'It doesn't matter it's only international football'.... Try telling that to the millions crying in their beer last night!
You are clearly not reading my posts. The England team is the end result of all that I bang on about (you can apply the same principles to Scotland, Wales and Ireland for all you smug bastards gloating at our failure!) I have cited plenty of variables. The youth coaching is not a minor part, it's hugely important and interwoven with the other points I made including the national psyche, money and facilities.
A Dutch coach I met coined the phrase 'Determination Football'
That is the English/British way and why we end up with players like Gerrard and John Terry leading the international team. I see determination football every week with the anger fear driven ranting of coaches and parents. You go to a football match especially premier league and you see where the ranting comes from.
I had to tell one of my own coaches to go away after he started bawling at my team during a recent match. He constantly lambasted one of my players and as a result smashed this boys confidence in the match, the boy told me he was scared. This typifies what goes on up and down the UK. I witness this every week.
Level one FA coaching badge is the culinary equivalent to learning how to make a slice of toast. Most coaches in this country are level one. Level two is like adding beans to the toast.
As things stand in 2012 Spain had 25,000 Uefa A, B and Pro Licence coaches, Italy 30,000 and Germany 35,000 while England had less than 6,000.
Effectively England is five and six to one down ratio-wise on any other major soccer nation in terms of qualified coaches at that level.
FA's Coaching Numbers 2012 (I'll try and get up to date figures)
- Level 1 coaches 239,692
- Level 2 coaches 31,952
- Uefa B Licence 4,749
- Uefa A Licence 1,073
- Uefa Pro Licence 183
- Goalkeeping A Licence 58
- Goalkeeping B Licence 159
- FA Youth Award Mod 1 7,078
- FA Youth Award Mod 2 2,844
- FA Youth Award Mod 3 301
Look at the goalkeeping stats, it's pathetic, as is the pro licence. I remember reading that Germany has 2400 pro licence holders against our 200.
This winter due to the weather and the awful pitches we are expected to develop players on, my club did not play a competitive game for virtually three months. That would not happen in Germany.
We produce some young players with natural talent and technique and then watch them get beaten, scared to death psychologically and culturally. Many of the scouts run around looking for big atheletic kids, Fulham are renowned for this. Lionel Messi would never of happened in the UK, because he would have been considered too small by many clubs standards.
Our under 17s do well, but it's a small cluster from a huge pool and it's often short lived and does not evolve. Smaller countries like Uruguay with just 3.7 million people have out performed us throughout eternity. (66 aside). Why?
The Germans fixed their problems pretty quick, we on the other hand.... We largely don't care about grass roots football. You see that even here on U75. I started a thread on it, about six people contributed a total of 200 words. We are ambivalent.
In London the facilities are derisory, Recently I could not book a pitch anywhere with a five mile radius of where I am based, there is a huge shortage of facilities and they cost an absolute fortune, community football has fuck all funding, but the bigwigs in the FA and the premier league dine out on the glory of our game that is largely populated by the overseas players developed in better environments.
What everyone witnessed last night and every other night of international tournament disappointment I believe can be traced back to everything I have posted.
