Espanyol youngsters, Van Hecke, and Khadra have been called up for the forthcoming under 21 internationals for Holland and Germany respectively their first call ups at this level.

“we are genuinely excited by the potential in these two.

Van Hecke, has so much composure on the ball, a great range of passing, excellent in the air and is quick. He is fazed by nothing and reminds me very much of a young Henning Berg. He has a lot of exceptional talent to compete with for international honours with Holland, so to get the call is most pleasing.

Khadra is another, as a youngster he was released by Dortmund but has shown he has some exceptional skills, speed, can create a goal and can also score them. Its been a big breakthrough season for him, and is one who can go on to big things. This has been recognised by Germany and like Holland this is a significant call up for us. We have found the need to trade some of our youngsters to keep afloat, but with the confidence that we have other young players who are going to get better and become big assets for this club.

We continue to search the globe for potential improvers we can polish up, whilst we have other youngsters who we hold big hopes for, like Jordan James, Tyler Onyango, Emre Demir and Alvaro Bastida. When you see players start getting international recognition, it gives you a buzz that your recruitment is working and solid foundations are being put in place.

There was literally no youth policy here when I arrived. There have been some eyebrows raised at some of the young players we’ve let go, but these are players I brought to the club and i’m not affraid to part with an asset to ensure the first team remains serviced and competitive. I’ve not been here a full season yet, and the benefit of our business will start to show in the coming seasons. We are in transition, we are rebuilding the club, with a high turnover of players to get us in a position where we can compete both short term and long term.

Its a bit rough at present, we are in the relegation zone, struggling to cope with the loss of Aguero and out of form. Division 1 is competitive, the standard of opposition is much greater than what we have right now. However new players will arrive before the end of the month, to aid us through this current campaign. This is my 12th year in SM, and I’m confident in my own ability to build a competitive team capable of competing for honours. We think things through, and decision is not taken lightly. Sometimes we give far more than we should in the transfer market, but we are not affraid to do this. Other times we drive a hard bargain and want far more than others are willing to pay. Football is about opinions and that one player you rate highly, others do not. We will continue to chip away, let the haters hate but in the end we know where we are going and what is needed to get there.