- This topic has 4 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 5 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
A new tier of teams who will push the pyramid further down, teams who will have no support of their own as such, no possibility of promotion past a certain level, but will impact on opportunities for lower league clubs to attract players and progress.
What a load of tosh this idea is. Do they really think this will sort the problem of a lack of English quality?
And what will happen with cup draws etc? Who will support these teams also?Why don’t they just bring in an English quota of players rule for all clubs..
I have to agree with you jimmy the whole English National team dilemma over the last twenty or so years have been caused by the amount of money ploughed into the greed league over the years since 1992 . The reason that the likes of Lampard and Gerrard even Rooney at a push have been so prolific and have had the media slavouring over performances is that they are surrounded by foreign players op genuine international class put the same players in a moderate England xi and see what happens
This is a case of the tail (the big clubs) wagging the dog (the FA).
The real problem with the development of home grown players is that the big clubs use up their wealth to hoover up virtually all the promising young talent around and stick em in their Academies in the hope that a few of them will be able to succeed at the level they need them to & the rest they cast aside. In order to attract the young players who may be more interested in competitive, first team football lower down the league ladder at that age they offer them (in relative terms) big money contracts in order to turn their heads. They also bend the regulations to the limit – I remember John Deehan saying once at a fans forum that the club were finding it increasingly difficult to attract youth players. he mentionned some regulation that had been introduced (& which may still be in place) that a club could only sign up a youth player if they lived within a certain travelling distance of the club. he mentioned a big club who had used this to get players from all over the place over the heads of other more local clubs coz they could fly them there!!
When the players get released from the big clubs they can often not have developed enough to be ready for first team football in the lower leagues (as they would have been in the past) & they can often sneer at what they see as the piffling wages on offer lower down the pyramid & they drift away from the game.
On top of that owners (& fans) of these bigger clubs bigger clubs often want instant success & are unprepared to wait for these players to develop so big money is splashed out on already, ready players & the youngsters find their route to the first team coming increasingly congested, if not blocked completely & their own development as players gets stunted even further. Chelsea & Man City for example spend an absolute fortune on their Academy systems but they’ve produced almost nothing of note as the youth players aren’t getting the competitive game time needed & the owners want instant results & not a season or 2 for a couple of youngsters to bed in.
Even those who bigger clubs deemed not up to makign the grade (thinking off the top of my head about players like David Platt & Robbie Savage released by Man United), were released at a young enough age that their development hadn’t been stunted, they were ready for lower league football, got the experience & moved back up the system. Nowadays the club’s keep hold of them longer & release some of the more promising ones at 21-23 by which point they’ve lost a good 3 years out of an estimated 12-14 year professional career. In the past the likes of Josh McEachran by 21 would have either been a first team regular at Chelsea or he’d have been released long ago, getting first team football at a club where he knew he wasn’t goign back to a bumper deal at a big club anyway & would be grafting to get back up to the topIn the past, the spread of talent at youth level was far more evenly spread throughout the professional game & players such as those we had at Latics (Joe Parkinson, Peter Atherton & co) were able to get first team football at a young age, develop as players & then move up the system when they were ready.
One player who i think has bucked the trend is James McCarthy. He had the chance to go to Liverpool or Arsenal at 16 & turned it down coz he knew he would get more first team football at Hamilton. When he felt he was ready for the next step he again turned down overtures from the big clubs & decided between Latics & Wolves where he felt he would get more first team chances. Again he could have moved from Latics but only did so when he felt he’d developed enough to be able to command a first team place at a “bigger” club. Had he taken the £££ signs being flashed in front of him at 16 I very much doubt that he’d be where he is today.
Anyway, rather than addressing these issues, the big clubs want to carry on doing what they’re doing & this is their answer – & one that allows them to look like they only want to do it for the good of the English national side when it reality its purely self serving
Excellent post Tydlesley, I was thinking along those lines myself but couldn’t seem to get all the points together in my mind, never mind get it down in a post.
One point that hasn’t been mentioned though, is that all the top clubs academies are probably already filled with foreign youngsters now anyway, so how this plan would help when all the ‘B’ squad players would also be foreigners.
I watched Chelsea v Fulham in the Youth Cup Final the other week, and the not many of the kids appeared to be English, and that was Youth level not reserve level.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
