Completely agree. Although the players were ****, all he has done is blame them and not protect them or shoulder any responsibility for his shocking manager skills. Germany / Spain will dominate Europe for years cos the youths are perfectly managed until the first team, it seems england u21s think they are untouchable already and they really need a manager who can actually 'manage' them
Aye I agree, situation just like we found ourselves in before we got Bruce in. I know he's moaned about the clubs not making the best younguns available but ffs, if a 10-15 million quid striker can't score there...something is wrong.
There was never going to be enough in that Under 21 squad to do anything, only 3 of the Premier League players are regulars at their clubs plus Rose on loan at Sunderland. There needs to be a massive culture shift in English football for the national team to ever progress, clubs just aren't willing to take the chance on players - they just farm them out on loan after loan tying them to long contracts and then by their 23/24 their chances of ever making the top of the game are over. It doesn't even matter who the next manager is, there's very little they can do, although it should be someone who has a proven track record of bringing through young players and improving them.
As you say I don't think it matters who manages them, also who ever it is doesn't really have them long enough to have any positive or negative influence on them under the current structure.
There needs to be a complete overhaul of the development of players in this country, we're just as bad as anyone, Mark Oxley has played 1 game for us, 3 for Grimsby in 2 loan spells and 3 for Burton Albion since 2008 and we've just given him a new 2 year deal at the age of 22. I know he's been injured but still, 7 games in his career and he's almost 23.
People keep saying Hoddle, i agree he's a good manager but he said on the tv its a crap job as you cant get your best players on the pitch.
We should have him as the full England manager again. Nothing against Hodgson, but Hoddle would be better for the national side.
I didn't mean the facilities, the top clubs all have top facilities anyway, I meant more of the attitude towards developing players, clubs want an immediate fix rather than taking a chance on a young player from their academy, and until that changes we'll never get anywhere.
Fair enough. I think the last time anyone attempted it on a bigger scale was Ferguson in the early-to-mid 90s with Giggs, Scholes, Beckham, Butt, Neville brothers, etc. People laughed at him, but look how it turned out...
It doesn't even need to be on a big scale, kids just need opportunities to play and make their mistakes and learn without having to go out on loan the day after they don't turn in a 10/10 performance. Josh McEchran is the example I'm thinking of off the top of my head, he played a few games for Chelsea, had a poor game in 2011 and hasn't been seen in their team since. The best place for kids to develop is away from the top clubs, and the worst thing a young lad can do is to move to a top 5 club - look at Daniel Sturridge at Chelsea, hardly got a kick through the middle, goes to Liverpool and scores bag fulls once given the chance.
Teams will play their best players, not the youngest for the benefit of the national side. Most of you lot would be the first to moan if we started seeing more younguns who weren't up to it playing every week. The abuse and crap they'd get would be massively counterproductive. If they're good enough, they'll get picked, if they aint, they won't.
I think that what's annoyed a lot of people is the fact that so many eligible young players were taken to Brazil for a friendly in preference to getting the opportunity to test themselves in real competition against their contemporaries in Europe i.e putting commercial interests ahead of footballing ones - because that is what it really came down to. Now that's not the younger players fault - but they could have had the gumption to have jumped on a plane to Israel as soon as the game finished like their counterparts from Norway did. Even better would have been for the FA to have not taken them to Brazil in the first place. Would have been a chance to give more experienced English players a run out in the friendly - Matt Jarvis, Ryan Shawcross etc - it' was only a friendly!
Agreed. Might have been a meaningless game in Rio but they're better off playing for the seniors than the U21s. It's the better players not playing for the seniors that pisses me off more, such as Gerrard. Agree with that, but if they aren't good enough they shouldn't be at that club they should be getting games somewhere else.
I think it's a trickle down problem from the vast amounts of money in football especially the CL & PL. All the best players are involved in these competitions and the clubs in them have invested heavily. They want ROI so the players and managers are under huge pressure. The managers therefore won't risk young players who make mistakes. Then we expect the handfull of these young players who have played one of two times for a big club plus some Champonship U21s to all gel together in a major tournament. Unless opportunities are given at the highest levels and either obliged by increased quotas or a salary cap on modern footballers' salaries, I don't see a lot changing.
Looking at it another way..... There are only 8 teams (2 groups of 4) competing in the U21 finals. That's the equivalent of a quarter-final place (last 8). Pretty much on a par with recent performances from the senior England team in Euro finals.
What a joke and Roy Hodgson needs a good slap for it as well as the players. By taking away the likes of Phil Jones, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Danny Welbeck and Jack Rodwell that sent out a s clear message imo. You could also add Danial Sturridge to that list as well. All should have been given to Struart Pearce for the U21's. Roy should have used other players in those 2 meaningless friendly games against ROI and Brazil. But yesterday was a performance that said so much. Get me out of here, I want to go on holidays. Now they can.
