English Football: Dying?

It's quite clear a lot of effort has gone into getting our Olympic competitors into top shame and in contention for medals. I've no exact figures but I suspect a huge amount of money has been thrown at it. Whether it's worth it is another story, but there's no doubt we are a strong nation in several Olympic fields.

However, English football has also thrown a lot of money at youth devlopment yet we still cannot produce players with even basic skills. The GB Team were knocked out of the Olympics last night with nothing but a whimper, and like the senior team a few weeks earlier, proved beyond doubt that they cannot pass or keep possession.

A young Spurs player by the name of Danny Rose summed up everything wrong with English football last night. He came on as sub and looked about as happy at playing as he would if he was forced to dip his knob into a vat of acid. His first touch? A pass straight to a South Korean player. His second touch? Got caught in possession. This useless bastard earns £15k per week.

So who is to blame? Is it that knobber Trevor Brooking who keeps telling us English football is in good shape? Is it the schools who are more interested in maths & english than producing footballers with basic skills? Do the clubs take any of the blame, after all, many of these players have come through the youth ranks - what are the club doing if they can't teach a player to pass inside 5 years?

And finally, are the fans to blame? Are we more interested how sexy football looks on TV than actually watching a game with decent passing? As long as Danny Rose looks good in a Spurs or England top does anyone really care?

It was rather embarrasing to be out-passed by South Korea. I don't know when we stopped being able to pass and keep hold of the ball, but it needs to be addressed immediately.

Well we need only look at our own club for an example of a complete and utter lack of basic skills.

The inability to pass and move to ANY standard is actually embarrassing.

We've seen a few "good moves" under Coyle, maybe 1 or 2 a season but the emphasis is on panic, lack of composure and a complete and utter lack of football IQ.

I'm not really bothered about the England team, but it makes me sad to see Bolton going the same way.

We don't do the work at grass roots level that the other nations do. South Korea were favourites to win on penalties because they produce technically better footballers, despite only competing at a serious level of football since the 1980s. Technically better players take better penalty kicks.

How we identify and train youngsters from as young as 5 and 6 needs a complete overhaul and even if that process starts tomorrow, it will be a generation before we see any reward. Our kids are taught to win at all costs. They are goaded on the touchline to "get stuck in" by snarling, idiotic parents with thermos and hip flasks. Only recently has some bright spark at the FA realised that young kids shouldn't be playing on full sized pitches.

The other major damage has been done by the domination of foreign players in English football. I'm not talking about Bergkamp and Zola, I'm talking about mediocre players who have landed in the PL from abroad because there are only so many decent English players to go around and a decent overseas player is cheaper to sign and pay, It started getting out of hand in the mid 1990s and now the vast majority of PL clubs have a majority of foreign players in their starting eleven.

A player like Daniel Sturridge is a perfect example of the damage this does. He can't get a game at Man City, so he goes to Chelsea. He's a good player so he wants to play for a top club and earn the good money. But he can't get a game in his natural position. This is replicated up and down the country at all levels of the game but most importantly English youngsters are denied competitive game time and they are sacrificed at the altar of short term results at club level. The clubs pull the strings in world football - they hold all the aces.

worth a watch, wish my sons U11 team could have passed and kept ball like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ue9nr51SYU