Glenn van der Krann ‘humble and proud’ after successful Academy season

Our Under-21 side finished top of the Premier League 2 table before losing in the play-off quarter-finals, while our Under-18s went the distance. After comfortably winning the Premier League South title, they thrashed Manchester City 5-1 in the National Final at Stamford Bridge.

It rounded off another season of progress and promise for the Chelsea Academy, and we caught up with Van der Krann to learn more about the foundation to our on-pitch success, the importance of the person beyond the player, and why Blues fans everywhere should be excited for what the future holds…

Can you talk us through your role and give some insight to the fans about what you do?

It's been a real quick turnaround from when I joined the Academy to where we are now. When I joined, there was a lot of change at Cobham in terms of the Academy, and there has been change in the last two years as well.

I feel like my role has been to provide clarity, direction, to lead by example, and to push this Academy forward, because this Academy is built on the heritage of producing a lot of players over probably two decades.

The first thing I was excited about was what the next steps were going to be and how I could help the Academy push forward. That push forward has happened quite quickly.

Those steps have had an immediate impact because of the success we've had this year, notably the Under-18s and the Under-21s winning their respective league phases. How do you reflect on this year as a whole?

I'm hoping somewhere in the end of June, I get that week off to think about what we achieved, but the first two things that jump to mind are humble and proud.

Why humble, you may think. The motto this year has been, ‘Work hard in silence and let success be the noise’, as well as ‘The best is yet to come’. If you combine those two things, you see day to day that people are working really hard and not shouting off the roof about what we are achieving.

So let the success of player development, let the success of performances, or let the success of player debuts be the noise that we make. And that's the same view that we have on ‘The best is yet to come’. We're never happy with where we are. We're relentless in our drive to make this Academy the best it can be, not just in England but in the world.

There was a specific moment when I think about ‘The best is yet to come’. It was one of the Under-18s games. We just beat an opponent at home in March, and we were going for the title race. I jumped into the Under-18s office to check in and share the celebrations, and all I could hear was, ‘Shall we prepare for the next game in a couple of days?’. That was a moment where I realised we're on a good journey together and we've got the right focus.

It's interesting to hear you say that because obviously your role is to help nurture and help the coaching staff and help everybody inspire them into being the best that Cobham can be, but it sounds like you take a lot of inspiration from the players and the coaching staff as well?

Yeah, I think we're very fortunate to have nearly 200 kids in the Academy, and if you see those kids, whether they are 8 years old or 18 years old, there's so much energy in them. There's so much belief and passion. You can't not see that.

We're also very fortunate to have an amazing leadership team that work with me, Jack Francis, who I work alongside. To see those people flourish and create the environment that we want to create is something truly special. That's where we get our inspiration from.

The results on the pitch are obviously massively important, but does that culture and the environment make you prouder?

The foundation is the key. What I've been observing and what we have tried to do at Cobham is to lay the foundation for the next couple of years, and to see people grow and to see players develop is the main aspiration for us at the Academy.

The outcome is success. When we play our under-18s national final at Stamford Bridge, the kids feel that that's the holy ground. ‘That's where I want to be’. And then to see them perform under pressure in a major final, you feel that all the hard work of this season, creating that right environment, the right culture, comes together.

Ten Academy players have made their first team bow over the last couple of seasons. How impressed have you been with their development, and how proud are you of the work you and your staff have done to get them to that level?

Yeah, it's a great challenge. If you work at one of the biggest clubs in the world, the world champions last July, and the first thing you think is, ‘How can we make sure that after eight debuts last season, we can get the next players ready?’, but also, ‘How can we support the first team?’. That is a key thing the Academy need to do, support on a day-to-day basis with training, support with making sure that players are ready to step up if they're needed, as well as staff.

To see ten players making their debut, it shows that this club is built on a heritage of amazing work that's been done over a long time. When I walk out on the pitch and I see players 15, 16, 17 years old getting opportunities at the first team, it makes me really proud, and it is also an indication that we're on the right track.

It was amazing to see Jesse Derry and Ryan Kavuma-McQueen making their debut, but it was equally impressive to see Landon Emanalo or Mathis Eboue being on the bench as many others before them.

What knock-on effect does that seeing those players being given a first team opportunity have to those in the Academy?

It's a massive thing. When we have Academy players training with the first team nearly every day, that also means that those players are coming back after training and are in our environment with our kids.

As I said, we have over 200 kids in the Academy, so for them to see Ryan Kavuma-McQueen a day after making his debut, just being around the training ground and doing the right things in the gym and doing the right thing in the training sessions, it's the biggest inspiration that you can give to any kid.

