Article: Saving English Football - also, are Saints playing their part in player development? | Southampton FC, Football

I don't know quite how the system works, but some of those kids who are released end up in Glenn Hoddle's Academy. I don't know his success rates or his turnover of players either, but it seems a reasonable start of a catch-all system.

Just realised you mean 18 year olds released from their clubs, but then to go into courses to become coaches. Wouldn't that result in a lot of coaches who are only as good as the course..? I would have thought that, on the whole, the best coaches would be ex-players who have that professional insight, learned through a career, and to have done their badges in their 30's.

 

That was your cue. Yes they surely could. The FA could do more to get inside schools and colleges to promote these things too.

 

Success rate: Zero.

Think Hoddle has, or is in the process of, bailing out of that project (probably due to it failing and clubs being right to release those players in the first place)

 

That's a shame for all concerned.

 

Its pretty similar to the Nike Acadamy, they look for youngsters released by clubs. Obviously clubs make mistakes, Southampton have released several players like Kevin Phillips purely as he was deemed too small, Man City rejected Ryan Giggs for the same reason, Newcastle played Alan Shearer in goal for his trial as he was a big lad. Generally though the clubs get it right. The difference in working at Mc Donalds and playing for Arsenal may be just that extra yard of pace.

On a side note, good luck to JWP and Shaw if they play for the U21s today,streams for the game available

 

.... for a full back.

Just to correct the Giggs story; City wanted to sign him, but Sir Alex nipped round his house and convinced him to sign for united. City were fuming.

And finally, Saints decided to sign Shearer on school boy forms and let me go on the same day ..... Idiots!!!!!

 

I'm chewing my fingers, trying to hold off.

 

Phillips made 2 reserve appearances as a fullback, flip side was that Francis (1 goal) Benali started his youth career as a centre forward. Watched a reserve game at The Dell where he kicked the keeper (who was lying on the floor) in the head. The keeper who had been playing shyte was replaced and the sub was outstanding, though never took his name

 

I thought he actually started as a left winger and dropped back, like Bridge. I remember Craig Maskell up front and Benali wide on the left

 

probably played him everywhere, did not matter as he could not score for love or money

 

The dearth of English players and subsequent "failure" of the national team would be easy to blame on the FA or Premier League or even the clubs to some extent. I believe the problem is culturally intrinsic though. When I was a lad (I'm 40 now so we aren't talking ancient history), kids were out playing everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Kids played in the road with lookouts, in shopping centres, on building sites and on every bit of greenery or parkland available. The game of choice was of course football.

Our society has gone through several changes over the last few decades that I believe have had a detrimental impact not just on football but on sport and the physical wellbeing of our youngsters in general. The increase in traffic makes playing in roads a complete non-starter. Parents don't let their children out of their sight because there's an abduction/abuse story in the news every week. Even adults can't get on to a building site without a hi-viz jacket, a hard hat and a signature on a disclaimer or waiver. Kids playing in shopping centres or local green areas are viewed as a menace and are shooed away by security gaurds or ASBOs that simply weren't around a couple of decades ago. One can argue whether these changes in society are for the best or not depending on your viewpoint but where I do believe the country fails young people without question is in our school curriculums. There is far too small an emphasis placed on physical education full stop and spending cuts hit this aspect of education more than any other. I used to have 4 hours of "Games" as it was then known per week. Now schools are free to decide what is "best" for their own pupils. How on earth can that be right? The benefits of exercise are no different from one location to another so any variation in focus on this area can only be down to budgets or lack thereof.

There are of course many schools that excel in this area but whilst others are allowed to simply pay lip service to something which is incorrectly regarded as a subject rather than an essential life skill, who knows how many potential Matt Le Tissiers are sitting on their arses munching on Doritos instead of gracing MOTD every week? One thing is for sure, if there was an X-Box or Playstation FIFA World Cup, I bet we'd do alright in that, and that says it all.

 

There is no doubt that a lot of the problems start during school years.........I cannot imagine what it must be like for a child these days with so many restrictions on where they can or can't play. During the summer holidays we would be off out at about 08.30 and back about tea time when we would be starving. During that time we would have played lord knows how many test matches or world cups with England winning every one....
Children rarely have that kind of freedom these days which is so sad.........You cannot argue with the parents....after all they only want to protect their offspring and who can blame them. Are they being over protective...who knows?
There is no doubt though it usually means that sports wise over the years we have suffered because children have not been allowed to develop personal skills that perhaps you would not try in a training ground. You would see a Cruyff turn and practise it out of site until you had perfected it. The same as a load of other skills which in front of prying eyes you would not try until you had mastered it.
I have to say I would not have liked to have been born in the last 20 or so years.

