If this was sarcastic then decent banter, if not then that is the biggest load of cr*p I've ever read in my life. Central England contracts? Dear oh dear
Well the current system is working well isn't it?. France for example grows teams early on England and the idiots that ran the game there just talk a good game. You need to get a football team together young and keep them together ONLY then will you see good results It happened once in UK football ... you don't win anything with kids... that lot became Man Utd the most successful team in the UK I rest my case
The PFAs answer? 3 homegrown players in every 11. That doesn't even mean English, just players in the academies and loads of them are foreigners. How about going with 8 homegrown players in the squad, 4 must be from the sides youth team and 2 non EU nationals and no non EU nationals are allowed to be signed from the champ downwards.
The successful teams at this World Cup don't have nor need central contracts for International players. The idea is ludicrious, no other International team would propose such a thing. What we need is a modern manager who is in tune with tactical knowledge, communicates the right messages before matches and in the build up to the tournament, and picks players who are high on confidence. The blame for our continued failure should lie with the FA. They're given chance after chance to introduce change and employ football thinking people to drive us forward.
What we need: 1. A manager who isn't interested in whether you are a 'name' or a 'star' - if you are good enough, you are in. If your form dips, you are out. Alf Ramsey never suffered fools, even dropping Jimmy Greaves from the 1966 team, and he didn't get to play in the final. That's the sort of attitude we need again, the manager in charge and the players working for him and each other. I don't particularly care if he's English, I just want a manager that can do the job - both match-days and in between times, with the success of the team paramount. 2. A system that fits the players, not trying to find players that fit the system. If our best team would struggle in this 4-2-3-1 formation but are great in a 3-5-2, then play 3-5-2. If the next game we need to switch to a 4-4-2 because of team changes, then don't be afraid to do it. Stop forcing players to play out of position just so we can play a so-called 'progressive' system. 3. Squads that have good cover in ALL positions. I'm astounded that we only took one right-back to Brazil, and no natural left-sided midfielder. Our strikers were all very similar, and therefore all wanted to play down the middle and kept making the same runs. It's crazy. 23 players is enough for 2 in each position, and more than enough to have some variety in our squad, so that if we need to have a big target-man up front, we can play one. 4. Proper pride in the badge. I have no doubt that Harry's comments about players wanting to skip games was untimely, but it was also very true. Playing for England doesn't mean the same as it used to, and it should be the pinnacle of a player's career. These days there's too much focus on the cash available in the PL and CL, and that's all some players think about. Things like the World Cup are just a little jolly boys outing. 5. An FA that's fit for purpose. There doesn't seem to be the connection and flow now between the U18, U21 and senior sides. The impression is that they are all independently run, and they shouldn't be. How are we going to bring players on in the International arena if there's no cross-over? And no, DT, I don't think central contracts are the answer.
The FA is in a right mess and my suggestion is that of revolution which IMO it needs I know one very important thing about Football and that hasn't changed at any of the levels I have played at ... the more a team grows and sticks together the better chances are of success. My old team mates and friends still talk about our old tours in France and how we all learnt from them. This country has NOTHING but very poor old fashioned theories about the game and it's getting worse IMO. At the highest levels you must bring through players from a young age together ... what chances will there be in this country with the premier league and the money? ... when you have a wealth of new players being taught the right way in Europe. The culture here is to look and a player and say he has promise then we stack the nations entire hope (and that's all it is on them) it's laughable as we then try and put 11 of these players into a team and expect results. Lost Culture keep Guessing England Pride in the badge will only come when a team is grown ...England expects what a laugh ... its exactly this Anglo Saxon mentality that holds the team back No expression No formula and too much pressure with a set of tools we have convinced ourselves are world class in a pre defined world class team I haven't seen a world class English footballer since Gazza, Shearer Scholes and Beckham Stop trying to work it out with numbers and formations again that is laughable when you haven't got the mindset basics right or a team that knows and trains together France produces players with the right mindset from birth, expression and a game play is automatic ...England just look like a group of players that the deluded English public think could be good ... NO doubt there is promise with a few players but where's the team spirit? you can't invent that. England will continue to fail until they invest in the next generation in the right way. Media makes it worse ... I rest my case as I saw on ITV when they break to commerce they portray the English players like a opening credits to Dallas or a Soap opera with a dash of x factor
Cheers Quality. It's common sense to me - not fanciful rambling like DT. Central contracts will NEVER work, because if a kid takes the option - and forcing them to take it would be against EU Employment law - all they will have is the chance of losing in a quarter final then having to go try and get a proper job because they are too old for the national side, and all of the top clubs will have their squads already. Thing is - everything I have listed is possible, with a little determination and the buy in from the clubs. I'm not advocating getting rid of the FA, simply reinstating the natural flow through the tiers. I'm not advocating wholesale squad changes, but if you're going to play two strikers and two wide men, then select players who are best in those positions, and stop all this 'interchanging' rubbish because it clearly doesn't work. We proved at Wembley that 4-4-2 (followed by a very solid 4-4-1) can be extremely difficult to beat - something that cannot be said for England in Brazil.
