Recruitment is so important to being successful in Youth Development.

You can have the most qualified and experienced coaches, work to the most strategic of syllabus' and own the best equipment, but all of these things are worthless unless you can recruit quality players to coach within your structure.

This month has been a highly successful one for us in regards to recruiting quality players as the following players have just signed for us:

Duane O'Achie Under 17 Centre Forward
Duane was sent to us from Ash Rahman who runs a company called Pro Touch Soccer Academy. We also have three boys from this organisation on trial at present in our under 15s and 16s. All boys from Pro Touch are highly professional and well mannered.

Fope Coker Under 16 Wide Right
Fope is a really exciting player and was man of the match last Saturday against Barnet. Fope has similar technical and physical attributes to Femi Orenuga and was sent to us from Leon Anderson. He is an excellent contact in London who always makes me aware of boys who have been released from Premier League clubs.

Seedy Njie Under 15 Centre Forward
Seedy spent the last three months on trial at Arsenal. When we played during Arsenal pre-season they beat us 6-3 and Seedy scored three against us. I was amazed to hear he was only on trial and asked their Academy staff that if they weren't going to sign Seedy, we would be very interested in him. When Arsenal decided not to offer him a contract Tottenham, Fulham and ourselves all tried very hard to sign this player. I'm delighted and incredibly proud that Seedy and his parents opted to sign for Southend United instead of two Premier League Academies. I look forward to working with this exciting talent.

Tairo Tavares Under 15 Right Back
Tairo is a boy who I signed three days after he attended an open trial day. He is incredibly strong as a runner, overlapping his wide man, in possession and in regaining the ball. We also have four other players aged under 10 to under 14 on trial at present that we identified from our recent trial day.

Joel Stitchbury Under 14 Centre Back
Joel spent seven years at Tottenham and has fitted into our system and the under 14 squad incredibly well.

George Harvey Under 14 Centre Midfield
George has a very game effective and is a powerful midfield player who was selected from our shadow squad programme.

Kyle Grant Under 13 Centre Forward
Kyle was on trial at Crystal Palace, but luckily for us his parents moved to Benfleet! He is a strong boy who has scored lots of goals in his short time of being with us.

As you can see from above we are working so hard to find the best players in our region whether they have just left top Premier League Academies, been recommended via one of our many recruitment contacts, have been identified via our shadow squads or our trial days. We are always looking to find the best young players available and this month has been a hugely positive one in that respect.

Well done to all our staff for all their hard work.

We must now keep it up and develop these new recruits to ensure they get to reach their potential.

Luke Hobbs
Centre of Excellence Manager