Vicario holds special event for Academy goalkeepers

Guglielmo Vicario recently shared some invaluable tips and insight with young goalkeepers from our Academy during a specially-arranged event at Hotspur Way.

The 29-year-old Italy international voluntarily held the evening for all of our keepers between Under-8 and Under-21 levels, where he covered a range of topics in a tailored presentation and subsequent Q&A, before heading outside to preside over a training session for them alongside our Academy goalkeeper coaches.

Joined on stage at the start of the night by legendary former number one and current Academy Goalkeeping Consultant Pat Jennings, Vic went into detail about the intricacies of his position in three segments, each one geared towards players of different ages – a section for the youngest group about enjoying the game, one for the boys in their formative years about how best to develop their skills and one for the older players in the Professional Development Phase about the profile of a modern goalkeeper and how to deal with the pressures of the job.

Pat, 80, even brought in a pair of 1970s goalkeeper gloves to illustrate how the game has evolved, while a collection of Spurs goalkeeper shirts from down the years were on display for the youngsters to explore before heading outside for their training session.

It was the second season in a row in which Vic has held such a class and followed a similar session led by Academy graduate and fellow senior stopper Brandon Austin earlier this campaign.

“It’s important because when I was this age, my dream would have been to have the opportunity to speak with one of the first team goalies, just to have the opportunity to ‘steal’ something, to take some pieces of advice or bits that could give you joy, and perhaps happiness in trying to replicate it on the pitch,” said Vic. “When you hear it from a guy that is playing for a big club, for the first team, the impact of something like that is crucial. I just tried to place myself at this age – it would have been amazing to have the opportunity to attend a panel like this and to share some ideas with the first team goalkeepers.”

In addition to holding the event, Vic showed his caring side towards his young counterparts in December when he called a meeting of all our Academy keepers to personally gift each one a set of goalkeeper gloves for Christmas.

“I think it was an important moment for me to share with them,” he continued. “It’s a good connection, to see them sometimes, to see how they develop, how they train, how they enjoy football. For us as a goalkeeping family it’s really crucial and important to try to do it. Everything is linked, so for them to see a senior player going to watch a session for them is a massive joy. I think it’s very important and we’ve got to keep doing it.”

Head of Goalkeeping Fabian Otte and First Team Assistant and Transition Goalkeeping Coach Dean Brill joined Vic and Pat on stage to add further expertise, with Fabian subsequently explaining why the event – and Vic’s buy-in – was so important.

“I think it builds a little bit on what we said when we met with Brandon and all the Academy goalkeepers and their parents a few months ago, in that it’s really, really good to bring the department together, and for all the players to meet and discuss goalkeeping and development pathways,” he said.

“To have the young guys learn from the best is massive – you’re going to see an international goalkeeper who has played at the top level for years now, and who can guide you specifically through different areas of the game and what it takes to become a goalkeeper at this level. We talked about his pathway, about him transitioning into first team football, about his international career, about his game and the role of a modern goalkeeper, so there were many useful facets to the event. And if we then go further, Pat Jennings kindly giving up his time to come along – a club legend, someone who has done everything in the game who is still part of our club, our history and our future – added another layer.”

Among the insight Vic shared was how he prepares for matches, the movements he makes on the pitch in relation to the movement of the ball and the unit of defenders in front of him, and how he speaks to the back line during games in three different languages – English, Italian and Spanish – to optimise communication in key moments. He even underlined how knowing the tone in which to address individual team-mates based on their inner personalities can serve the team better during any given match.

“For me, I think Vic’s leadership qualities are second to none,” added Fabian. “If you see him communicate on the pitch, his body language, how he brings the team together… I remember one thing he talked about, where he is speaking in different languages to different players during the game, which is something not everybody can do. He can do it, but he also does it in a really good way so he can get close to each different player that is in front of him.

“What also stuck out for me and for many of the young guys was his pathway, because it’s not the usual pathway of a young talent becoming a senior professional goalkeeper. He had to work even harder and move through different leagues and different obstacles in his way on his journey to becoming a pro goalkeeper, so I think his pathway should be a big inspiration to many young goalkeepers because everybody is on a different timeline. It took him longer than perhaps some other goalkeepers to get to this level, but it’s always possible, partly because he’s got that leadership, that mentality to work and the personality to work really hard for it. I think this is really inspiring.”

As someone who is passionate about player development – for both young players and also more experienced campaigners – Fabian said he hopes the event will help to inspire our young keepers to follow in the footsteps of Vic, Antonin Kinsky and Brandon and get to the top level: “When we see the training groups, often we have lots of Academy goalkeepers coming to train with us, and we move up and down the ranks,” he said. “It’s an approach that integrates everyone. Sam (Donkin) does a really good job as the Head of Academy Goalkeeping to build this bridge together with Dean (Brill), who has obviously come from the Academy and is now the Transition Coach in between, so we have this close connection between all the age groups and all the goalkeeping coaches right up to the first team. This is why we like to hold these events and why we do all these things internally, because we try to have an entire department that is really closely linked.”