Babar Azam Quotes

Football's about the young players, bringing youth team players through to the first team and hopefully getting the best out of them so they can go on to play for their country.

The quality of our academy system is very high, as good as anything in the world. Around the country, lots of people in youth development are keen to get together and find a solution to that 17-to-21 age bracket and how we get those players playing.

The more players who come through the academy and make it into the first team, that's what we want. Not just for the club but for the country. If they're young English players coming through, that's fantastic. I'm happy to be part of that.

Teams want the best players. If the best players come through your academy, you can play.

English players are as easy to coach. The problem is that the Premier League has the best players in the world, and statistically not all of them can be born in England. But we don't have enough English players: we are working very hard on it.

When you don't have the deepest pockets, you better have the best scouting and development.

I think we have very good facilities for the youth in Holland. We have very good youth coaches and I think that is some of the reasons that always Holland has very good football players.

Arsenal have a history of bringing through youngsters, giving them opportunities, and turning them into world-class players.

We want to bring our own players through. That is what people like about Ajax.

There is a big emphasis at Liverpool to have an academy that brings through young players.

My job is to bring in players I think can help this team, regardless of where they're playing.

Don't worry too much on pathways programs: good players find a way to get through to play for their country.

I would say the youth systems in Germany have impressed me the most and how they grow their youth players into full professionals.

If you want to improve the football, of course you need to put attention on the academy, on the school, the facility.

The Cubs, we built one of best farm systems - I think for a while there, it was the best farm system in baseball. And that was great. It got a lot of attention. But we didn't want the credit for the farm system. What we wanted was to see if we could do the tricky part, which was turn a lauded farm system into a World Series champion.

Jurgen Klopp was very astute in seeing Keita's ability and potential to develop.

But I think that if a club like Barcelona sign a player, it is because he has the right qualities.

Unfortunately apparently I am to blame because I don't produce enough English players.

Our job is to find players younger, where they are able to play from 11 years old and grow up playing the game. Rather than, you start playing when you are 17 or 18 and you don't get the opportunity to do anything with your career.

The one thing I didn't understand was the Minor Leagues, how that part of the business works. I'd see Todd Hollandsworth out there one game, and the next game he wouldn't be there, and I didn't understand.

I was playing in a tournament in Brazil and an agent scouted me. He took me to his soccer school. The idea was he used it to scout players and anyone he thought was good enough he took over to Italy. That's what he did with me when I was 15.

I played for Barcelona, for Ajax, where it's important to develop and integrate young talent.

Everyone's system in the NBA makes sense. It all comes down to the quality of player and the quality of execution.

I am dreaming that Italy can return to having lots of important talent. We need to grow our young players.

Like cricket has their 'A' team that plays against other international 'A' teams and get exposure. Hockey should also have a similar development squad, which can play in non-premium international tournament, while the national team plays in bigger meets. This way, we will have players ready with international exposure.