A conversation with internationally respected soccer coach Tosh Farrell as he prepares to open a new soccer center at Amesbury Sports Park.( Editor’s Note: This conversation originally took place in March 2010. )
Photo by Adrien Bisson.
Having never set eyes on a real life guru, it’s incredibly satisfying to see Tosh Farrell arrive at Plum Island Coffee Roasters in Amesbury looking every bit the part.
First off, he’s bald (everyone knows that all true gurus are bald). Second, it may only be a chat over coffee, but he’s formally attired in ceremonial garb (in this instance, Everton Football Club warm-ups). And he speaks in the dialect of his faith’s truest believers (Scouse, the distinct-sounding brand of English found in Liverpool, England; think Beatles).
His official title is head of international development for Everton, a Liverpool-based soccer team in the elite English Premier League. But that doesn’t begin to convey his place in the soccer world.
If it would mean anything to American readers, we’d detail the unprecedented number of kids he and Everton have turned into professional “first-teamers,” and how many of them had barely finished puberty when they debuted. Instead, all you need to know is that he resides in a world where teams sign players starting at age 9, and invest millions developing them from there. Farrell is believed by people around the globe to possess a genius for it. Now he’ll be residing in Amesbury.
He has been exporting his approach, labeled the “Everton Way,” in brief U.S. visits for the past eight years. But now, Ted Dipple — U.K. native, owner of Amesbury Sports Park, soccer fanatic, and Farrell friend and devotee — believes the moment is right to make the Everton Way a permanent part of soccer’s future in the United States.
Ted Dipple, owner of Amesbury Sports Park with Tosh during a break in the interview. Photo by Adrien Bisson
The Tosh Farrell Soccer Development Center will open at the sports park this spring, and you don’t have to talk with its namesake long to realize the size of the challenge — and risk — the 51-year-old is facing with this cross-Atlantic leap. Because what he’s preaching is more fundamental than soccer techniques. He’s talking about the shredding of what has become youth sports gospel in this country.
A taste: This comical American obsession with passing the ball has to stop; the most vital coaching is done with grade-schoolers, not teens; and most blood-curdling of all, learn to live with losing for a while.
So now that we have your attention, moms and dads, meet the Valley’s newest guru.
MVM: Why now? And why here?
TOSH: Initially, there was a lot of, “Another English fella comin’ over and telling us how to play the game; leave us alone.” But because we’ve been chipping away and, I feel, approaching it in the right manner, they’ve been more receptive to us. Ted and I now feel that the time is right to bring that expertise over on a more permanent basis and put something together and apply it at the Amesbury Sports Park.
MVM: U.S. soccer has struggled to grow beyond youth sport popularity. What’s the problem? TOSH:I think role models. You’re lacking in role models in the football world for the players, and I think the parents see that sort of talent — an athletic talent — as a means to get their son or daughter into school, and then they go and use a God-given talent to get a law degree. That doesn’t make sense to me, rather than, “God’s given it to you, go and use it.”
MVM: Where are we going wrong? TOSH: It’s only my experience, but I see the emphasis on the outcome — win, win, win, win, win — which is a fantastic quality to have, mentally. But there’s a time to be winning. A number of clubs throughout the U.S. will say, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, that’s not us,” and yet, the way the pay-to-play model works, if teams aren’t winning, parents take the boy or girl away and go and play somewhere else. So we have to get a balance between developing and winning.
MVM: You’re talking about the long view. TOSH:I was fortunate enough to work with a player called Wayne Rooney a number of years ago, and Wayne was involved in a team that got beat 11-1. Now Wayne has progressed to be one of the world’s best players, and I always tell people we won that game. They say, “No, you lost 11-1.” No. Our objective was to get the player to the next level, and Wayne was the only player at that game under 11 years of age to get to where he is.
Photo by Adrien Bisson.
MVM: But we have the athletes here? TOSH:Without a doubt. Americans, mentally, you’re tough cookies. Athletically, you’ve got the physique. Unfortunately, you haven’t got the technique. The technique is overlooked here in the experience I’ve got. And while Major League Soccer is making inroads into the academies, you’re working your way down, whereas you should be working your way up. You’re working 16- and 18-year-olds where you should be working 7- and 8-year-olds.
MVM: Does soccer here simply lose too many players to the other sports?
TOSH:The NFL, basketball, they were here first. Your ice hockey, your baseball, they were here first. And soccer has come on the back of that. And initially it was quite cheap. You buy a ball, and there’s 20 of your mates, and you play. Now it appears as if it’s been turned into a business — a lucrative business — where clubs are formed, and you’re charging for uniforms, charging for coaches, making full-time jobs. And while that’s fantastic, the very person it’s supposed to be facilitating is suffering. The better you are at soccer in this country, the more it costs you to play, and that’s wrong.
