It was through my daily work with youth players around the world that I realised that many clubs - whatever their size - shared a common problem. Apart from the exceptional few who jump straight to the first team, many promising youth players graduating from club academies are not provided with enough consistent quality football in the reserve team or in one off competitions to make that elusive jump to professional first team football.
If they do make the grade, they are often unprepared for the pressures which go with being in the First XI. Others simply fall off the radar altogether.
I realised a platform was needed to help talented youngsters make that leap, and that is fundamentally how NextGen was born.
We wanted NextGen to be different to any youth tournament and decided that the competition should take place over a few months not days, as most other youth tournaments were played over a weekend.
It was critical that NextGen fitted into the footballing calendar without conflicting with clubs domestic and international games programmes. We spent a lot of time talking to the clubs sports scientists and their coaches about injury prevention and the number of games the boys would be playing in a season. Ultimately, we wanted to ensure what we were putting on, would benefit the players in every aspect, and not hinder them in their development.
Once the clubs engaged with the idea behind NextGen we got tremendous support from all areas of the clubs involved, from the Club President down to the kitmen - all of whom were in agreement that NextGen was the start of something special.
It was a fantastic feeling to finally get our first season underway last year. Seeing the number of fans that attended the games to support their youth teams proved there was a real appetite to see the 'stars of the future'.
Last season conjured up many memorable moments for me. The standout goal was the ever impressive Betinho from Sporting Lisbon who scored a quite incredible overhead kick against Liverpool, and the appointments of NextGen coaches Ricardo Sa Pino (Sporting Lisbon) and Andrea Strammacioni (Internazionale) as first team managers proved how highly regarded their work was in the competition. I think my fondest memory was looking at the expressions on the faces of the Molde side walking out on to the pitch at Anfield - it was a priceless moment that proved to me what we were doing was very special indeed.
During initial discussions with the clubs we asked them to share some of their philosophies and training methods with visiting coaches and clubs, and every club opened its doors to this idea and really took this onboard - so much so that I know new partnerships have been built across Europe and will continue to do so.
Over twenty NextGen players went on to play regular first team games last season including Villa's Gary Gardner, Liverpool's Raheem Sterling and Ajax's Davy Klaassen. There are so many great players, many of whom are being talked about in the press but if I had to choose one player for you to look out for it would be Chaby at Sporting Lisbon. I've watched him on numerous occasions and think he could be the next big player to come out of the fantastic football factory that is the Sporting academy who have produced the likes of Luis Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani in recent years.
This coming season brings in 9 new clubs taking us to 24 teams in 6 groups of 4. Every group is tough -there's no easy game - and I believe it is a sign of the success of our inaugural season that the likes of Juventus, Chelsea and Arsenal have all joined us this year.
We are all very excited for the next season to start and I can't wait to see who will prove themselves as the future stars of European football.
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