“We are currently running trials in this country for young players who have been released by their clubs. Players that we identify as having potential will be given another 12 months at the academy in Montecastillo, Spain. Here we will develop them and hopefully get them back into the game. We have had 90 odd players log on for the trials so obviously we may have to do second trials."

You are clearly very passionate about this project....

“Yes I am. I can’t tell you how hard it has been putting it together; it has been 18 months of torture (laughs). To get the support that I needed I had to go to the City and get an investor and I am looking for sponsorship at the moment. It’s a new concept and we are breaking new ground here and I am very excited about it.”

How many coaches will be involved with you in working with the boys?

“ I am looking to take Nigel Spackman and Graham Rix with me and another coach at some stage and we will have a Chief Scout working with us in England. So it will be top quality coaching and it will be full-time for me because it is my company and my business. I will be glad to get out to Spain and work with the players after 18 months of sitting in meetings. I am really excited about it and I have turned 6 jobs down for this so it is something that I have had in my mind from way, way back. I just feel for me personally and maybe for football the time is right for it because a lot has been said about this age group of 18-20 year old players.”

How long do the players attend the Montecastillo Academy for?

“Twelve months is an average but we might look at some players and think they need to stay with us a bit longer to get physically stronger and they might stay with us for 14 or 15 months. Others, after 9 months, we may feel it is better for them and us to tell them that it is not going to happen for them and we don’t feel they are potentially going to get back into the game. That is why the trials that we are running now are over four days and we have got to meticulously pick the people that we feel have got potential not who are ready now; if they were ready now the clubs wouldn’t be releasing them.

It’s a massive problem for young players because I think 18, 19, and 20 is far too young to make decisions on footballers and we are losing so much talent. There is a big hole where talent of that age group falls through and I know that the PFA and other have done different stats on it. I have seen it since I was Chelsea manager and I had to release players myself and I was thinking ‘why are we releasing them and taking these other guys because they are a little bit stronger physically?’ Sometimes nature just has to catch up for them and then their maturity can come out. Plus there are also sorts of mental things at that age, as we know having gone through that age ourselves, that can block your performance. So our aim is for them to come down to the Academy in Spain and our aim is to get them back into football.

We are also just getting into partnership with Leeds Metropolitan University Carnegie whereby the lads that are down in Spain living at the Academy can start a degree so if they don’t make it with us they have already done 12 months of their degree and can then hook into the university... so that is a fabulous string to our bow. We are also going to offer the boys coaching courses and language courses so that if they don’t make it at least there is a little bit of a fall back there that we are trying to cover for as well.”

You were a very skilful player and there is so much being said at the moment about English or British players not having enough technique. Will you be concentrating on polishing up that side of things if they are not as technically gifted as they could be?

“Yes we will, but first there is the mental side of things that we will have to work on with these boys. They have had their dreams shattered of playing for Liverpool, Chelsea or whichever club they have been with and we have got to pick them up by saying ‘we have seen something in you that we feel given a bit more time and development be it mentally, technically, tactically or even just nature physically you can progress.’

The reason it is so exciting technically is because we are going to Spain. When you think about it the Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, South Americans and Africans all live in a sunshine country and their touches are absolutely immaculate. The one thing they naturally have is their touch on the ball and I truly believe it is because those sunny climes give you the opportunity to be out in the open 14 hours a day if you want as a kid and you naturally get that ability. In Britain we have to dive into a gym in winter and there are frosty pitches and harsh conditions to deal with so that is why I have set up the Academy in Spain. So we have the possibility to training all the year around, two sessions a day if we wish to. Obviously physically you couldn’t do that but we have got the opportunity to polish them off technically and practice makes perfect.”

How do you get them back into clubs once they have finished at the Academy?

“We will have fixtures and tournaments in Spain and that is when we will open the doors for the scouts to come and see the players. I truly believe that we will bring these kids on leaps and bounds and hopefully we’ll get them back into the game.”

More details of Glenn’s Academy can be found at www.glennhoddleacademy.com