Monday 5 July 2010

England's Sliver Generation.

"England's World Cup ended in a mixture of humiliation and controversy as they were thrashed by Germany in Bloemfontein." Phil McNulty.

Since last Sunday just about everybody has been blamed for England's dismal performance in the 2010 and their subsequent exit, but some of the most popular seem to be how the FA and English clubs are failing to produce great young players, such as those found in the Germany squad. Another popular target, also linked to the previous one, is how foreign players are limiting the opportunities for our own home-grown youngsters. But how big an effect do these imported players have on football in England and is it always for the worst?


I think the recent fallout of young English players and other young British players is most clearly seen, not in the Premiership teams, but in the lower leagues and more specifically non-league. You might hear supporters of lower-league clubs talking about "gems" they've found in non-league and these kids must have come from somewhere.

Everybody knows how many kids don't get professional contracts at the top clubs and these guys often get picked up by small clubs and get the opportunity to fully develop and play first team football.

A great example of this is Charlie Austin's success at Swindon. He left Reading in 2004, at the age of 15, and after playing for several local or non-league moved from Poole Town to Swindon, after scoring an astonishing 48 goals in 42 appearances. He has continued in this rich vein goals scoring form at Swindon netting 19 times in 33 appearances.

Clearly something is wrong with the youth system if such a talented individual misses out and gets released, the reasons for this (According to Wikipedia, a far from reliable source) was "for being too small." which is ludicrous, Messi has a growth deficiency and was still kept on at Barca and Jermain Defoe is far from being the tallest man in the world.
This may be a valid (if not slightly strange reason) to release a player once they've reached maturity at say 18 or 19 but 15? I don't know about you but I've grown a fair amount since I was 15.

Going back to Charlie Austin he's now 6ft 2in (Again according to Wikipedia) not so small any more eh?

I think that having these foreign players brought in does have a detrimental on English players, but only up to a certain point. The quality of football in Leagues 1 and 2 has grown drastically as they can now pick up young lads with bags of potential for nothing after being released from the bigger clubs to make way for players being brought in.
The impression I've got from reading interviews from players who have experienced this effect is that they are much more driven and are just desperate to play first team football, especially after dropping into non-league. As a Bournemouth fan I can point out Anton Robinson as a prime example of this, he played every game last season in a highly competitive midfield for a team that won promotion, it was his first ever taste of league football.

Larger clubs need to be looking into the non-league system now, because there are some really quality players in there. I'm not saying they will necessarily develop into International players but it does show how not all hope is lost for the young Englishmen out there.

2 comments:

  1. Every bit true and amazing work, you should show this to someone, then share the profits with me hahah

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  2. Nice article, I think the players that really want it will drop to the lower leagues and show their worth. The very very best will make it to the top through academies but there is such a huge drop out, like 5% will get through to the first team.

    Those that continue will probably be highly intrinsically motivated (doing it because they love the activity, training, improving, feeling of playing football) to continue in sport even at a lower levels and less likely to suffer burnout.

    Those at the top level may be used to success and only be in it for the rewards and once these dry up or they aren't getting recognition they have in the past through playing in the team, suddenly find themselves no longer motivated to play football.

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