Does he not know that Germany are considering binning off B teams?
What a facile point as well that 'many of the World Cup squads had played in B teams'. Yeah, just like every player who isn't a Shaw/Owen/Rooney who is a first team regular at 17, we just call it the reserves over here.
Indeed, we always seem to play catch up with everybody else. This is what I was referring to in the other thread. We do not have credible or definable leaders for the FA. His comment on getting support from the Premier League for B teams is banal rubbish. The level these boys will be playing at will be between the conference or league 2, the only problem is he needs the permission of the Football league and conference who have told him, rightly so, to piss off and come back with a credible idea.
It just seems so lazy, we already have a loan system in place for players to go out and get experience which the top of the Premier League use extremely well. The most important phrase was 'the unwritten rule' that german clubs have and he blatantly doesn't have the bollocks to implement into the Premier League (and football league). Spain's B team experiment has failed miserably as the big teams just use them to drop the talent that will never make it.
For what it's worth I'd like to see:
A research plan over the next 6 months to find out the best way to get English players to the best of their ability in conjunction with clubs and associations at all levels. This includes the top level. The purpose of this is to devise a blueprint for development based on:
- Body type
- Demographics
- Attitude
- Projected intelligence
The clubs will contribute to this from the youth clubs in the local areas who are seeing their participation numbers dwindle to the Premier League who can project how many (and roughly who) will make it into their first teams based on progression of their transfer targets and probably youth development. The data already exists so it is just a collective and analysis job.
It is easy to say the FA needs more funding but more than anything else it needs a plan and between the coaches association, players association and the over arcing FA there is little consistency or ability to lead.
The Premier League would need to be won over to the use of more English players and to say 'there are average foreign players clogging up the system' and then have no answer to it is pathetic. The important question is why? Why wont our players play for the same money as the foreign stars coming in? Is it an attitude, talent identification or development problem?
Are facilities that much of a problem and in comparison to the numbers of players developed abroad, in comparison, what facilities are needed. is it just a lowering of the rents, is it the communities responsibility between them to keep the club houses and pitches in good working order (as they do with cricket) in return for lower ground rents?
When we have the answers to where we want the national team to be in 5 years (any longer is to far) we can reassess and move forward from there as we will have a better starting point.
I think grass roots qualifications for all must be free, be that officiating or coaching. In there must be a moral and respect level of education that all parents of clubs must adhere to and sign. A parents charter if you wish. The Premier clubs have done this for at least 5 years with United having done it since 1998.
To go with this, scouts will look at the talent on the pitch. The FA in their idiocy have tried to standardize this. A ridiculous idea as each club is looking for something different from their players that will eventually fit their styles and each scout and subsequent coach has their own ideas which cannot be standardized, nor should it.
It is like trying to look for the same thing on every pitch which everybody else will be looking for which is pure folly as there will be 22 sets of different DNA on that pitch and so 22 different styles and attributes, it is the identification of a combination of talents that scouts pin their hopes on and subsequently academy coaches have to deal with.
This brings me to coaching, which is too regimented leaving little room to think or apply coaches thinking (which they are told they should let their players do?), the coach educators were poor and as I understand it very variable from county to county. This is not good, the educators should be best and better, not average depending on who you played for and if you have the same ideas. We are too conservative and lack innovation. Strangely enough converse with what we as a nation are very good it, innovation.
This isn't new and has been a problem for the FA going as far back as the 30's. The only way to change this is cut the head off the top. A new committee with a new chief exec and board, made up like a Japanese car manufacturer when the American told them that they were wrong, made up from people that are a complete cross section of grass roots upwards with seperate coaching, administrative and player functions that also have seperate steering groups. The administrative posts will then follow into regional offices and do away with the county FA's which are staid to say the least.
The only way to get better is from the ground up and the Premier League is the goal for all players to get to and if the players coming through are too good to ignore then the Premier League will have to play them.
