It was the first full calendar year Kruecken has spent in the role after joining City late in 2023, 23 years after he enjoyed a stint working as an Academy coach at Platt Lane.
Across the course of a wide ranging interview, Thomas spoke about his passion for the Club, Manchester and developing young, aspiring talent with the output of City’s Academy, showcasing the hard work of the entire staff.
“When people ask me the question how it is to work for Manchester City and the City Football Group I always answer that it is a great environment to work in with lots of great people, with lots of experts around me and it’s a great culture built over time and I’m really proud to be a part of [it],” said the Academy Director.
“My first year as Academy Director coming back after 23 years, it was a very intensive year, it was a very successful year – very satisfactory – and I really enjoyed it.
“Personally, it’s great that my family settled into living in Manchester and I’m really thankful about the great support I get.
“And professionally, great progress has been done off the pitch. We increased the weekly minutes of individual training sessions starting with the very young ones – more multi sports – and more position-specific work for the older ones by around 80%.
“Which is great and part of the Future Player Programme.
“Second is the success of the teams,” Kruecken continued.
“We won 19 national competitions, five international tournaments and for me the highlight was in May to win the FA Youth Cup in front of 20,000 people at the Etihad.
“[And then] the great progress our players made off the pitch. For example, the great exam results in August for our Under-16 and Under-18 group.
“And I’m very thankful for the great support we get as an Academy from the leaders of the City Football Group to achieve our ambition to be the best football academy in the world.”
Watch Thomas Kruecken’s Academy review of 2024 in full via the video above…
