journey.

"Everything about the journey - the good, the bad, the difficult moments, the tears, the love, the smell of the dressing room. It's all so good and when you see in the eyes of staff on a Monday morning after Nico got the debut, it's so good because people get motivation out of these situations and we are hungry to develop more."

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