100% RECORD FOR PSA PLAYERS.

To date 9 PSA players have gained Trials with Professional Football clubs in the UK. The Premier Soccer Academy has taken players over to the UK for the past 4 years and although it is stressed to every player that the purpose of the tours are for them to gain experience and sample what it is like to be a young football apprentice/scholar, every year players have stayed on for further trials.

JONTI RICHTER, CORY HAGAL, GARETH MUSSON, CRAIG THOMPSON, TERRY HUGHES and MARK DYER, have trailed in the past. This year Shane Huke, Aden Mclaughlin and Josh Parker have all stayed on and by all accounts have done very well. Aden is a hard working mid-fielder who unfortunately has age against him; he is 18 so clubs look at that age as full time pros. He has spent 2 weeks at the POSH and will be moving on to Southend United later this month. “ Aden’s good enough to get picked up by a club, we are trying to get him into a 3^rd Division club or a top armature outfit where he can work his way up, he is a fantastic lad and a joy to work with, I really wish I had the opportunity to work with him 2 years ago” said Muzza.

Josh is an outstanding goalkeeper. A real stand out while on tour, still a little raw in some areas but an outstanding shot stoper. “ Josh spent an extra week at the POSH and has been invited back in January 2003 however he needs to understand that the playing side of things is only half the picture and that life at a pro club is about the bigger picture, I am sure he has learnt a great deal from his experience overseas, he is a great lad and I am keeping my fingers crossed for him” said Muzza.

Shane Huke has been asked to stay on at the POSH for a third week. He trailed at Charlton for 2 days trailing with the clubs under 19s, however he has just turned 17, Shane said “ I felt like a pencil compared to the Charlton 19s” so he feels more comfortable at the POSH where he is with the 17s-18s. Muzza said ‘Shane did very well on tour, he played all last season with Rochedale’s first team, so he is tough enough, I spoke to him before the tour about his over aggressive nature on the field which last season saw him pick up to many yellow and red cards for a young player. To his credit he wasn’t even spoken to once by any officials while on tour, that’s not to say he didn’t come up with a few tasty tackles. ‘ Shane has that rare quality in a young player that you don’t see to often these days, he seems to change in personality once he steps out onto the pitch. He leaves behind the easy going care free persona and switches onto a very focused and determined competitor, in the short time I have known him he has listened and responded to the PSA coaches and given himself every chance of getting to where he wants to be.”

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Gareth is a Wanderer.

Gareth Musson has become yet another player from Australia to get a scholarship with a pro club in the uk, having never represented his state (QUEENSLAND) Last week Gareth signed a 3 year scholarship deal with Wolverhampton Wanderers, only 2 weeks after helping Ipswich Towns Under 17 sink Arsenal 2-1. Gareth chalked up a goal against the Gunners, who also expressed interest in the 15 year old who Steve Murray took over to Ipswich 2 years ago.

Gareth came to a PSA Easter clinic when he was 11and has never looked back since " I have never had a single doubt that Gareth would make it as a pro in England, although he still has a long way to go, I know he will make it. We spent many hours together one on one training and I have coached him at club level, I never made him any promises, just told him to believe in what we where doing and I would open some doors for him, know he is opening the doors himself and I believe the sky's the limit for him" said Murray

Gareth called Steve on Sunday night, Sep 26th to tell him the good news. Ipswich had offered him a deal which he turned down then Wolves stepped in. Wolves are a very big club, who are at present not living up to there true potential, it can only be a matter of time before they get back to the top flight where they belong.

PSA will get a full interview with Gareth later this month when he will tell us how he got on playing for Wolves against Manchester United last week

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PSA Northside Clinic

22 Players registered for the six week clinic held at North Star which comes to a close on December 4th. As with previous PSA clinics the ages of the players spanned 3 years, this clinic had players from 11- 13 years of age. "I had no intention of running a clinic this side of Christmas, however I received so many calls from players who attended the last one, asking if we where going to run a clinic in November that we went ahead with it" said Steve.

This clinic has focused on Decision making, Creating space and Switching Play. "when you only have six sessions together and many of the players don't know each other I prefer to focus on one or two areas and try to improve the players understanding of these than bombard them with to much information" said Steve. That philosophy seems to have worked as the general improvement of the group as is very noticeable and Steve is very happy with the way the players are playing when they get into a full sided game at the end of each session.

The behavior and discipline from all players has been fantastic and we hope to see them all back at the next clinic. Well Done.

