A National Problem

The transfer window has been and gone, Jim White has survived another deadline day without physically bursting due to excitement. Over £630m was spent by English teams as managers thrashed out deals to strengthen their squads where necessary. Arsenal left it late but it was a signing worth waiting for. Ozil is without doubt the signing of the summer in the Premier League, he oozes class and still looks a bargain when you compare his fee to other transfers this summer around Europe.

Elsewhere, after 3 months of chasing, Real Madrid inevitably got their man in Gareth Bale. Spurs were quick to act in using these funds to sign new recruitments, bringing in seven new faces. A good bit of business on Spurs behalf, effectively balancing their books for the summer with the sale of Bale. One noticeable transfer out apart from Bale, was the sale of Steven Caulker to Cardiff for a reported fee of £9m. He was quickly replaced with Vlad Chiriches, a 23 year old Romanian for a similar fee. Spurs historically are a club who are willing to blood young, English talent and allow them time to nurture and develop their skills. Players like Aaron Lennon, Michael Dawson and Kyle Walker were all snapped up as youngsters and are now first team regulars. But for how long remains to be seen. Andros Townsend has shown glimpses of the player he could become, but with the arrivals of Erik Lamela, Paulinho, Christian Errikson and Nacer Chadli in the attacking positions, how many first team chances is he now likely to get at Spurs?

 

In the pursuit of glory comes the need for instant results, a team capable of competing and succeeding now, not in 5 years time. Managers in the Premier League can no longer afford to be patient with their younger players and allow them an opportunity to learn their trade at the highest level. Just a few poor results can lead to a manager losing their job, so why take the risk? This pressure not only comes from the board but from us, the fans. You just have to take a look at the the fact that Brendan Rogers, having been in charge of Liverpool for just over a year, is now the 5^th longest serving manager in the league. The prize money for competing in the Premier League is greater than ever, there is no room for patience and loyalty when money is involved.

So lets go back to that £630m (a new record for the Premier League by the way), of that figure only £60m was spent on English players. 35% of the players in the Premier League qualify to play for the national team, a figure that has been in steady decline in the last 15 years. In 1998 when Glenn Hoddle was deciding on his squad for the World Cup, 49% of the players playing in the Premier League were English. This is not a problem that has crept up on us overnight, yet only now are the F.A thinking of acting.

The problem is we have a conflict of interest between the F.A and the Premier League. The Premier League want to provide the best 'product' to a global market, having to live up to their own 'best league in the world' hype thats drummed into the fans at every available opportunity via Sky's coverage. The Premier League define themselves as:

'the organising body of the Barclays Premier League with responsibility for the competition, its Rule Book and the centralised broadcast and other commercial rights.

However, we do not operate in isolation, instead we work proactively and constructively with our Member Clubs and the other football authorities to improve the quality of football both in England and across the world'

There can be little doubt that the Premier League has improved the standard of football displayed in our top division. With a new broadcast contract introduced last season, clubs in England now have more financial muscle than ever to attract the worlds top players to the league. Add a flurry of foreign investors into the mix, some wishing to change historical aspects of the club they have owned for about five minutes. Although there will be some resistance to these changes initially by the fans, as long as you deliver success, the change from blue to red or city to tigers will be quickly forgiven. This begs the question, do the ever increasing foreign owners in the Premier League have any real interest in producing home grown talent in their pursuit for a return on their investment? Why wait for the next golden generation to develop in the youths when you can buy world class players now?

Unfortunately it is this phrase, 'world class', where we come unstuck as a nation. How many truly world class players have we produced over the years? If you look at the current England squad, how many of them would slot into the Spanish team for example? With Spain being the current bench mark, I could think of maybe only Ashley Cole. Love him or hate him, Cole is without doubt a world class left back. He is one of the few full backs who has managed to mark Cristiano Ronaldo out of a game on numerous occasions. This is not to say that we don't have good players, overall we are a solid side. If the game against Ukraine recently showed us anything, it's that our strength still lies in defending. Being 'solid' will only get you so far however and is not enough to win you the big games in international football.

There is no one single solution to the English problem. Greg Dyke is the man charged with finding this solution, not an enviable job by any means. We have a 9 year plan to reach the final of the 2022 World Cup and Semi final of the 2018 European Championships. I completely agree with Dykes assessment that you have to measure your success against a goal, the finer details of achieving this goal are being looked by the F.A. Its also reassuring to hear the Premier League clubs have agreed to assist the F.A in their pursuit of this goal, this will hopefully make the process as smooth as possible whatever plan the F.A decide to implement.

There are so many things for them to consider in order to ensure we achieve that goal. At the moment one of the fundamental reasons that English players aren’t dominating Premier League teams is because they simply aren't good enough. Foreign players are usually drafted in by managers because of their quality and value for money. Young English players often come at a premium if they show even a glimpse of talent, why pay £50 million for Andy Carroll when you can get Christian Benteke for £7 million? The crème rises to the top and I don't buy into this myth that foreign players are holding young English talent back. Ferguson didn't pick the likes of Beckham, Neville, Scholes, Butt etc, because they were young and English, he picked them because he believed they had they were good enough to put on the shirt of Manchester United and perform to the level expected of a player in that red shirt.

Pre-Premier League, we weren't exactly setting the world alight in International tournaments during an era where English talent was ever present in the top flight. We need to revolutionize the way we coach our youngsters and develop them through those all important early years. Its not that long ago that kids as young as 7 or 8 were playing competitive games on full sized pitches, with the emphasis being placed on height and strength from an early age. Get the ball to the big lad at the back who can kick it the furthest, he whacks it forward as quick as he can to get the team into attacking positions and the opposition on the back foot. Play the percentages you were told and winning was the most important thing. Not possession, nor skill technique...winning. Hell when I was a kid, skill was often frowned upon by youth managers and the kid was then labelled a bit of a show off. It's probably because of this emphasis on winning from an early age that the England national team have won so little, ironic huh?

We are many years behind the likes of Spain, Holland and France ( I could go on, it may depress you if I do, so I will stop) in terms of developing our youth and implementing a style of play from the grass roots up. This is not a problem that is suddenly going to solve itself over night because Greg Dyke has held a press conference, far from it. We need to be patient and ensure that the right measures are put in place to make sure that English players are dominating starting XI's up and down the country. Not just because they are English, but because they are good enough. Spain didn't become world beaters in just a few years, for decades they couldn't win a trophy for love nor money. It is not an impossible dream, we need to accept maybe just maybe our way isn't right and who knows, we could be the worlds envy come 2022...