RICKIE’S LATE RISE A HEART-WARMING TRAGEDY MY VIEWBy JUSTIN ALLENFootball reporter Last updated: September 09 2013 GREG DYKE has copped a lot of stick for targeting 2022 as the year England finally end a 56-year wait and win the World Cup. How dare the FA chairman be bold and ambitious. HEART-WARMING ... but why did it take so long to spot Rickie Lambert? Although his comments about there being too many foreign imports into the top flight was stating the bleeding obvious, it was good to see a new member of the FA blazer brigade refusing to put his head in the sand. Finally, an FA chief is putting his head above the parapet and looking to tackle the problem face on. We are not developing enough young English players and, when we do, they are not getting sufficient opportunities at top teams to take them that step further. Tottenham are a club that stockpiled young English talent in recent years. But now they have gone the other way — getting rid of them and spending more than £100million on foreigners. Albeit, on paper, quality signings. Andros Townsend only recently broke into their team because Aaron Lennon got injured. They had no choice but to play him — and lo and behold he produces some storming performances and is called up to the England squad. The reason why clubs cannot develop English talent is because of the massive financial pressure their managers are to achieve instant results — so if the players of the right skill-set are abroad then that is where they’re going to pick them up from. But if you make it a level playing field and introduce a quota system, where a minimum number of English players must be included in every starting XI, top clubs will have more of a chance to develop genuine home-grown talent. A case in point is Rickie Lambert. Here is a player who, this season, will turn 32 — almost in the twilight of his career. Yet his potential and talent has only been realised at Southampton. And had Saints been a Premier League club in 2009 when he joined — and not languishing in League One — it is doubtful they would have taken a punt on a half-decent lower-league striker. Lambert’s journey from beetroot factory worker to suddenly England’s goal-a-game darling may well be heart-warming — but, at the same time, it is a tragedy. Where the hell has he been all these years? Thrown on the scrapheap after not cutting it at Liverpool, he plied his trade at Blackpool when they were in the lower leagues, Macclesfield, Stockport, Rochdale and Bristol Rovers. Are you telling me his potential could not have been spotted much earlier? He has now been found — more through luck than judgement. OK, Lambert is not in the same league as Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez or Robin van Persie for example. And I am not suggesting that he is our country’s best striker or even a person we should be pinning our hopes on. But he is a proper old-fashioned goalscorer and a player the fans love. He is a grafter. This man will run through a brickwall for his country, just like he does at Southampton, if that is required. Someone suggested his selection exposes the dearth of talent in England. Nonsense. It exposes a wasted talent — someone who has just been left festering in League One and Two for years. He is maybe a player that could have been so much better than what he is today if his chances were not so limited. We’ve had the so-called golden generation that failed to meet expectations. Let’s not go on to rue the lost generation. Otherwise, that would be a national disgrace.
Although I don't agree of the general assessment of the writer in Rickie Lambert's abilities, he is right, in my opinion, on two points. One, it is a tragedy that Rickie's undoubted talent was not recognised much earlier in his career. Coaches involved in his earlier days have suddenly emerged from the woodwork to say how good he was, yet failing to recognise his potential, if he got himself in the right condition. It took arriving at Southampton, and words of advice from Alan Pardew and his staff, to start to unlock that. And he was 27 by then. Wouldn't it have been wonderful if he had been 23-24..? The second point is completely valid and goes back to my asertion that the formation of the Premier League is entirely to blame for the present dearth of young talent. It's not that it's not there. It's because managers can't afford to give it a chance. I have no doubt that nothing will be done significantly, because the PL will not change its habits and the National team are not important enough to clubs. So, Saints will continue to produce English, British and other talent in abundance, and the rest will all sit back and wonder how and why they do it.
The stupid thing is when the Premier League was set up, one of the justifications for it was that it would help the English team. Of course they never actually explained how it would do this and everyone with half a brain knew that it was solely down to money.
