http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19678859 Was browsing the BBC football page and found this. I wouldn't blame anyone for not having heard of him. He is though the man in charge of revolutionising football development from the grassroots up to hopefully deliver better English players and a better England team in the future. The FA have gone considerably out of their way to hire him, so the bloke is obviously good. This is probably long overdue, but surely a step inn the right direction.
I only hope so. He's the west brom guy isn't he. Hope is just not a case of Roy's mate. Also, I'd like to know what Gareth Southgate did or didn't do for two years in that role and why he left the position. My fear is that the fans and the media won't let this chap really revolutionise youth football.
The game is already changing...it's far more scientific now, which is the reasoning behind having elite academies. Something had to be done about the stagnation of English players and the England team. If it works, there will be more quality English players in the PL with a knock-on effect on the national side.
How involved are the professional clubs in grasroots football? Below our U18s has always seemed quite mysterious and I'm intrigued as to how it works. I believe Les Reed does the same sort of things for us.
They take players on freom a very young age. Different clubs have different views and philosophies. 2 years ago, where I live in Northampton, they "sold" a 10 year old lad to Chelsea for £50k
The science has been here for years Fran; thank Wenger for that. Where we are still falling behind other countries is how our young kids are taught to play. I've said several times before. Local football is about parents and coaches screaming at kids to "whack" the ball forward and win the game at all costs. We only care about wining games at young age groups which is so worng. A few years ago there was uproar when the FA first said that league tables for under 8 year olds couldn't be printed. They were accused of being do gooders and stopping competitiveness. All kids are extremely competitive and want to win, however the coaches and parents should understandd that it is not important at young ages and learning technique is far, far more important. At the end of last season, I tried an experiment for my parents. We played a friendly 9 v 9 match (under 11's) in May and I asked all of our parents to not shout/talk anything to the players; no cheering, no instructions. They were only allowed to clap. The other team did their usual screaming and shouting. We did this for the first half only. I said nothing either. The effect on the kids was incredible. They were fantastic. Their passing was great, slowed the game down and they had to make their own decisions, they talked to each other and the way they played was incredible. In the second half, the parents were allowed to shout as normal and it as like watching "carry on football" as everything suddenly became 100mph and kick and rush.
