"We cannot stand still" - Man City hold innovative summit to set strategy for 'next 10 years'

Thomas Krucken's vision for the Manchester City academy took a step forward this week, with an innovative summit of staff coming together to continue planning their strategy for the next decade,

Krucken took over from Jason Wilcox this season to lead the academy, outlining ambitious plans to develop the 'player of the future for the game of the future'. In short, the thinking is to adapt City's training strategy now in order to prepare players who will be first-team-ready in ten years time.

The German showed MEN Sport his five-point plan in an exclusive interview recently, which involved a survey to collate all the knowledge in the academy and wider City Football Group, as well as speaking to all the staff in Manchester to understand what they need to improve. Now, he's got around 100 members of staff together at the academy and from CFG for a summit meeting aimed at concentrating the knowledge gathered so far and set foundations for developing that 'player of the future.'

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Workshops took place throughout the day to focus on what that future player will look like, position specifics and knowledge transfer between departments. From there, the academy will kick on with evolving their strategy to be equipped for the 'future game' ahead of time.

Krucken said: “Continuing Manchester City Academy’s development is vital, and the Academy Summit is now a key part of our strategy. We have had huge success in recent seasons, both on the pitch and in producing players for our first team - but we cannot stand still. We must continue to evolve and improve.