The highly regarded German took up the reins at the CFA late last year having been appointed to the key position in succession to Jason Wilcox.
Kruecken arrived in Manchester armed with an impressive CV in youth development after building up a hugely successful career in his native Germany working most latterly as Academy Director at VfB Stuttgart.
And is his first extensive interview since starting in the role, Thomas spoke of his hopes, aspirations and dreams for building on the success of City’s widely admired Academy.
“I am a dreamer. I always think big, so this is a place to dream,” Kruecken declared.
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“What makes a successful Academy? For me, it’s always about having the right people. The people are the key for me.
“Second is the culture. Having the right culture in the building with a high-performance standard along with a uniform game vision and methodology and its brilliant that we have something like this at City.
“And youth development is not only important for the players but also for staff members as well.
“I am a team player, I bring some knowledge and experience in with my coaching background and with over 20 years in youth development as I love developing players.
“But I am sure we have great knowledge in our organisation and it’s all about bringing all that knowledge together.
“We have experts in every department to develop something special and to keep this level.
“In all the squads we have so many exciting talents and I am sure we can continue this story of success looking to the future.”
Play the video to watch Thomas’s interview in full…
