As the FA are shyte and cannot come up with a model for ensuring our National team gets success on the pitch, I have come up with one I think would work, but feel free to rubbish it or add to it or come up with something you think would get the job done. As a starter for 10: I would select the best 22 Under 17's in the country. I would insist that their clubs give them another contract, and then loan the player to the FA. These kids are based at St Georges and play football every day. Coached, educated, shown the inside and out of top class football with a view to one day being the England squad. The value of these players will rocket so the club will always benefit from having the player on their books. The FA pick up their wages and welfare. It would take between 2 and 5 years to get a player up to the right level to play for the full National team, but depends on the quality. The loan contract with the FA is a rolling 12-months so if the player falls behind he is skipped or if he picks up a major injury etc. This allows a new batch the following year to replace any fall outs and gives incentives to all to improve and develop. Just imagine an impressive Paul Hart type coach working with these kids daily, the best academy team in the world, it would be like 'If Carlsberg did academies'. The Germans reinvented themselves a few years ago and use their own model, but it does them no harm. We have no model as we look for big cash and moan that our kids are not getting a shot or that our players cant get a game because of Johnny Foreigner. This solves it.
Very few under 17 internationals ever step up to full internationals Doc and we already do ok at under 21 level,a big problem is we don't like European style football,we find it boring.If our teams do more than 4-5 passes we start shouting shoot from the half way line.
Slightly off topic but what I hate about the FA is their 'jobs for the boys' / 'fat cat'image which they portray. You'd imagine it is run by out of touch, over the hill big wigs who are more concerned about image than they are about grass route football.
you have seen the Southampton video havent you, where we kept ghe ball for 14 years passing it around, over and through them, flicks and tricks with the crowd shouting oleee Inthink it was slightly more than. 5 passes. Seriously ghough mate as you say very few kids make it but we are talking about the cream and they get sent back if they are not making it. We have to look at getting our kids into a team for playing top football. This team will be only England kids so no overseas players keeping ghem out
Yes m8 but football has changed massively since then,faster but not always for the better,but look at the stick Arsenals manager gets for passing it around,and Leeds fans now days don't like the slow build up.
Passing it around for the sake of it is pointless, any manager that adopts that deserves the stick they receive. BUT that is not the european style of play at all. People look way too much into what individual players do on the ball and judge based on that. Essentially, my absolute biggest complaint about the england team is firstly we don't play to our strengths but more importantly the movement off the ball is non-existent. It doesn't take talent to improve that. Look at Bayern over the last 5-10 years. They have always had very talented wingers who stretch the opposition to allow the freedom for the centre, added to that their movement in and around the box is wonderful. Yes it does help when you have players like Lewandowski who is a complete striker in the greatest sense of the word but many teams do this effectively. Another example, I have loved watching Tottenham since Pochettino has gone there. He plays in a very similar manner really except they are brilliant to watch out of possession as well. None of the england team has anywhere near the same workrate as that Tottenham team and it baffles my mind. Not because the player's dont care but because a manager at club level wouldn't let a player get away with it but at international level they are let off.
great point Doc ... it can work, here's how it may be possible: the FA sign their top 20 International players to an annual FA contract, which means they subsidise the player's club wages, paying say 30% ... in return, the player is guaranteed a minimum of 80% league ... you can work out the rest from here unfortunately, because of the greed and obscene money in the Prem, the clubs will always make the rules, and the national team will continue to suffer I vote for you Doc, go and grab that FA exec job Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Great point from Josh regarding movement off the ball. Obvious what has been happening with England as the players keep posetion but besides a few great runs nobody is getting into any meaninful space so the ball does some damage. Instead we see the Ray Wilkins crab style come back where we go sideways and back. A great stat in the Euros was comparing Rooney with 2 great midfielders of the moment. The other 2 were completing 87% pass rate and touching the ball over 200 times in the match. Rooney was doing 82% so not bad but only touching the ball 120 times, so way off the pace and because much is going back and side no damage and no chance.
the fat cat days are long gone bud ... today the FA is run by lawyers and finance men, and like the music industry it is all about smoke and mirrors to generate the money ... the biggest con going is being perpetrated by Sky and the Prem Lge who keep telling us that English football is the best, and the Prem is the greatest show on earth ... oh joy, so many mouth watering fixtures to look forward to: Burnley v Anyone WBA v Anyone Boro v Anyone Stoke v Anyone Hull v Anyone I shan't go on, you get the "picture" Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Think you miss-understand why the prem is considered by lots to be the best,I personally believe its because a team like Leicester can win the prem,in Spain,Germany and Italy don't think that is the case,the prem is closer in as much as any team can beat any.
England are ranked where in the world now? yet they have the biggest cash generation for football anywhere in the world. There are more foreign players than any other country in the world, Prem matches generate more betting around the world than anywhere else. ranking doesnt correlate to cash generation, therefore the cash is taken by big business not the English kids, English players as foreign players come here for money not the kudos of playing for a team that will not win the prem league, FA Cup or European Champions League. They come for money and bleed the fans and National team. Yes Leicester won the league and it will be years before that happens again. Leicester were helped because Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal all imploded at the same time, a perfect storm for the foxes. Those clubs had spent billions and failed Must be changed somehow or we will never see England perform where they should
Our national coach, Ange Postecoglou, has the Socceroos playing that kind of football and, frankly, it stinks. Each time they get the ball it goes back to the keeper and the slow build up starts. Pass, pass, pass, until they reach the opponents box. Sadly for us, that's where it ends, because we don't have anyone who can score. Other teams have sussed this now and just wait until the Socceroos run out of steam then hit back. Postecoglou played this style of footy in his day, but it just doesn't work now.