Lambert has to accept some blame for his late progress to the top (and he does). It can be the problem with being talented enough to coast...he just didn't meet the right people at the right time. Luckily for him and Saints we met in League 1. His is a wonderful story and I am so glad he is getting his reward finally.
Excellent post. Rickie's acknowledgement of the debt owed to Southampton FC is quite touching. Alan Pardew deserves great credit for spotting and nurturing a very good player.
Don't forget Rickie will only be 41ish at the time when GREG DYKE has targeted as the year England finally end a 56-year wait and win the World Cup. Still young enough I reckon?
Instinct says you are right and the influx of foreigners and money in to the PL has stunted the progress of the England team. But when you actually look at the progress and results of the National team are they really any worse than before the PL? There were tournaments we failed to qualify for before the PL and we didn't make it to Euro 2000 (can't blame the PL for 1994). When we have got to tournaments have we massively under achieved reaching several quarter finals and last four in 96? I think the bigger problem is the quality of coaching for kids at a young age.
I'm not saying that the PL is to blame, I was just making the point that one of their reasons for setting it up was exactly as you described, that the national team wasn't doing well and the Premier League would help them (how, I don't know). Maybe it is as simple as poor coaching at a young age. I have two sons, one who played football and one rugby. The difference in how they were developed is miles apart. The rugby player was properly coached from day one (which can be very young) whereas the footballer never received any meaningful coaching). I still think there are some very good English players out there. For example, when you watch lower league games now compared to 15/20 years ago, the skill level and style of play is vastly improved. In the past, many of these players would have been playing in the top division. I watched Preston v Oldham last night. Fantastic game.
One of the problems in football was that it was the same managers being sacked by one club and being appinted to another and on and on. It is still pretty much this way but whereas those coaches styles were suitable for eons in football the last 20-30 years has seen a massive change in the way games are prepared for, the tactics used and the training used. So those old styles don't work as well now as they do. At least these days new managers are sometimes given a chance albeit nearly always outside of the football league and they can then work their way up bringing through a more modern way of playing. i.e. Would a Warnock or Allardyce or Redknapp work internationally? I think that since foreign managers came into English football at all levels it sort of woke up the establishment and we have seen more and more home grown managers disappearing from the top flight. I don't think it's unfair nor do I think it means that there are less good homegrown managers. In fact we are seeing a gradual increase of homegrown managers. A new era of them that have learned or been influenced by foreign managers and the modern way of management/playing/tactis. Think Rodgers, Moyes etc. Even Adkins was managing in a vastly superior way to the like of Allardyce and Redknapp. The latter surviving purely because he is less hands on and his coaches do the brunt of the work. I think that in the end the England side has actually overachieved since the eighties. The Bobby Robson side which we fondly remember wasn't pulling up any trees in that tournament but 'grew' into it achieving the semi-spot. Sven wasn't a long ball manager but ended up playing longball. Why is that? Probably because at the time he assessed that was the only way to play with the team he had. I certainly think that if anything the amount of foreign players has held back homegrown player development but on the flip side the introduction of so many foreign managers actually caused the English game to wake up. Man U's tactics have certainly developed over the Ferguson era. They didn't remain a singular philosophy. He was one of the only homegrown managers and was eager to learn things, eager to try things out and also was able to bring through a large group of young players at the same time. That is why Redknapp's Tottenham team only played 4-4-2. Why Allardyce's teams only play hoofball and scrappy niggly tactics. Why Pardew's teams mix longball with wingplay and why they are so 1 dimensional while Manu, Arse, Chelsea and nowadays Man City are hard to beat because they ping the ball about so quickly. It's also a problem in England where money is an obsession. In other countries when players or athletes retire they take up coaching and give back to the community. In England the majority are straight into commentating. Our Olympians ten do be working for the BBC whereas in other countries they are giving back to their national teams. Same with football to my eyes. Anyway, I personally think our team is improving these days. They should however get rid of any 'appearance fee' for playing for your country. You should play for the pride of it and if anyone doesn't like it then we would all know where those player's priorities lie.
