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Roeder more than happy to take a leaf from Arsene's book as he plots the road ahead

1st November 2007 By Latest News Leave a Comment

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New City boss Glenn Roeder is hoping that a touch of the green-eyed monster can inspire his newly-inherited Academy staff to new heights – and thereby provide a long-term fix to Norwich's playing needs.

For while – quite rightly – all eyes are on the Canaries' immediate future and that desperate quest to start picking up Championship points from somewhere, there is a large part of Roeder's cv that is devoted to youth football.

And that having run footballer factories in both the East Eand of London and on the banks of the Tyne, the hope has to be that the man that guided the likes of Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Steven Taylor and Shola Ameobi towards Premiership fame and fortune can ensure that the Canaries match Ipswich's feats and bring the FA Youth Cup back to East Anglia.

“That would be a long-term goal – and you have to have those,” said Roeder, quizzed as to whether he intended to shake the club up from top to bottom.

“And you have to have short-term, medium-term and long-term. And we all know what the short-term one is… and that's to move out of the position we are in in the league as quickly as possible.”

Thereafter, however, and the man that Harry Redknapp recruited in 1999 to run the Upton Park Academy has his sights set on some teenage silverware – no matter how much basic geography and a catchment area that includes shipping areas Humber, Thames and German Bight always limits City's hopes of unearthing the next Rio.

“I worked for West Ham for four years – two years as a coach, two years as a manager – and I know the way that they produce their young players,” said Roeder.

“And they are very fortunate to be in a part of east London where there is an amazing amount of young talent – they're in a great catchment area.

“It's much more difficult for us up here in Norwich in terms of the choice of players and the number of young players to choose from, but as Ipswich proved a few years ago there isn't anything that isn't possible.

“Everything is possible because they won the FA Youth Cup and produced some very good young players – and that should make our Academy staff jealous.

“That should make them even more determined to go out and look for the best local talent.”

And if that doesn't work, then it clear that Roeder has his sights set on following the example of another of his big friends in football, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

Strongly linked to a possible 'Director of Football' role at the Emirates over the summer, the 51-year-old Canary boss is clearly a student of all things Arsenal and will, no doubt,have caught last night's Carling Cup efforts away at Sheffield United when City's Championship rivals were put through the cup mincer by Wenger's latest crop of bright, young things.

There was Bendnter from Denmark, Eduardo and Denilson from Brazil – and in amongst it all, Kieran Gibbs from Lambeth.

Further proof that the Gunners chief has long managed to get that magic mix of the best of what's on his London door-step and the best of what the world has to offer.

“Hopefully, we'll be in the position that if we need to we'll draw on some talent from further afield – and that's basically what Arsene does as well,” said Roeder, more than happy to take a leaf straight out of the Wenger rule-book as and when he gets the chance to sit down with Academy boss Ricky Martin and plot the way forward.

“Arsene's got a fantastic Academy for boys in the London area, but if you think about it the majority of those young players have come from abroad – have come from France, have come from Africa, have come from Switzerland.

“Anywhere he can find them – and it's amazing how he keeps turning up such quality. You be at your strongest in your own back-yard – and I'm sure we are – but I also think we have to be a bit more pro-active and look for one or two young talents from further afield.”

It was, no doubt, one of the points that would have been raised at interview. And Roeder's ability to put such names and such experience onto the table may have been one of the points that gave him the edge over people like ex-Bees boss Martin Allen.

“Having been through a number of interviews in the past, in my opinion I've never been through such a thorough interview as the two interviews I had with Norwich City – the one last week and the one yesterday (Monday),” Roeder admitted, as he signed in officially a day later.

Clearly he did something right in front of the slimmed-down Canary interview panel.

“I felt both interviews went well. I didn't come away thinking: 'I wish I'd said this, I wish I'd said that…'

“I was just hoping that what they'd seen in myself and the answers that I'd given them were going to be good enough to be offered this job. And obviously it was,” he added.

“And I have to say – and I said this to friends afterwards – that coming away from the first meeting, I really felt comfortable that I could work with the board. I really had a good feeling about them as people which I think is important.

“And I just hoped they had the same feelings about me, as I had in terms of my first impressions about them.”

Given that Roeder's last full-time employer was ex-Newcastle United supremo Freddy Shepherd, it isn't too hard to imagine how Roger, Michael, Neil and Co cut rather different figures…


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