Ose Aibangee said that Brentford’s Academy are returning to the Dale Farm Milk Cup looking to win it for a second time in four years.
A young Brentford side land in Northern Ireland this afternoon ahead of the prestigious Youth Football tournament.
Having won the tournament back in 2012 Ose said the class of 2015 are returning to the tournament looking for similar success.
“It is our sixth year of going back and the boys have prepared really well,” said Ose, speaking to Bees Player. “That is all credit to the staff who worked really well with the players throughout the summer. We didn’t really have a break, we kept the boys going. They are ready, looking forward to it and hopefully they will do well.
“We are going to try and win it. Everything we do in the Academy is about developing our players and part of development is about winning. In a lot of our Academy games we look at the long-term plan for the individual so we might play a weakened side or play players out of position to aid their development. When we go away on tour our primary aim is to win the tournament and give it a real go. It is difficult to say how they will go because we don’t know the strength of the opposition but we couldn’t have prepared any better for it.”
The boys will spent the week based in Coleraine for the long-running youth tournament.
Spending the week with the boys in a different environment will help Ose and the staff get to know the players in a different light ahead of important contract decisions coming up.
“The Milk Cup is important because it is the first tournament that we went in and we won it three years ago with some of the boys who are in our Development Squad,” said Ose. “From our point of view it is a chance to look at the boys both on and off the pitch. A lot of these players are looking for scholarships in the next 12 to 18 months and this gives us an idea about their character. We know them as football players but we need to understand what they are like as characters off the pitch as well. The Milk Cup gives us a good barometer of how they are.
“Getting the boys away for a week to bond is important. They also play games against other teams and other styles of football and that is important for their long-term education. It is also important to play competitive football as we are one of the only European countries that doesn’t have any league tables until the Under-18 age group. That means we don’t get that real consequence football and the Milk Cup gives us that ability to drip feed consequence football into the players.”
The Bees play Plymouth Argyle in their opening game before matches against Strikers of USA and local side County Down.
Playing sides from three different nations in front of a large, and in some cases partisan crowd, will be a new experience for the boys and one that will stand them in good stead for the players’ future.
“We will play teams very similar to Plymouth Argyle in our regular Academy football over here but this time we will be playing in front of a crowd which puts a bit more pressure on the players,” said Ose. “Playing against a team from America and a team from Ireland will be totally different from what the boys are used to and that is a great education. We try to tell the boys about the crowd but, as much as we speak to them about it, they won’t understand until they get there. They are big crowds there and they are quite noisy and loud. That puts extra pressure on the boys but if they are going to be professionals these are the kind of pressures they need to be put under.”
Watch the full interview with Ose below