PLAYERS;

JAKE WILLIAMS / TRENT McEVOY / MATT BRICALLI / JAMES CHRISTOU / NICK WADDEL / CHRIS RODWELL / CHRIS RIVAS / ASHLEY SHALKEN / CHRIS TOPP / BEN MARTIN / MAT ANSON / DAVID HASLETT / BRANDON CULLY / KYLE CULLY / DAN DACEY
/ PAUL PAZZICO / TAYLOR ELMS / TOBY COUTTS- SMITH / ZACHARY TUNG / CHRIS CAPPILLONE / MARK CAPPILONE.

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Aden Mc Laughlin signs for Concord FC.

Aden (on left No.14)

Aden McLaughlin who had an excellent tour with PSA this year was extremely unlucky not to put his signature on a Peterborough United youth team form, it was only down to his age that he was released by the 2nd division club last week.
However the 17 year old midfielder has not let this phase him & has decided he still wants to pursue his footballing dream & has decided to stay on in the UK for the remainder of the season at least. Aden comes from the Southside of Brisbane, Australia & has signed with Essex Senior league side Concord Rangers.

Aden signed for the Essex Senior club last Friday & immediately got his chance by playing 1/2 a game in round 2 of the Kent Cup, playing for the U/19s. The Queenslander didn't fail to impress sending his new team mates into a frenzy by scoring a 35 yard screamer just 15 minutes of being on the park. The Sittigbourne keeper failed to clear after venturing outside of his box, Aden quick to react saw him off his line & sweetly clipped the ball over his head. The score finished up 2-0 to the locals, speaking to Aden after the match he told us that "he was pleased with his goal but glad that his first game was out the way". It is never easy starting at a new club, particularly in a totally different environment & it doesn't get any tougher than in the non leagues clubs of England. This will do a lot for Aden's confidence & talking to the manager after the game he was more than satisfied with his new signing.

This was proof as Aden will turn out for the Senior Reserve side this weekend. Well done Aden!

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3 MILLION DOLLAR BOY SITS ON THE BENCH

While the PSA stayed at Ipswich Town, the 2002 tourists got to play against former PSA player Gareth Musson, that report will follow soon. More importantly from a players perspective the lads got to see him in action in a under 17s league match against Aston Villa. Gareth would not normally play up with the under 17 team as he is still only 15 years old, however the 17s had injury problems and 3 or 4 under 15s got the call up.

Villa's under 17s are one of the strongest in England so Ian Smith the Ipswich Town coach employed a 4 5 1 formation with Musson as the lone striker. The PSA lads could not believe the luxury coach/bus that the Villa Team arrived in it is the same type of coach used by the first team, the word Luxury is probably an understatement. The game was extremely competitive with Villa dominating the mid-field for most of the first half. One of the Villa strikers plays for England at U17 level and he seemed to pose a constant threat. The game really took off in the second half and Ipswich started to grow in strength having realized that they where more than holding there own.

Gareth started to get better service from the mid-field and came close to scoring with a shoot that just went over the bar. Halfway into the second half Gareth came close to the touch line where Steve Murray and the PSA lads where standing, Gareth made eye contact with Steve, who wasted no time in telling him that he had money on him scoring today (which he had not) Gareth acknowledged the comment and played on. Steve then told everyone in ear shot that it was only a matter of time before Gareth would score, Ironically 5 minutes later Gareth hits the post from the edge of the area, and then hits the post again a short time later, with 15 minutes left to play, the goal finally comes along with a reassuring look from Gareth, as if to say "your moneys safe" unfortunately Villa leveled the score in the last few minutes and the game finished 1-1. To fully appreciate where Gareth is at this point in time it must be pointed out that Aston Villa had a 17 year old lad on the bench, who cost them 3 million dollars from Manchester United. Whatever happens with Gareth in the future, He has mixed it up with the best of them.

Ian Smith is also Ipswich Towns Assistant Academy Director, Steve Murray has been fortunate enough to spend some time with Ian over the past few years, watching him coach and discussing Football issues, when Steve said his goodbyes to the coaching staff at the club in October. Ian who is in the final stages of his UEFA 'A' License gave Steve lots of coaching documentation which he found useful while attending his UEFA 'A' "That's the sort of club this is" said Murray " Ian Smith is also an ex Tottenham and England International. "Ian knew that I am going for my UEFA 'A' License and photocopied loads of great information for me, everyone at the Academy has been so good to me over the past 3 years, Malcolm Moore is in a class of his own, a great ambassador for the club and Brian Klug the Academy Director has always had time to chat about what we are doing" said Murray

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MURRAY TAKES COLLEGE JOB.

