Youth to the fore as Boro emulate the Dutch masters

Boro's Michael Reiziger and Spurs' Edgar Davids grew up together as part of the fabled Ajax Academy and Reiziger told Chief Sports Writer Scott Wilson he can see the similarities between the Dutch giants and Boro.

IF, as is widely expected, Matthew Bates makes the first senior start of his career at Tottenham this afternoon, the 18-year-old will provide further proof of the strength of Middlesbrough's Academy.

With Stewart Downing boasting a full international cap, and the likes of Stuart Parnaby, James Morrison and Tony McMahon having progressed from youth ranks to first team with impressive effect, the Teessiders have already established a reputation for transforming local talent into fully-blown stars.

Stockton-born Bates is merely the latest in a long line of youngsters to have rolled off Middlesbrough's Rockliffe Park production line in the last couple of years.

But, while the defender's elevation to the senior ranks underlines the progress that has been made since Dave Parnaby was appointed to head Boro's youth development operation in 1998, today's game at White Hart Lane will also highlight the continued potency of the one model all Premiership clubs seek to emulate.

Middlesbrough's Michael Reiziger and Tottenham's Edgar Davids will be on opposing sides this afternoon, yet their shared heritage is rooted in a footballing institution that has achieved an almost mythical status in relation to the development of young talent.

Founded in 1900, Ajax Amsterdam can boast 29 Dutch championships and four European Cups in their illustrious history.

An impressive tally, but one that is overshadowed by the list of world-class players who have emerged from the legendary breeding ground of the Ajax Academy.

Johan Cruyff, Wim Kieft, Marco Van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, Clarence Seedorf, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Kluivert - all Dutch greats, all players that learned their trade at Ajax.

Middlesbrough are gradually building a reputation for the effectiveness of their youth system - Ajax provide the yardstick against which they will ultimately be judged.

"There are certain parallels between Ajax and Middlesbrough because both clubs place a lot of emphasis on developing young talent," agreed Reiziger, who spent almost a decade with the Amsterdam giants before moving to AC Milan in 1996.

"But, at Ajax, there is an exceptionally long tradition of developing young talent. It started becoming famous when Johan Cruyff first came through 30 years ago so, here at Middlesbrough, there is still a very long way to go.

"Ajax is a club that has a proud tradition of developing young players and it has had to maintain it over the years.

"That's partly what's made it so successful, it's had to bring through its own players to survive. The club doesn't have the money that exists in England, Italy or Spain so basically, they are dependent on their Academies.

"For them, youth football is very important. They have had a succession of great generations that have gone on to win things.

"They have also had generations that haven't been so great, but the focus within the club remains as strong as ever throughout the leaner years because it is the tradition of the club that makes the football in Amsterdam so beautiful.

"People like to see young players with flair coming up and Ajax is rightly famous for making that happen."

While the club will forever be associated with the emergence of the prodigiously-talented Cruyff, Ajax's greatest moment arguably came in Vienna in 1995.

With a team that included three teenagers and only two men over the age of 25, the Dutch underdogs beat the Italian aristocrats of AC Milan to lift the Champions League trophy.

Twelve months earlier, Milan had been crowned European champions after thrashing Barcelona 4-0 with a thrilling display of free-flowing football. Yet despite spending more than £25m on summer re-inforcements, they were unable to repeat that feat against Ajax's youngsters.

It was an amazing success for a team that had grown up together at the club's Academy.

The twins Ronald and Frank de Boer were close friends of Marc Overmars and Edwin Van der Sar. Nigeria's Finidi George and Nwankwo Kanu had spent all of their teenage years in the Dutch capital, alongside Finnish recruit, Jari Litmanen.

And, at the heart of Ajax's success, were three players who lived only a few streets apart on the outskirts of the club's vast Academy complex - Kluivert, Reiziger and Davids.

"I've known Edgar just about all of my life," said Reiziger. "Certainly since I was a schoolboy because I first started playing football with him at the age of 13.

"I have good memories of him. We played in every youth team together and then in the Ajax first team. We had some great times. Edgar just goes and goes, he doesn't stop, and that character is very good for a team.

"He is a special player, but every player who goes to Ajax is special because the club only takes kids that have qualities they will try to develop.

"Edgar and myself were the only two players to graduate from our Academy year, but that's not to say we were the best footballers there. A lot of players didn't make it who had more quality than I did, but it's not only about quality, it's character that makes you move up at somewhere like that."

It is not simply their childhood that Reiziger and Davids have shared either.

The pair left Ajax for AC Milan in a joint package at the start of the 1996-97 season and were subsequently re-united at Barcelona under their former Dutch mentor, Louis Van Gaal.

This afternoon they will find themselves on opposite sides of the pitch but, while Davids has trekked across most of Europe in the last decade, one of his closest childhood friends always expected him to eventually arrive in North London.

"He was always a Tottenham fan as a child," revealed Reiziger. "A few people have mentioned that since he moved and it's 100 per cent true.

"We watched a lot of English football and he always said that, if he went to England, he would only go to play for Spurs."

The likes of Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa might have turned Davids' head but, ultimately, his heart will always belong to Ajax. From speaking to both, you suspect the same is true of both Reiziger and Kluivert.

And, from holding conversations with Downing, Morrison and McMahon, it is easy to see a similarly strong affinity to Middlesbrough already taking hold.

We all remember our roots with enhanced emotion but, for footballers, the environment that helped create them retains a particular poignancy.

Former FA technical director Howard Wilkinson once said: "A football club without kids is like a summer without sun."

Perhaps some of the rays that have bathed Ajax in the past are beginning to find their way to Teesside.