Relaxed approach to coaching kids football is costing the national team dearly

Football Food For Thought / Mike Norman / 24 June 2008 / 2

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"Mystical" Mike Norman highlights the problems with football in England at grass-roots level and calls for changes that will benefit the England team in the long-term

From being born until the age of four you learn more about life that at any other age. You learn to crawl, walk, laugh, smile, talk, run, play, read, write - the list is endless. You go on learning as you get older, but the fundamentals are already there.

In football, a youth academy acts in exactly the same way. You join a football club at a young age (generally as a teenager in this country but much younger in countries like France and Holland) and that's where the fundamentals are learnt before being developed at a later stage. Ball control, passing, teamwork, awareness, discipline are all skills and traits that should be acquired on a training pitch, not during an 11-a-side game on an oversized pitch amongst eight year-olds.

We all know where this country has fell short in terms of developing youth, and much has been documented in the media since England failed to qualify for Euro 08. We all watched in horror as some of England's (and the world's) best players failed to control a football on a wet greasy pitch one night in November as our Croatian counterparts technically outclassed us. If Croatia can produce technically gifted players, then England should be doing likewise. Failing to qualify for Euro 08 should now be seen as the best thing that ever happened to English football - but only if the powers that be open their eyes and dissect why we failed.

I'm very passionate about football being taught in schools professionally, and not by some 55 year-old P.E. Teacher who excels in teaching swimming. Ex professional footballers, qualified coaches or even semi-professional players should be employed to go into schools and teach youngsters the fundamentals of football, which can then be developed by football clubs years later.

When you see a club like Arsenal, who have thousands of young English fans within 10 miles of the Emirates Stadium, sign teenagers from Holland, France, Spain and even Africa then you know there is a problem somewhere.

Yet some clubs do have a fine record of developing youth players from their academies, many of which have gone on to be regular Premiership players and even represent England at some level. West Ham are one such club and can boast the names of Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Glen Johnson and Frank Lampard amongst the recent players that graduated from their academy.

Unfortunately for West Ham, this list of players highlights another problem; that as soon as these youngster become noticed, they get snapped up by bigger, richer clubs (all the players above eventually signed for either Manchester United or Chelsea). Inevitably, it means that the chances of a club like West Ham breaking into the top four is almost impossible - they are currently available at [36] for a 'Top 4 Finish', or at [9] for a more realistic 'Top 6 Finish' finish.

Everton, Manchester City and Aston Villa are three other examples of football clubs well known for graduating players from their youth academies, but unlike West Ham they've tended to keep hold of the players they've nurtured (Wayne Rooney apart). Leon Osman, James Vaughan, Michael Johnson, Micah Richards, Stephen Ireland, Craig Gardner, and Gabriel Agbonlahor are all still at they club from which they graduated, but it is also quite apparent that as of yet they are not of the same standard as the players that West Ham sold on.

I'd expect all three of Everton ([1.84]), Man City ([2.7]) and Villa ([2.5] to have designs on a top six finish at the outset of the new Premiership season, though whether they can break into the top four (Everton [11], City [10], Villa [8.4]) is extremely doubtful.

Finally, I make no apology for mentioning the team that I support when discussing successful youth academies. Stewart Downing, Andrew Taylor, Lee Cattermole and David Wheater are all regulars in Middlesbrough's squad having came through the youth system and all have gone on to gain international recognition at either full or under-21 level.

So the evidence has clearly been gathered that football clubs in England can develop excellent players that go on to play for their country. Why is it then that our national football team has performed so poorly with all the talent at our disposal? What is the solution?

Either football clubs must start allowing players into their academies at a much younger age, or the government must make the teaching of football in schools by qualified people mandatory. These are my thoughts, I'd love to know what yours are.

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Glyn | 24 June 2008

as a former manager of grass roots football your opinions are great,but in grass roots management there are people who set out to victimise you and then it affects the children who in turn dont turn up because parents are behaving badly that is why i believe grass roots suffers
Don Lafferty | 24 June 2008

Here in the US, national teams are usually comprised of the best of the best of our professional athletes. While these allstar teams may not always be the best in the world, they're usually the best we have to offer in a given year.

So your passion for growing local talent isn't a sentiment held by most Americans, whose interest in youth athletics is usually driven by the pursuit of scholarship awards for their children.

The climate of youth athletics in the US is changing. Years of parents living vicariously through the deeds of their children, setting poor examples of sportsmanship, increasing incidents of serious injuries to players and a general decline in benefits of the youth athletic experience are driving a grass roots movement to refocus coaches on providing a positive experience to youth athletes while teaching players the appropriate skills in the context of personal improvement as opposed to the final score of the contest.

Part of this movement includes a more relaxed posture regarding the very solution to the issue of your passion - specialization at an early age.

In our society children are inclined to participate in multiple sports, frequently as many as three or four, and the increasing pressure to specialize by the age of 12, while it certainly produces a more skilled player, doesn't necessarily result in a happier, more balanced youth athletic experience for the average kid, who will never go on to defend national pride on a pitch, a diamond or a court.