ALAN Irvine doesn't speak a word of Dutch.

But, when the Blackburn Rovers youth coach visited Amsterdam, he knew he was speaking the same language as the coaches at the world-famous Ajax academy.

Irvine, who has tended to the continuing development of Ewood's most promising flock of youngsters for many years, visited the acknowledged masters Ajax with Rovers' director of football Kenny Dalglish recently.

And he was delighted to see that his basic philosophies on the game were the theme of the work being carried out in Amsterdam. "Everyone was speaking in Dutch," he said. "But it was obvious what they were telling the boys to do and not to do.

"And Ajax were preaching the same things that we do at Brockhall.

"I am always telling our lads how to take the ball, on the inside of the feet not the outside, to keep the ball on the floor and to pass it crisply at the right pace.

"Everything with Ajax was about the same things, you didn't have to understand the language to see what they were saying.

"I watched the youngest age group and it was all about opening up your feet like that.

"The only thing I could have disagreed with is that they teach the youngsters only how to play the Ajax way.

"They have a club style, whereas in England it's down to whoever is manager."

Irvine, as well as being a good communicator, is also a tremendous enthusiast for the game - especially at youth level. And the impact he has made, along with the extra resources put in, can pay off in a big way in future years.

Already, anyone who has watched the A and B teams at Brockhall, or seen the youth team in action at Ewood, will acknowledge the present standards are impressive.

Jim Furnell and his growing band of scouts find the best youngsters and hand them over to Irvine to polish the rough-cut diamonds into gems.

He has some novel ways of doing it too, which give short shrift to the critics who sneer at our lack of technique compared to the rest of Europe.

"Fortunately, I have licence from Ray (Harford) and had it from Kenny before him to be able to play different systems with the youth teams," said Irvine.

"We don't have to play the same way as the first team.

"It's about an all-round education for the kids."

Irvine believes in a sort of "Total Control", compared to Ajax's "Total Football" and here's how he achieves it:

"When the lads arrive and start playing for the B team, they will not be allowed to play the ball long at the start of the season," he explained.

"If you do that, it can be the easy way out.

"I want them to gain confidence in receiving the ball and giving it in tight areas. I insist that they pass it, because once they can do it that way, they will be capable of playing any other way.

"There's another bee in my bonnet and that is to see players take the ball with the outside of their foot.

"That can lead to players being one-footed when they can become much better balanced by taking the ball with the big part of the foot. "The lads at the centre of excellence have a chuckle about it. But there are many people who coach youngsters to control the ball with just the one foot.

"Surely it's better if you can take it with both. I like to see lads who are well balanced and can do that.

"The kids must adapt and they do. If it comes down to taking a penalty, they will always choose their best foot but using both is a good habit and that's the main thing we are trying to give the kids - good habits.

"Technical ability and tactical understanding are the two big areas.

"I believe the lads should be questioned and stretched and I ask them to solve problems themselves, because they will never learn otherwise.

"You have to give them freedom to express themselves.

"When we played in the recent tournament in Feyenoord, it worked really well.

"Because of the personnel we had to play a system we hadn't used before. Because they were so adaptable, I was able to explain it to them and they did it on the field.

"We have played about five different systems in the time I have been involved and I might just bring in something completely new in August."

Rovers clearly are going in the right direction. They have some exciting young players, many of them already with international appearances to their credit.

Furnell, who oversees the youth operation from his Brockhall office, runs the administration for the huge operation which includes scouts in various parts of the country, A and B teams, the youth side and teams at under-16, 15, 14 and 13 levels where promising talents are constantly scrutinised.

He said: "The big improvements have come about mainly because of the resources and facilities we now have, allied to getting into the Premier League and also having a high-profile figure such as Kenny Dalglish here.

"It all helps us to compete for the best kids."

And the operation could expand even further in the future.

Irvine revealed: "There are great opportunities. Ideas for clubs to run their own mini-version of Lilleshall, allied to a local school, are being mooted.

"Ajax, for example, have a budget of a million pounds for their youth development alone. But if you get just two players through, it has been money well spent.

"I believe it is very important to continue to go down the road of investing as much as possible at this level."

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