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At a young age winning is not the most important thing... the important thing is to develop creative and skilled players with good confidence.

You hear all the time about European players playing the game. These players that come over at 17, 18 and 19, they just don't all of a sudden become skilled. From the time they were little fellas, they learned the fundamentals of the game. Let them create.

I do genuinely believe that young people who play sport at a competitive level, sensibly controlled, sensibly organised, that has to be a good thing. It will teach them to win, it will teach them to lose with dignity and magnanimity - all the things you want. It's a pretty good metaphor for life.

Children have such vibrant minds. They need to play. They need to be creative. They need to imagine. It's so important for their sense of self discovery. And it helps them learn problem-solving.

Most young people haven't used their storytelling skills since they were 8 or 9 or 10 and wanted to persuade Mom and Dad to take them to the ball game.

Young boys must be taught to play football without leading with or lowering their heads. Young players must be drilled over and over and over with Heads Up Football skills until that skill set becomes muscle memory and second nature.

This whole thing's about development. Not only are we trying to develop players, we're trying to develop ourselves.

It's a mistake to try to use play to deliberately foster developmental progress.

The young are adept at learning, but even more adept at avoiding it.

What I would tell young players is that as you get older, the best thing you can do is try to have other interests and have opportunities.