Very weak point Willy. If you lose your job then you go out and get another one ... don't paint a daft scenario to suit If a person gets employed by the England FA then they are the same rights as the tea lady ... if they're crap at their job... sack them! because you will have a wealth of players all dreaming of playing for their country .. the competition would be intense. These are the sort of ideas I come up in business everyday ... think different and you will be successful if you commit to a idea The FA needs to contract in young talented players, teach mentor, train and pay them for the rights to become a professional footballer The game in England is littered with Kids that were throw away ... you have at best a 15 year career as a pro which ever club you join ... why not join England? It would certainly stop clubs buying up all the talent around the world just to stop other clubs from having them My idea after just a few years you would have a pool of home grown talented players isolated away from the greed of the top UK clubs who's purpose is to work and play for the national side. Look at other sports in the UK that have adopted this approach in the Olympics with success. Need money for such a mad cap venture in the UK? ... The England football team lottery ticket ... millions of meatheads would queue up each Friday for that and the nation's people could choose and would be investing in the team ... only then would you get pride in a badge. Separate the England team now from the poison of the leagues and you would see results within 5 years Remember my way any player wanting to leave England FC could do so and take his chance in the pro game at anytime in fact a natural selection would do that anyway Britain's got talent? tell me a better way to find it then? and tell me a better way to build a army of all English players who play the new English way collectively? We still have our entertainment watching the circus of football via the premier league ... meanwhile in the background we are growing a national team to solely win tournaments for their country. after all England footballers only compete in tournaments so why not focus on that?
So, let me get this right, Dave.... The FA should buy all the young English players currently employed by PL clubs - I have no clue how much they are worth, but let's say they are collectively worth around £500 million. Then they need to pay them - not the £2k you mention because they will all be on far more than that and will refuse to go, so they have to be paid what they are currently on as a minimum. Let's say fifty players at an average of £12k a week. That's an annual wage bill of £31.2 million, not taking into account the cost of employing the players (Employer NIC contributions of 12%, so that's another £4 million a year, even ignoring workplace pensions, which are now mandatory, so add another couple of million in for that). Then the FA needs to arrange for insurance on these players, because the clubs won't carry them. Let's say a total annual premium for the lot of £10 million. How much to keep these guys trained and fit 12 months a year (something that the clubs currently do)? The infrastructure to do that will cost around £15 million to set up and run, including all the additional staff costs. Then there's this 'mini international league' you talk of. Who exactly will they be playing, because there's no other country that has a similar set up, so who? And these things cost money to host, even if you DO find opponents. See? In all practical cases, you're talking about the FA needing to allocate somewhere in excess of £750 million over and above everything they currently need to budget for. Sorry mate, but this is simply another idea from the mystical and magical land that is your imagination.... And anyway, I'm pretty sure running the game at national level in the way you suggest would lead to us needing to leave FIFA under their rules, so there would be no 'England Team' for anybody to play for...
Revolution ... I doubt in England never fully understand the word because we have never had one ... we still cling to the awful wars as our comfort while the rest of the world overtakes us and we are content with the brainwashing. £750 million ... peanuts when the public spend £5.5 billion on pet insurance with one of my clients each year .. yes I bear that awful stat and guilt and I hurt daily when i see my work everywhere in the UK so yes I claim an insight or nightmare only a few can understand Ramblings? ... Think on when you are next in PretCosta Express or worried that you aren't covered by evil insurances ... sip your coffee and pretend you are elsewhere maybe another country? ... it was creative people with imagination who make you think and dream the illusion that England is the capital of everything food ... it isn't ... it was me making you think that way with my imagination. England football has to change IMO because we have created the problem ourselves with an industry that doesn't lend itself to producing a national team. Yes FIFA may have rules to stop such a radical development but IMO they need change also. I know of course my draft idea would never come off but the money is always the easy bit in business. It was smart thinkers who dreamt up the premier league for all of us to become brainwashed in but that done now ... its forward thinking that will get a team manufactured against a revolutionary concept Nothing stopping the FA buying a football club in any league in the world to blood and front players into after all what are a lot of the English clubs doing now?