Last week John Paul College announced that Steve Murray PSA (Academy Director) will be Head Soccer Coach at the College next season, Steve was asked to take the first X1 for the school’s TAS Grand final against Canterbury College last week. Canterbury beat JPC 2-1 in the final league match of the season one week before the grand final, so Steve Called the players in for 2 extra sessions before the final so that he could see what he had to work with.

The end result was a 4-1 win to John Paul College. Steve said; “I was very happy with our overall performance, this was a must win game for obvious reasons being a Grand Final however I still expect to see my Teams play good passing Football ”

Part of Steve’s duties next season will include the school’s Horizon Program which is designed for Elite Athletes, only a select few players will be given the opportunity to take part in Horizons. “ I am looking forward to working in this type of environment and the College have big plans for the future” said Steve.

The Premier Soccer Academy have been working with the BSP Korean program for the past year at the college, they are in the process of building a million dollar dormitory to house the 50 Korean players currently involved in the Soccer Program.

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INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL SCHOOL.

Negotiations with Chelmsford College to run an education & football program for non speaking English students has been successful. The International students will be provided with English language & further education weekday mornings & a fulltime football program in in the afternoon. This will run approximately 38 weeks of the year. Although the program is still in it's infancy the foundations have been laid.

Chelmsford College will provide the academic side of the program while PSA will provide the football. Talks are also being held with Maldon FC & Colchester United for the use of the all weather pitches & a possible association.
"There is still a lot of work to be done" Haydon said "but we are happy with the progress we have made in the last few weeks".

The English language & football program is hoping to have it's first intake of students from Korea, June 2003. Full details shortly.

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FA CUP DREAM SUB

Today saw the start of the FA cup first rounds. Non league clubs from all over England started their campaign. With less than 48 hrs before the PSA team depart Australia for UK an amazing story of how a players luck can change in an instant, simply by being in the right place at the right time. The following story gained national media attention.

In a FA cup 1st round match between Maidstone United (Kent non league) & Newport (Isle of White, Dr Martens Eastern league) Steve Marshall of Maidstone United made history. Maidstone were leading by one goal, the team were struggling to hold onto their slender lead until manager Jim Ward was forced to make changes due to injury. With 15 minutes remaining & desperate to hang onto the chance of another round in the FA cup, super sub Steve Marshall bagged 3 goals in the space of 5 minutes. The score sheet read Marshall 74,76,78.
The 300 strong crowd were treated to a glorious 5 minutes while the player himself gained national media attention.

WESTHAM UNITED FC. ACADEMY U/15's

PSA will be playing Westham academy U/15s on the 1st October at Little Heath, London. Before the season started they qualified to represent England at the Nike Cup, Portugal. The following will give us a idea of the quality we are going to be playing. (Note the opposition also attending the tournament).

REPORT FROM THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE.

Westham assistant academy director Paul Heffer is preparing his youngsters to represent the country in the Nike Global cup which starts on 16th July in Lisbon.

Those who attended the last match of the season will have seen the team - those born on or before 1987 - parade around the ground having earned the right to represent the country by dint of having won the domestic competition.

"It was a pleasant day out for the boys to go to the game at Upton Park; they really enjoyed going round the pitch with the cup," says Paul.

"A few of them felt the nerves with the big crowd there and they deserved it because they did ever so well to win the cup again this year - for the second year running.

"Last year there were only half the amount of teams in it, whereas this year there were 16 teams in it trying to qualify from the English group.

"All the top teams were there and we won it to represent England in the world finals as we did last year.

"We have always said that winning is not a priority, we have got to produce players for the first team, really.

"But when you have got squads that can win games it proves that you have got players within that squad that are good.

"We have had quite a few boys that have had international recognition already and a couple of others have had trials; it is a good group and we would hope that at least three or four would be pushing right the way through.

"It is a chance you take at 14 years of age to predict how far they are going to go but they have got quality at the moment and we do expect good things from them, especially as two or three of them have played up in the U17s already.

As well as playing for club and country, the young lads will also be hoping to progress to honour an absent friend - Korean Tae Sun Lim, who would have been with them but for his father being seriously ill.

He has just has a triple heart bypass and has therefore gone to Korea to be with him.

SQUAD: Chris Wayman, Ryan Andrews, Chris Cohen [who has been in England squads of the past], Mark Noble [England U17], Liam Norval [Welsh international], Jemel Henry [England], Bobby Singh, Tom Cumberworth, Tony Stokes, Sos Yao [Ivory Coast], Ishmael Welsh, Liam White [a trialist, who unfortunately broke a leg last year], Densal Davidson, Hogan Ephraim, Lee Craig, David Cowley.

