The Future of British Football
This topic contains 45 replies, has 14 voices, and was last updated by thekickoff 6 years, 9 months ago.
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June 22, 2017 at 7:00 am #1496962
Visiting Spain recently, everywhere I went there was kids playing football. Even in the centre of a busy town, on a baking hot day, there was a paved pitch with 20+ kids having a game.
In England I rarely see kids just playing, sure there are organised teams and games but I think too many English kids would rather play Fifa. and our kids just dont develop the skills, or a lot less than in Spain do.
In South America I am told its the same with kids playing football everywhere, and very few can afford X-box ect.June 22, 2017 at 9:04 am #1496993@paxman. You’ve hit the nail on the head here mate. I basically started the thread more because I wantied to vent about the treatment my nephew gets. He is a player of slight build but he has great touch and vision. The first thing his coaches keep saying is all the usual bollocks like: “he can’t beat a man”, “he hasn’t got pace”, “he gets pushed off the ball by the other lads” – all that rubbish. Not one of these coaches can see that he needs to float into the spaces behind the striker in the middle of the park and he needs willing runners to disrupt defences, he always finds the killer pass. Not one coach sees it and to me it’s as clear as the racoon’s nest on Donald Trump’s head. This type of oversight in favour of fast, strong players is so common across the isles it’s frightening.
@lilywhite. You make an interesting point there as well. In third world countries you have much better technical players coming through the ranks because they play street football.
June 22, 2017 at 10:28 am #1497043Hatters – I went through it for years, my son even said to me a few years ago, it was lucky Messi didn’t grow up in England as he may never have made it. My son finished top scorer every season for his school team / Saturday team and that was playing mostly on the left, as although right footed he was the only one that could use both feet, even taking corners with each foot depending on what side of the field and what corner they wanted, and this was before it was highlighted that a few Premier league foreign stars do this.
June 22, 2017 at 11:26 am #1497075In Brazil, they play 11 a side in the 18 yard box. They make it look so easy to.
June 22, 2017 at 11:52 am #1497091Having been close to kids football for a while now I don’t buy into this doomsday scenario much progress has been made through the FA initiatives of smaller sided games governed by age , smaller pitches,smaller goals and different sized balls by age group all of which increases touches and skill.
Schools don’t drive kids football local amateur football clubs do and if you’re lucky enough to get your kids into a good amateur club with dedicated qualified coaches the kids will develop and what we have now is miles better than what existed before.
Parent’s and relatives have to be dedicated to though because for the better players there is often Club, County and Academy training nights to manage as well as weekend games.
From what I’ve seen at Club,County, Academy and School levels is that the best and most skilful kids are the ones who are 100% dedicated and truly love the game are in good clubs with good Coaches and have a great support network wider than just the parents.
June 22, 2017 at 12:04 pm #1497097In Brazil they normal only play 7 and 9 a side until the age of 13 or 14.
June 22, 2017 at 12:11 pm #1497103999 – From when my son was 7 I used to finish early on a Tuesday to pick him up from school take him to the next town to train, with his Sunday team, then Wednesday he trained with his Saturday team, then every Saturday morning a match, followed by one on Sunday mornings, it was all of his doing he want to play that often and was picked up by the Sunday team at a end of season competition the previous summer. They were two very good teams with very good coaches, unfortunately after a while the Sunday team folded and when he decided to join another Sunday team Bedford FC, the main towns youth team, we came across backwards coaches that were only interested in winning the next game, bullying the opposition and put no time and effort into developing kids skills and technique. You may have come across some good ones, as have I, but there are still plenty of bad ones out there and until that gets stopped across the board, lots of players will slip through the net.
June 22, 2017 at 12:20 pm #1497114Paxman, obviously the quality,quantity and philosophy of Coaches comes into it and that’s an area that needs improving and will take time but the FA initiatives on team sizes, pitch sizes, goal sizes and ball sizes effects all and have been a massive step in the right direction.
June 22, 2017 at 12:37 pm #1497125Hatters, maybe if every coach is saying he is not good enough, he might not be good enough…
June 22, 2017 at 12:50 pm #1497136It depends how they are taught from a young age, and whom they are playing alongside. If Steve Sidwell, was born and raised playing football in Spain, or German. Would he play the British way he does, or would he play a more European style of football? Would people consider moving their 5 year old son abroad, in the hope it makes him a better player?
June 22, 2017 at 12:52 pm #1497137Tugayisgod – I think the point Hatters is making is that the coaches aren’t saying he isn’t good enough, they are saying he isn’t big enough or strong enough. Everyone know that during teenage years kids develop at varying rates and not giving a talented youngster game time at 13 because he is big enough harms their development so when the catch up in size at the ages of 16 to 18 the damage has been done. That is why the English team has your Emile Heskey’s and Peter Crouches of this world but no Messi’s, Silva’s or Suarez’s.
June 22, 2017 at 1:57 pm #1497173Paxman, who is Hatters to suggest that his Nephew would be a brilliant championship player? Its a ridiculous comment. No pace, no strength, poor dribbling skills his coaches say. Does that sound like a player who would make it as a professional footballer? But his uncle says hes good so that’s all that matters haha.
June 22, 2017 at 2:41 pm #1497210While on this topic I could have been an international but was also regarded as being too small even though I tackled very hard, however those touches of genius went largely unnoticed.
June 22, 2017 at 2:48 pm #1497218Tugay – Sorry but just where did hatters say that any of his coaches said that his nephew has poor dribbling skills. Let’s look at another player that had no pace, no strength, and couldn’t beat a player. David Beckham anyone, he didn’t do to bad out of the sport 🙂
June 22, 2017 at 3:01 pm #1497231@tugayisgod. If you read what paxman says then that’s the gist of what I am saying really.
The lad is technically gifted, he has exceptional touch, vision, dribbling and passing ability by all accounts. The reason why he is not seen as a real prospect is that he lacks pace and strength.
June 22, 2017 at 3:47 pm #1497255PM – I always used to say the same thing about Beckham, so little ability yet he made it big time-as I posted earlier this week some players have an easier passage into big time football while others dont get much of a gap. Its not fair but thats life generally very unfair for the majority.
June 22, 2017 at 4:06 pm #1497266The reorginisation of the game by the FA from kids to youth level was a massive step in the right direction and over time will allow us to produce more technically gifted players.
But realistically very few will make it as professional players and our game now certainly at the top level of the PL is driven by the need for success and very very few players across the top 6 clubs come through from the Academy and become first team regulars.
It’s also very difficult to predict who may or may not make it I played in a decent team at Youth level with lots of very good players but none of the best went on to do anything whilst a lad who didn’t stand out at all went on to have a long career at QPR.
hatters lacking pace and strength will be picked out as problems by Coaches everywhere it just depends whether your nephews other attributes outweigh what he lacks as you know Beckham could drop a football on a sixpence and it served him well. Perhaps he should be looking to join another team next season where the Coaches have a bit more faith in him.
June 22, 2017 at 4:13 pm #1497269999 – Similar to that I used to play with a player called Julian Capone, played Luton, Arsenal, and Spurs at youth level, and never made it in the game yet a player he used to make look stupid on the pitch all through school ended up Captain for Everton for a while, that was Matt Jackson, funny how things turn out.
June 23, 2017 at 10:49 am #1497468Most of the up and coming players from all over are off an ethnic ancestry even though they were mainly all born and bred in Europe. You rarely see or hear off a Caucasian prospect nowadays.
June 23, 2017 at 8:28 pm #1497714Watched Portugal vs Spain under 21s, the football was immense.
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