Agree Willy it's just an idea however and will never happen but I hope anyone who reads this understands the importance of growing and forging players together our football leagues in the UK are NOT the model to grow a national team ... Money again IMO. Why are the overseas players attracted to the premier league ... Yes it's a very exciting product but it's not English yet England has the money and that is why they come. Many will never be suited to the premier league but its a numbers game because you add up the rest of the world's young talent against what England produces ... equate that with the magnet of money and global media rights you should get a very simple sum and a very simple answer. Again I say separate the national England Football team from what is IMO a circus and you will get close to the answer. English sports people are training hard now for the next Olympic games and i doubt if any of us will know the names of the next heroes ... imagine if teh same concept was applied to our national game. Again I stress this would be a total professional approach to doing well in TOURNAMENT football. I am also willing to bet you would get total application to the cause and also a few super rich players even transferring in a pre world cup year as long as the team would take them. Harold was right that many players do avoid international football on purpose ... my way we would have a settled technical team, fresh and ready to take on the world's best.... Young players could even retire themselves after a good world cup and take up the many offers they could receive and guess what the FA gets the transfer fee so we could then say we as England produce world class players and we wouldn't be dreaming. Of course we could get thrashed and made to look like fools however that is exactly what we have just done in Brazil
DT, as mad as your rambling are. there could be some merit in these ideas. I dont think it will or could ever be fully instgated as you have laid out, but, some of the ideas behind the proposal have merit. Like the fact that players have to commit (in some sense) to the national team. Players picked on merit. All playing the same way ...Kind of like Ajax did back in the 70's ? National team takes priority over domestic. And England team in the Prem...ould be intresting, but not as you've laid out. Maybe a "select 11" under the banner England FC Finally, Willy...do you really see money being a problem....really - we've just made 130 Mill on 1 game !,....How about SKY have to pay for it as they want to televise our countries best players...? DT for President
Yes, money is a problem (not the only problem with DT's suggestion, but a big one). Sky don't have the rights to England games, and the amount of monet that they would bid to show them wouldn't even scratch the surface of the cost.
Firstly, we already have a professional approach to tournament football. The Premier League is a tournament, and attracts the best players and all the money. That doesn't transfer well to a tournament run every 4 years where players are not paid to play. And secondly, why would the kids sign up for the England cause only to be usurped by the super rich players right before a tournament? Answer: they wouldn't. Sorry mate, but it's a stupid idea. Maybe in some mirror universe it might work, but it'll only happen if all other nations also adopt the scheme. And they won't, cos why should they?
They would pay if the team was for eg..Gerrard, Rooney, Hart, Cole etc...an all England select 11 because that what the English public would want to see.... Money is the least of the problems mate...The rest of DT's rambling are more of an issue in my eyes.. Anyway, its pointless going on because it will never happen whilst SKY promote the Prem as the best league in the world...which it obviously isnt ! Joe public will eat it up and pay through the nose for it..all over the world !
In a gross over generalization I can see a good microcosm of the English disease here. We are great at describing and dissecting problems ad nauseum and saying what things should be like whilst offering no suggestions of how to get from A to B. More patriotic players - how? Good back up for the first XI when we don't have a good first XI? Elaborate. A better manager? Who? Then when a creative, left field idea, that challenges the current status quo is put forward, we rubbish it. We need fifty ideas like DTs and from the pool a solution will emerge. We need to get both players and coaches working abroad much more, perhaps some kind of FA deal with other countries equivalents, so we have a few more Paul Clements'. Probably stupid, but from 50 stupid ideas a good one will emerge. Oh, and kill Sky/BT Sport, who have ruined everything in cahoots with the unbridled greed of 'football people'.
So you're saying the public would pay to see Cole / Gerrard / rooney / Hart etc... i.e. the same team that has just been knocked out of the World Cup? Also, you're ignoring the fact that people follow their clubs, and their clubs players, at international level. I was watching South Korea last night because Yun was playing. I was far more interested in the France game when Remy came on. If these players have central contracts, and therefore no connection to the club I love, then I wouldn't be bothered.
