Trevor's year - Part III

Names to look out for: Michael Carrick has a great range of passing and can hurt any defence really anywhere from five to 50 yards because he sees things early and has got a good weight of pass.

The area that he’s always has had to work on was that little bit of aggression, taking the game by the scruff of the neck and dictating it.

I think if Michael can add that aggressive part of his game, involving the tackling, because there’s no question he’s got the creative part, he’s got a chance of pushing in the next 18 months for a position in that World Cup 2006 squad.

Another name is Jermain Defoe. He's certainly got that enthusiasm and quickness over the first five yards which scares defenders. He certainly has improved on his left foot, which we worked on in his early days at West Ham. At the top level if you become too one footed the defenders soon suss that out. 

He’s beginning to hold the ball up better. That was an area that certainly needed to be worked on. He needs to work sometimes on channelling back, and doing the unselfish part of the game.

But he is a livewire, he lives off that attacking third of the field. I think the consistency has come in. He had that great first goal for England as well which gave him the confidence.

Jermain’s got a great opportunity now to fulfil all that potential we knew he had. At international level he’s going to have to strengthen those one or two areas if he’s going to be the difference between being a top class international player and a run of the mill one.

He’s young enough and he’s got the time to go into that upper category but it won’t just happen. If he can improve as he has done in the previous 18 months within the next 18 months the potency of the England team with Wayne coming through and Michael getting that expertise across [in Spain] we’ll be a real threat.

Professional ambition: From my point of view at the organisation it’s to bid and argue for some extra resource on the football development side predominantly for coaching.

We want the other 99.5% who don’t go on to the professional game to enjoy football at whatever level they feel comfortable with. There should be a level of football out there we can offer up anyone whatever their background or culture.

We had a Football For All conference two or three weeks ago. There was some really good work from areas within the Asian community where we could try and identify coaches to work within those communities and try and make sure they come into the integrated football.

I think then we can try and help identify some of those players who can come through the elite system. We need a hat-trick coming from an Asian player in the top flight, just like I can remember 20 years ago when we started to get a handful of black players coming into the game and that’s now reflected in all sexes and in all leagues. I see that as an opportunity in the Asian community over the next decade as well.