Amongst the clubs represented are the hosts, Sporting Lisbon, AS Roma, Hertha Berlin, Atletico Madrid, Rapid Vienna, Sao Paolo, Colo Colo [Chile], Deportive Estudiante [Colombia], Monterrey [Mexico], and clubs from Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovenia, China, USA, Africa, SE Asia, and France.

PETER TAYLOR TURNS POSH!

If the 2002 trip for the PSA youngsters is not already glossed with some of the best coaching that English youth football has to offer, then the news of Peter Taylor working at Peterborough United during the PSA stay has to be the Icing on the cake. Peter Taylor has been at the forefront of English football & was very influential in the re shuffling & success of the English National teams 2002 World cup qualification.

Posh manager Barry Fry has called upon Taylor to help restore some self belief in his team whom are going through a slump in form, losing the last 5 games straight.

No doubt Taylor will be busy resurrecting the first team while PSA are in digs at the Eye training ground. This can only be great for all the players & coaches involved in the Tour. The chance to get up close & personal with such a highly respected coach and to witness first hand the work of such a manager going about his daily work will definitely be one for the scrap book.

MUCKING IN WITH THE TRACTOR BOYS

This will be the fourth visit to Ipswich Town FC by Premier Soccer Academy players. It is a relationship that has grown over the years. At first the PSA sent over 2 players, the following year 4, last year 13 and this year will see 22 players experience one of the best Academy’s in the UK, not to mention some of the best facilities.“Two seasons ago Gareth Musson who toured with us, was signed by Ipswich and is still with them. Last season Terry Hughes stayed on for an extra 3 months for further trials, however Ipswich was unable to sign him due to immigration red tape, who knows what will happen this season?” said Murray
Malcolm Moore, Towns recruitment officer and Steve Murray the PSA Director of Coaching have forged a great relationship that is hoped one day will see a PSA player signing a professional contract with the club. “Malcolm has always made the lads feel as if they are part of the club and his professionalism and care for the welfare of the youngsters at Ipswich Town‘s Academy was never more apparent than earlier this year with the way he and the club looked after Terry Hughes, the Hughes family could not believe how well Terry was treated” said Murray. As before Ipswich will provide Academy coaches to put on special sessions for the lads. Steve believes that this years squad could turn over some of it’s opposition, although that is not the sole purpose of the tour it would be great to go one better than last season which saw the PSA come very close to one or two upsets, as always the experience and knowledge the players pick up is of paramount importance.

The Premier Soccer Academy annual pilgrimage to Peterborough is almost upon us.

As in past years the PSA will base themselves at the POSH before moving on to Ipswich Town F C. this Tour will see the Brisbane based Academy bring the largest squad of players to date, 22 players, aged between 15 – 17.

Steve Murray the Academy director is hoping that as in past Tours one or two players will pick up scholarships with pro clubs. ‘We like to call these youth development tours, if a lad gets invited to stay on for further trials as has often happened or ends up with a scholarship with a pro club then that is an added bonus and of course we are delighted, but the main aim is development, ‘said Murray.

Last season Craig Thompson from Brisbane Australia, was snapped up by John Morling, John had seen Craig while visiting Steve Murray in Australia last year. ‘Craig toured with us last year and caught the eye of Walsall, when we played them, however as soon as Gaffa expressed interest in Craig Walsall went out the window. Craig had experienced life at the POSH during our tour and although I have always guided players towards the club and given Gaffa the first pick on players associated with Premier Soccer Academy. Craig needed little persuading, ‘said Murray.

The PSA will be based at the Posh from September 18^th – 26^th then move on to Ipswich Town for 5 days, they will be visiting West Ham and Charlton’s Academy’s along the way. ‘ The visit to the Hammers Academy is a great bonus this year, Jeff Haydon has pulled all the stops to get it for us. Until last year Jeff was based in Australia with us, now he is running the UK side of the PSA and currently working on our Korean Program, which already boasts a Korean under 15 International.

‘ The hospitality shown to us each year by the club is fantastic, we operate on a shoe string budget and with the low rate of exchange Aussie Dollar/Pound it is not an easy tour to organise, the continued support of Gaffa Morling and Barry Fry have been invaluable and I honestly believe these tours would not be possible without their support, there are lots of people organising tours from Australia these days however I know of no other tour that allows the young players into the very heart of Professional Clubs the way we do, that is due to Bazza and Gaffa they both deserve all the success in the world, I have been fortunate enough to see both of them operate on a day to day basis, their passion and enthusiasm for the youth of the club is in my mind unsurpassed’ said Murray.