MVM: Explain the “Everton Way.” TOSH:The Everton Way is an individual program, it’s an ages and stages program, and it will be the right coaches at the right time in your development, which is important. There’s not a coach in the world who can take a player from 9 years old to first team. And if he says he can, well, I’d have to put the boxing gloves on and say I’m not so sure. You’ll get an honest, open philosophy. Parents will judge based on a results basis, and yet the players will judge it on do they feel they’re enjoying the environment, [whether] they feel the learning. If the program’s judged on how many games you win a season, I can’t promise to win every game. Because if we do that, it means it’s at the expense of the players’ development. But if you leave a group of players in the program, in a couple of seasons, in year three that wouldn’t even be an issue. Because winning would become a product of those developments.
Photo by Addrien Bisson.
MVM: You’re asking for a fundamental change in American youth sports thinking.
TOSH: But I would imagine that if I’ve got a son or daughter and I put them with the club, the fee I was paying was some sort of investment. Why would you want to contribute to a team when the fee you’re paying is for the individual? And I’m saying anybody who comes to Amesbury Sports Park, that fee will be invested in their individual as opposed to the team. But it’s like everything else that’s new — it’s going to be unique, it’s going to be player centered, and I think the interaction of the parents is going to be fundamental for it to work, as well. If they want to be state champions at under-8, don’t come to our program. If they want their child to have the best possible chance of moving on to a much higher playing level, this is going to be a fantastic program for them.
MVM: Are there any other coaches you know who have made this jump? TOSH:Not that I’m aware of, because I’m coming here out of choice, not out of necessity. I could stay employed by Everton and do what I am doing for the next few years and it’s a fantastic job, but my reason for coming is for the challenge. So it’s not as though I’m an unemployed coach who thinks, “Let’s cross the Atlantic and try to invent the wheel.” I’m bringing over the knowledge and expertise, because for the last eight years, in my visits over here, I seem to be chipping away and making inroads, and now I really have to open it up and say, “Right, I’m brave enough to take the step and prove to you — this works.”
Coffee Talk – Goal Guru
A conversation with internationally respected soccer coach Tosh Farrell as he prepares to open a new soccer center at Amesbury Sports Park. ( Editor’s Note: This conversation originally took place in March 2010. )
Photo by Adrien Bisson.
Having never set eyes on a real life guru, it’s incredibly satisfying to see Tosh Farrell arrive at Plum Island Coffee Roasters in Amesbury looking every bit the part.
First off, he’s bald (everyone knows that all true gurus are bald). Second, it may only be a chat over coffee, but he’s formally attired in ceremonial garb (in this instance, Everton Football Club warm-ups). And he speaks in the dialect of his faith’s truest believers (Scouse, the distinct-sounding brand of English found in Liverpool, England; think Beatles).
His official title is head of international development for Everton, a Liverpool-based soccer team in the elite English Premier League. But that doesn’t begin to convey his place in the soccer world.
If it would mean anything to American readers, we’d detail the unprecedented number of kids he and Everton have turned into professional “first-teamers,” and how many of them had barely finished puberty when they debuted. Instead, all you need to know is that he resides in a world where teams sign players starting at age 9, and invest millions developing them from there. Farrell is believed by people around the globe to possess a genius for it. Now he’ll be residing in Amesbury.
He has been exporting his approach, labeled the “Everton Way,” in brief U.S. visits for the past eight years. But now, Ted Dipple — U.K. native, owner of Amesbury Sports Park, soccer fanatic, and Farrell friend and devotee — believes the moment is right to make the Everton Way a permanent part of soccer’s future in the United States.
Ted Dipple, owner of Amesbury Sports Park with Tosh during a break in the interview. Photo by Adrien Bisson
The Tosh Farrell Soccer Development Center will open at the sports park this spring, and you don’t have to talk with its namesake long to realize the size of the challenge — and risk — the 51-year-old is facing with this cross-Atlantic leap. Because what he’s preaching is more fundamental than soccer techniques. He’s talking about the shredding of what has become youth sports gospel in this country.
A taste: This comical American obsession with passing the ball has to stop; the most vital coaching is done with grade-schoolers, not teens; and most blood-curdling of all, learn to live with losing for a while.
So now that we have your attention, moms and dads, meet the Valley’s newest guru.
MVM: Why now? And why here?
