© Copyright 2016 YLMSportScience. All rights reserved.

Talent development in sport is well represented in scientific literature. Yet, the drive to protect `trade secrets` often means that access to these high performing groups is rare, especially as these high-level performances are being delivered. This leaves the details of high-end working practices absent from current academic commentary. As a result, clubs interested in developing excellent practice are left to build on personal initiative and insight and/or custom-and-practice, which is unlikely to yield successful outcomes. To address this shortfall, the current study reports on prolonged engagement with a single high performing club, considering how their practice corresponds with existing sport talent development models. The article ends by proposing an evidence-based, football-specific model for talent development, maintained high-level performance and serial winning. This model emphasises four dominant features: culture, behavioural characteristics, practice engagement and the managing and guiding of performance `potential`. The study provides insights into the visceral reality of daily experiences across the life course of professional soccer, while advancing the evidence-base for understanding how Manchester United achieved their serial success. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR siehe auch: https://ylmsportscience.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/84f1c-youth2bman2bu.png
© Copyright 2016 International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching. SAGE Publications. Published by SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.