Dave Kitson on MUFC Performance and The Maidenhead Way

 

 

 

It’s a sunny afternoon at York Road – one of many so far this summer – as we sit down for our first interview with the newly-appointed Head of Performance and Women’s First Team manager. There are 1,001 poignant questions that could be asked with a detailed reply, but the most pressing is: “Why Maidenhead United?” 

 

“I think the enthusiasm of everybody certainly is a big factor,” says Kitson. “And the ambition. I think, with the women's team - just taking that in isolation - the women's team have been really successful and they've earned an opportunity now to go toe to toe with the best teams and sort of hit that next bit in their development and see how far they can push themselves. 

 

“The club as a whole has been growing at pace for a good while. [There’s] lots and lots of Juniors teams, lots of volunteers, lots of opportunity to create a pathway all the way through to a first team, men’s or women’s. And that’s really exciting.” 

 

We touch on a player development system titled The Maidenhead Way. Effectively, it provides a pathway for footballers as young as 18 months to hone their skills from a community, recreational level, right through to grassroots, development and onto elite football through the Performance and Academy programmes. 

 

“Absolutely,” answers Kitson as to whether The Maidenhead Way was a reason for joining the club. “We know that if one or two kids make it into Maidenhead's first team, that's great, but obviously that means that a lot of kids won't. But that's true of every club. So the most important thing that you can do is to make sure that they have as much enjoyment as possible, that they feel attached to the club, so that if they stay local, then they become fans, you know, as a minimum, they become perhaps involved on a voluntary basis in the club. They support the club going forward and have that local connection with community as well. 

 

“I think you can see lots of clubs whereby if you go and watch that team, you will see young players who were schooled in that town, whose parents live in that town, and then you'll see other clubs that just have no real connection to the community whatsoever; their model dictates that outside of having some fan engagement, it doesn't matter what they put on the pitch, as long as it's the best that they can buy. That's not the case here.” 

 

MUFC Performance is entering its second season, and continues to grow at a promising pace. There are now six Performance teams: four for boys aged 10-13, and two for girls at an U11 and U12 level. It is the ambition of the club that the provision will grow and additional age groups will be added as the programme develops. 

 

Dave notes the “brilliant” work undertaken over the Performance programme’s 15-month lifespan thus far, adding, “it’s not an easy thing to get off the ground. It's not an easy thing to make sure that everyone is on the same page.” 

 

It’s a mammoth task for the new Head of Performance, who has to oversee the best part of 70 volunteer coaches. Fortunately, the former chairman of Arlesey Town, who has also operated his own coaching academy, is able to draw upon his experiences within football beyond that of his playing career. 

 

“There's a huge amount to be learned from grassroots, from going in right at the deep end and seeing the day-to-day problems, and exposing yourself to those day-to-day problems, while working and trying to figure out how you can solve them in places where very often there's no budget. 

“When I finished playing football, I did a little tour of top clubs and academies, trying to learn as much as I possibly could. When you come back after two to three years of going out and seeing how they were doing things, you suffer from the stigma of having not been involved in the game as people see it, but actually you have been; you've been going out learning more than anybody and that's a real funny thing with football.” 

 

“I always say to the kids, there's two, not schools of thought, but two scenarios which you can either be influenced by: TikTok football, which isn't real, or you can be coached effective football, how it really works. Once you've got the basics of effective football, then you put your own individual stamp on the game, the things that you do naturally and then you've got a player. It's not about hitting the top corner, put it that way.” 

 

Kitson emphasises the importance of watching football in 4D – focusing beyond results and formations and learning how teams attack, defend, set up, and the patterns of play they produce on the pitch. 

 

“I always say to the kids, and I said it to the girls when I was coaching: ‘When you're watching, try and watch it in 4D, because when you think, ‘oh, I see what they're trying to do’’ and then they do it, that's a massive education. And the confidence you can get from that is absolutely massive. So actually, just watching football, I mean, there's enough of it to watch and you can learn something from every single level that you go to. Obviously, things not to do are easier to spot, and trying to watch how a really fluid, well-coached and well-drilled team plays can be a little bit harder to spot because they've got numerous things in their repertoire that they can do at any one time. 

 

“There's a huge amount of education to get over to the players and part of the battle is to make that enjoyable, to engage them so that they're actually listening and they're engaged.” 

 

The ambition is for MUFC Performance to expand and develop over the coming years, and as the first part of our interview draws to a close, we discuss the Head of Performance’s long-term objectives. The addition of more teams is, of course, fundamental, but how does one go about emphasising that MUFC Performance is the best place for a young prospect? 

 

“There's a lot of clubs eating into each other's territory all of a sudden,” Kitson says, noting established Premier League and EFL academies with the former having “the pick of every single person who can play football in the world.” 

 

“So it's obvious, it's obvious where to go, where your best opportunity is. And that's what we need to be here. And that, that is a huge selling point. Because the Premier League and those shiny badges and the kit with your initials on, it’s attractive to kids. None of it's real, but it's attractive. But here is a very clear pathway to the first team and we have players that we can point to say if you do well, you can go and have a professional football career. 

 

“It's a mindset. It's about wanting it, [you’ve] really got to want it badly. But we can educate you, we can coach you, we can give you the tools. We can give you the pathway. Then, it's up to you.” 

 

Keep an eye out for part two of our interview where we’ll discuss the forthcoming season for Maidenhead United Women.