TOSH: Initially, there was a lot of, “Another English fella comin’ over and telling us how to play the game; leave us alone.” But because we’ve been chipping away and, I feel, approaching it in the right manner, they’ve been more receptive to us. Ted and I now feel that the time is right to bring that expertise over on a more permanent basis and put something together and apply it at the Amesbury Sports Park.
MVM: U.S. soccer has struggled to grow beyond youth sport popularity. What’s the problem?
TOSH: I think role models. You’re lacking in role models in the football world for the players, and I think the parents see that sort of talent — an athletic talent — as a means to get their son or daughter into school, and then they go and use a God-given talent to get a law degree. That doesn’t make sense to me, rather than, “God’s given it to you, go and use it.”
MVM: Where are we going wrong?
TOSH: It’s only my experience, but I see the emphasis on the outcome — win, win, win, win, win — which is a fantastic quality to have, mentally. But there’s a time to be winning. A number of clubs throughout the U.S. will say, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, that’s not us,” and yet, the way the pay-to-play model works, if teams aren’t winning, parents take the boy or girl away and go and play somewhere else. So we have to get a balance between developing and winning.
MVM: You’re talking about the long view.
TOSH: I was fortunate enough to work with a player called Wayne Rooney a number of years ago, and Wayne was involved in a team that got beat 11-1. Now Wayne has progressed to be one of the world’s best players, and I always tell people we won that game. They say, “No, you lost 11-1.” No. Our objective was to get the player to the next level, and Wayne was the only player at that game under 11 years of age to get to where he is.
Photo by Adrien Bisson.
MVM: But we have the athletes here?
TOSH: Without a doubt. Americans, mentally, you’re tough cookies. Athletically, you’ve got the physique. Unfortunately, you haven’t got the technique. The technique is overlooked here in the experience I’ve got. And while Major League Soccer is making inroads into the academies, you’re working your way down, whereas you should be working your way up. You’re working 16- and 18-year-olds where you should be working 7- and 8-year-olds.
MVM: Does soccer here simply lose too many players to the other sports?
TOSH: The NFL, basketball, they were here first. Your ice hockey, your baseball, they were here first. And soccer has come on the back of that. And initially it was quite cheap. You buy a ball, and there’s 20 of your mates, and you play. Now it appears as if it’s been turned into a business — a lucrative business — where clubs are formed, and you’re charging for uniforms, charging for coaches, making full-time jobs. And while that’s fantastic, the very person it’s supposed to be facilitating is suffering. The better you are at soccer in this country, the more it costs you to play, and that’s wrong.
MVM: Explain the “Everton Way.”
TOSH: The Everton Way is an individual program, it’s an ages and stages program, and it will be the right coaches at the right time in your development, which is important. There’s not a coach in the world who can take a player from 9 years old to first team. And if he says he can, well, I’d have to put the boxing gloves on and say I’m not so sure. You’ll get an honest, open philosophy. Parents will judge based on a results basis, and yet the players will judge it on do they feel they’re enjoying the environment, [whether] they feel the learning. If the program’s judged on how many games you win a season, I can’t promise to win every game. Because if we do that, it means it’s at the expense of the players’ development. But if you leave a group of players in the program, in a couple of seasons, in year three that wouldn’t even be an issue. Because winning would become a product of those developments.
Photo by Addrien Bisson.
MVM: You’re asking for a fundamental change in American youth sports thinking.
TOSH: But I would imagine that if I’ve got a son or daughter and I put them with the club, the fee I was paying was some sort of investment. Why would you want to contribute to a team when the fee you’re paying is for the individual? And I’m saying anybody who comes to Amesbury Sports Park, that fee will be invested in their individual as opposed to the team. But it’s like everything else that’s new — it’s going to be unique, it’s going to be player centered, and I think the interaction of the parents is going to be fundamental for it to work, as well. If they want to be state champions at under-8, don’t come to our program. If they want their child to have the best possible chance of moving on to a much higher playing level, this is going to be a fantastic program for them.
MVM: Are there any other coaches you know who have made this jump?
TOSH: Not that I’m aware of, because I’m coming here out of choice, not out of necessity. I could stay employed by Everton and do what I am doing for the next few years and it’s a fantastic job, but my reason for coming is for the challenge. So it’s not as though I’m an unemployed coach who thinks, “Let’s cross the Atlantic and try to invent the wheel.” I’m bringing over the knowledge and expertise, because for the last eight years, in my visits over here, I seem to be chipping away and making inroads, and now I really have to open it up and say, “Right, I’m brave enough to take the step and prove to you — this works.”