Off the Ball's Kevin Kilbane sat down with former Irish international Mark Kennedy to talk about his role at Manchester City.
Kennedy now works at the club's academy and highlighted the the difficulties for young people trying to become a professional player these days saying: "The way you have to look at it, not everybody is going to come through the program. At Millwall, when I was there, it was only a select small percentage. Even more so here and I personally think it's a lot harder to be a footballer now
"The level of football has gone up so much with the scientific aspects to it and the athletes we have today and the foreign players that have come in so I think it's a lot harder to be a footballer now than perhaps when I started.
"I think it's really important when the lads come in they have a really good understanding and appreciation of a) what they have and b) this is not real, this is not the norm everywhere else," he added.
Speaking on his own journey over to Millwall when he was starting off, Kennedy said: "I was desperate to get over. I just wanted to play football and one of my frustrations as a coach, and again I look at the things we give the kids...we give them everything, there's no excuse, I think it softens them up.
"I couldn't wait to move to England just purely to be a footballer and I don't see all the kids having that and it's a frustration," he added.
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