Calum McFarlane stepped up to take charge of the first team on an interim basis. How important is that to show the work that Cobham is doing as a whole is readying everyone for that first team picture?

I think we just have to provide an opportunity where our staff and players are ready for when they are called upon. We've shown that with players, and this season has also shown that staff who have been in the Academy for a long or a short period of time, they can be called upon and the club can rely on them.

And it makes the Academy proud that there's not just a pathway for players, but there's also a pathway for staff, whether it's coaches, whether it's analysts, whether it's people in the performance department. We're proud to have that pathway for many people.

And that alignment's really important, the fact it’s all Chelsea together?

Yeah. That's probably the first feeling I had when I joined this Academy. The two buildings are really next to each other. The togetherness, it’s one team.

Whether it’s the Under-15s on a Tuesday night or whether it's the Under-18s in the final, to see the alignment between sporting directors who are attending all those important milestones for the Academy is so key. When you talk about players, when you talk about the next step for certain staff members or, like I said, players, it's so important to have alignment across those buildings. To see that happen on a weekly basis is, for me as an Academy director, a nice thing to have.

We see the mantra ‘Made in Cobham’ quite a lot. Can you tell us what that means?

‘Made in Cobham’ was probably always there. If you see the training ground, if you see the environment that we can work in every day, we're very fortunate and very blessed, but we wanted to highlight that to the players, to the parents, to the staff, that this is such a special place.

When people come here and they leave, whether they make a debut in the first team or they go somewhere else or they go on loan, that this place has made them better as a person as well as a professional.

To highlight that, we want to focus on what it means to be made in Cobham. And it's a purpose. It's a deeper meaning. We'll see even more of that out there.

From your own personal experience from being at other academies and then having come here, how important is that that we are nurturing people first as well as football players?

It shows how much we value education. We want to make sure that every child, whether they are nine years old or 16 years old, that their primary role is making sure that they get the right education and that they can finish school with the right grades.

But secondly, the moment you come through the door, there's a whole programme not just to develop you as a football player, but making sure that you can be an athlete for many, many years to come and that you can also develop personally from a social perspective, from just life skills.

We call that program Better Blue because we want to develop good human beings that can have a sustainable career in football. And the change is it's not just a sustainable football career, but that career in football is so important because they're going to come back after their playing career.

We’ve got some great examples of Tom Howard, who was a former scholar, then coming back. George Cole, current coach in the youth development phase, was an Academy player and then coming back as a coach.

Have you already started making plans for next season? What are the aspirations for the Academy?

Yeah, I think the aspirations are clear. The first step is to 2030. The next four or five seasons are going to be key to build on the success and the foundation that we have, but it's really important that we are relentless in what we do. That is from our football programme, that is from our education programme, and that's also making sure that the players who are there now are ready for their pathway into first team football.

That’s why we are really excited to launch an even better pathway programme than we already have. Jack Francis is really busy with that at the minute, making sure that the players who are ready to make that step into first team can have the next experience.

There is a lot of work behind the scenes to get them ready, but with the talent that we have in the Academy, we need to make sure that the pathways are there. For some, it's straight into the first team, but also for many who are 17, 18, 19 years old, it's playing out there in first team football and getting those experiences so they can come back to Cobham and be an even better person and football player for it.

Do you feel pressure from fans, the fact that we put a lot of hope and expectation and love towards Cobham and what it's about?

The pressure that we put on ourselves is extremely high in the way that we want to be the best in developing talent, but also, we want to be the best in caring in how we do things.

The fans are allowed to have that pressure on us because we are one of the biggest clubs in the world, and we are striving to be elite in everything that we do.

I remember this season when Reggie Walsh played in the Champions League and the fans were singing his name. For every person in the Academy that was an amazing moment, and that shows that when you do the right thing and you work really hard - and that pressure is part of that - you can do amazing things together.

But the keyword is together. And seeing the fans, seeing the players, seeing the Academy, and then the first team all work together is special.

Why should Chelsea fans be excited about the future?

I'm excited when I turn up at the Under-9s and I see the talent, the drive. And I'm excited when I watch the Under-12s. And I'm excited when I watch the Under-15s. And I'm excited when I watch the Under-18s.

There is so much talent at Cobham, and to see them play the right way of football, which is, in our words, the Chelsea way, the individual talent, the team, I think Chelsea have got a really bright future ahead with seeing many players playing for the first team and also playing professionally. So yeah, put the seatbelts on. We're going to go on a big ride.

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