The man who oversees the operations of FA Learning paid a visit to the specialist state-of-the-art sports facilities at the Harefield school, that was granted special ‘academy’ status by the Department for Education, with the remit of providing specialised opportunities for talented young sports people.
Brooking was given a presentation by Watford’s staff – which included Academy Manager David Dodds, Harefield Co-ordinator Nick Cox and Assistant Academy Manager Mark Warbuton. He also met the staff that lead the Harefield Academy and provide a first-class education for its youngsters.
The ex-England and West Ham midfielder was then shown the existing facilities and given a tour of the work-in-progress, as the multi-million pound development of the site continues apace. He was also able to view a training session and answered questions from the young Watford footballers who the project is destined to develop into top-class players – where he was quizzed upon his international debut and how preparations for games have changed over the years.
Commenting on the link-up, Brooking said: “It’s what we would like to be able to do – it’s an initiative which you’ve got to give Watford great credit for and what you’d like to do, is to integrate it and pull it all together - as a governing body, we should be a sponge for this.
“We’ve got to use it to influence some of the decision making in our organisation, between now and the summer, because we’ve got some new money that is available that we’d like to put an infrastructure in place, with the professional part of the organisation, that can help co-ordinate all of these examples of good practice. There is a vacuum in leadership at the moment and we have to pull it all together.”
Watford began their partnership with the Harefield Academy in September 2007 when the first intake of students began their education. The students follow a specific timetable tailored to allow their football development to sit alongside their education – with the club taking responsibility for transporting them to and from the Academy each day.
The link-up has allowed the Hornets to increase their contact time with young footballers three-fold, allowing greater work on skills coaching, technical aspects of the game, nutrition and sports science.
Brooking’s visit came about after a lot of hard work by Dodds and the rest of the Academy staff – who were keen for him so witness the project first-hand and offer his opinion on what remains a ground-breaking scheme.
The club has also been named as the ‘Community Club of the Year’ at the Football League Awards in 2008.
For more information on the academy please use the link (right)