 

Children these days would rather be in contact with people at a distance. You only have to look at them texting or answering phones rather than interact with the people they are with. I got so fed up with one young lady during a restaurant meal that I texted her from across the table...she got the point.

 

Agree with a number of the points here and the sentiments from Dyke about the problem being a multi faceted one.
Think this review is a good idea but of course it needs action and a drive to see any changes bought to fruition. Enquiries are very hip in the political world but lets hope it's not lip service.

One recommendation for me is for every school to have an FA qualified coach. That's not just someone who goes on a day course and gets a certificate, but given proper regular training throughout there career. This should be subsidized by the FA and EPL. The FA has invested in a new Wembley and a fancy new centre at st George's park so now it's time to invest in people.

 

'The commission will ask why England are in this situation, what could be done and how any changes can be implemented'.

If you have to ask the questions then you've already not fit for purpose. You should know the answers.

Premier League football has become rotten to the core and I view it as no longer associated with grass roots football and the working class game. The game is now run by billionaires who are no longer interested in the kid on the street. How any player in the world is worth $100M beggers belief. So many glory hunters these days just expect instant success and while that exists the focus will remain on the crème de la crème topped up by endless foreign imports, while clubs like Watford should just hang their heads in shame.

My club is no different a number of young talent shipped out last season to bring in more experienced players to win the league. While at the top it is club glory over national endeavour and the sadness of youngsters being screamed at by crazed parents at the local green touchline in search of some millionaire deluded dream.

Nothing will change, Jimmy Hill, Brian Clough (both unwittingly) and the more deliberate 1992 saw to that as we have now followed the US way of selling our game to the marketing moguls.

All that and I have not even started on the wicked witch of the west. If you have to ask who that refers too, then you really don't understand the agenda and politics of the 21st Century game.

NOTHING WILL CHANGE.

Sorry - Rant Over.

 

In brazil they play on the beaches, they play in the streets, they play in the ghettos.

On my local massive park there is an unused cricket pitch. Why is it unused? because they built houses all around the outside of it and then installed 'NO BALL GAMES' signposts at intervals around it's perimiter.

3 decades ago when I was a kid we put jumpers down in the park and played one man wembo.
These days they are too busy trying to dig up the rubber 'tarmac' for the 20th time this year in the play park section.

It's like the Portsmouths very good advertisement for season tickets this year:

'Don't let your kids grow up thinking football is a TV show'

That is not very far from the truth

 

Same thing has happened with a number of other sports, as well. Baseball has gone from being a sport whose upper echelons were populated by inner-city kids who grew up playing with a stick and ball in the street to one predominated by middle-class folks who have access to suburban baseball complexes. Hockey here in Canada has moved in a similar direction...it's now an extremely expensive sport to play, and thus it's primarily the well-heeled that are able to fund their kids and have work schedules that allow for those 5 am Saturday wakeups for practice or tournaments. Consequently, the population at the bottom of the pyramid is smaller...and in many cases less driven by pure love of the pursuit than once they were.

 

Daily Mirrors Martin Lupton was on sky's Sunday supplement this morning and he said the one club he wants to see do well this season is Southampton.

He mentioned foreign chairman, foreign manager and yet six English players in their team so far this season including 18 year and academy players.

Thanks Martin, nice to have the recognition.

He also had a **** over Lambert performance despite criticising him on the show a couple weeks ago.

All is rosy if we have the press onside lol

 

Exactly!

The general reason is that they are not good enough either technically or that the culture of British players is frowned upon abroad. There is an interesting chapter in Simon Kuper's book about the class origins of England internationals which is interesting in that it firmly suggests that football is a working class sport in the Uk whereas in Italy the players generally come from a middle class background. The suggestion was that education and the cultrual within the British working class were not considered as admirable as it is within the UK with the result that British footballers are less capable of adapting for reasons such unwillingness to learn a foriegn language, etc.

 

Surely though this could be argued right the way through the British society. Not just in the realms of football.......not sure it has anything to do with the class system at all. Mainly opportunity rather than any system....just an opinion though.