We caught up with professional development phase coach Gary Dicker as the under-21s prepare to face Chelsea in Premier League 2 tonight.
How involved are you still in training?
Not a lot now, I only join in when I need to. I am still unbeaten when I do but I’ve not done anywhere near what I was doing last year! I miss playing a lot so I am the opposite of someone like [under-18s head coach] Calde (Inigo Calderon), I love coaching but I loved playing and training. When I join in the rondos I am still the best player in those!
What gives you a buzz when you are coaching?
It’s a completely different feeling to playing. It’s hard to compare the two because they’re so different. You are still team-orientated, but as a coach you’re trying to help every individual work towards one goal. When you see the work you’ve put in as a coach coming to fruition it is one of the best feelings.
How easy is it for players at development level to play the same way as our first team?
The players know and we know that they’re going to make loads of mistakes, but you would always prefer a player to fail doing what you’ve asked them to do, rather then doing something random in a game, so it’s about how they recover. The chances of making a mistake the way we play is quite high because of the level of detail – it would be easy for us to not try and emulate what the first team do and just play a straightforward brand of football where you limit the risk.
Is there a better academy to be a part of at the moment?
It's the best time ever to be a Brighton player at any level. Sometimes it might be difficult for players to see that, but I can see that it’s a special time.
The players we have coming through and getting first-team opportunities would suggest so too. The standard is getting higher every year, which it should and we’re hellbent on getting players through. It’s natural to go through cycles though. There will will be years where five or six players come through and following you only have one or two. It’s not always going to be at a consistently high level because everyone is trying to do the same thing – if it was that easy we’d have 12 players coming through every year.
Jack Hinshelwood, Benicio Baker-Boaitey, Cam Peupion and Imari Samuels went to the USA for the Premier League Summer Series, and the opportunity to go and play in those games is priceless and will help them. It shows that there’s an opportunity. The demands are getting even higher as well with European football this season and we want our young players to be a part of that too.
How much has the academy changed since you first came to the club as a player?
As coaches, we’re probably the lucky ones. When I started as a player we had Vic Bragg, who is still a part of the club, and Martin Hinshelwood who helped bring through Lewis Dunk and Solly March who are mainstays in the first team. Everything now is built on a foundation that was set a long time ago and we’re trying to carry that on. The bar always gets raised here, that’s the key and it’s about how we relay that to the academy and the demands we put on ourselves as coaches.