The Bloemfontein time bomb
29/06/2010 3:56 PM

When the anger and disappointment has subsided and yet another debate over video technology has run its course, English football will sift through the wreckage of South Africa 2010 and discover it was a calamity waiting to happen.

It is too easy just to say England was not good enough. That manager Fabio Capello got it all wrong. That England's players were not up to scratch.

All of which were true during a tournament in which England displayed delusions of astounding magnitude.


Quite what England - that's the players, the manager, the back-room staff, the whole bloated entourage - see when they witness how the top nations go about their football is a mystery.

Do they not see the vitality of Argentina, the craft of Spain, the diligence and style of Brazil, the cohesion and fluidity of Germany?

The fact is the rest of the elite world are playing a brand of football with which England is no longer familiar.

Football played at pace, with breathtaking movement. Football of vision.

By contrast, England is stuck in the past. Evidence its only goal against Germany, a cross swung in by Steven Gerrard, met by a header from a big central defender in a packed penalty area. Yes, it works on occasion when a goalkeeper's flaws are exposed, but it is old-fashioned, static, football by numbers.

England must accept it needs to drag its game kicking and screaming into the new generation, where technical efficiency is paramount and passion no substitute for talent.

But England's demise goes deeper. Studied one by one, England does have players who should be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the best.

They do so every week. Frank Lampard and John Terry are the key components of a Chelsea side which has won three Premier League titles and regularly reaches the business end of the Champions League. Ashley Cole is generally regarded as the world's best left-back. Steven Gerrard won a Champions League final virtually single-handed with Liverpool in 2005 and has carried that club for more a decade, while Wayne Rooney scored 34 goals in 44 matches for Manchester United last season when he won English football's Player of the Year title by a distance.

These are not bad players. So what has conspired to make them look like has-beens at a World Cup which, along with the thrills and goal surge of the past week, has had its fair share of average sides?

It is a complex cocktail.

It begins with the monster which is the Premier League. Yes, it may be a hoary old chestnut but you cannot get away from it. The obsession with foreign talent has squeezed England's supply line. Former England manager Kevin Keegan warned of it before the turn of the millennium when he said future managers would be forced to pick players from the lower rungs of the Football League ladder.

That has not happened yet, but it is getting there. England's squad is increasingly shallow in genuine talent, hence Capello's last-ditch plea to Paul Scholes and Jamie Carragher to reconsider their retirements.

Another former England manager, Graham Taylor, opined last week that English players these days see club above country and few would disagree with that following the mutinous noises which have emanated from the England camp.

But that only scratches the surface of England's problems, which start with the unseemly pursuit of obscene riches in a league which has its players turning out three times a week on occasions to fulfil a senseless fixture schedule in four separate competitions.

No wonder key men such as Gerrard and Rooney look wonderful in the winter but on their knees come summer.

It does not stop there. England's footballing demise includes the fiasco of Wembley, a fine piece of architecture but a one billion pound folly with a pitch fit for walking your dog on and not much else.

Most of all, it includes the non-delivery of the so-called school of excellence at Burton which the FA have prevaricated over for more than a decade and which was recast earlier this year as a centre to bring English managers up to the standard of their foreign counterparts.

If it was not so seriously flawed you would laugh. Instead it makes you want to weep.

Diego Maradona has not had a coaching lesson in his life. His World Cup journey might still go pear-shaped against Germany in the quarter-final on Saturday but his Argentine team have been a revelation, partly because he has supplied the rapport but mostly because the nation has invested in fine young players.

Young talent. Lots of it. Quick, intelligent. Hungry for glory. That is non-negotiable when it comes to delivering success.

Which brings us to the last labour government's lamentable decision to sell off school playing fields and take competitive sport off the agenda. We could go on.

Bloemfontein was not an aberration. It was the day a time bomb containing all England's footballing flaws and delusions exploded. The mushroom cloud could take decades to clear.


http://sportal.com.au/football-opinion-display/the-bloemfontein-time-bomb-93990

Lampard, Ashley Cole, Rooney are top class players. Gerrard too, but he had a so so season for his club & was played out of position for England. I don't think the others are.
If John Terry played at Southhampton he'd be nothing special. The foreign players around him at Chelsea make him look good.

Too many foreigners in the EPL.

I think the English media and public need to take some responsibility for the downfall of the English national team. They put SO much pressure on their clubs that the clubs are more interested in tracking OS talent than developing their own. Because that will bring a more immediate success. Most of the young talent in England have to go to Championship, or League 1 level to get game time. Or to lower level EPL clubs, but are still NOT playing Champions League. How many of the German youngsters experienced CL last season? Most, if not all.

I personally despise the EPL, theres so much i dislike about it, but the main reason is its destroying the English national team and its future. In a nut shell the EPL is destroying Englands youth and over rating any decent players. The examples.

How is the likes of Milner worth 25 mil in regards to over rating players?

But my biggest problem is the youth system. The 'big four' are pretty much buying players instead of blooding youth and and the very few young players from the academies that get a chance are foreigners ie Macheda

Out of Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United I challenge you to find me one player who play consistently, came up through the clubs OWN youth system and is considered a young gun. Theres no one.
At first you might say what about Rooney or Walcott? But they have been bought from other teams, not from the clubs own youth system.

Compare that with the 2 powerhouses of German and Spanish football, who have pretty much built there national teams success.

You have Bayern Munich and Barcalona who are the showcases of quality youth systems. Both teams are in a position where if they need a position filled in a team they are able to turn to there youth system for answers. These two clubs have players like Kroos, Muller, Badstuber, Pedro, Busquets etc. who are under 21 and playing for both the first teams on both national and domestic competitions.
Busquets and Muller have only been around for about a season or so and are already in the national teams starting XI.

That is what the EPL fails to do for the national team, and the scary thing is unless somthing is done and soon its gonna get even worse.

Indeed Felixx.

Just do the numbers, there's a clear equation - When Germany were playing Argentina the commentator mentioned how there were SEVEN Bayern Munich players in the German squad. That instantly reminded me of how there are EIGHT Barcelona players and FIVE from Real Madrid, within Spain's squad.

And also - The other great nations, Argentina and Brazil, maybe don't have most of their squads based domestically, but instead on the contrary, they export their best to the very best leagues which INCLUDES the EPL, but is NOT exclusively too that league - la Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga too etc.. are where many within the Argentine and Brazilian squads are based.

So not only do England's biggest, Champions League competing, clubs NOT promote their local talent, their wider football are NOT exporting their best talent to the other leagues either, either for reasons of supreme talent OR due to player initiative/seeking/getting first team offers in those leagues. I think the average, elite, English footballer not being as attractive a proposition for the Milan's, Madrid's and co compared to the Brazilians, Argentines etc... is certainly true to a fair degree, though it's not entirely true, the case, as certainly there would be enough who would/could be, IF more dared to venture to those leagues.

I mean, take guys like Glen Johnson, Joe Cole (Who's been linked with Milan recently), Theo Walcott etc... Those apparently exciting English talents in their early 20s, who have/did made the move to the bigger English clubs, but subsequently found their first team opportunities severely limited or far too inconsistent. Those sort of players in those sort of scenarios - there ARE the VERY ones who SHOULD be giving the other two big leagues a try, opening their horizons, taking on the venture - atleast get the feelers out there. Even IF the club may be a little smaller than a Chelsea or Arsenal, like a Villereal, Valencia, Sevilla, Roma, Sampdoria etc... even a Bayern perhaps?

It would actually lift their value at both club level and even international level alot, if they made such a move and then strung together a couple 40 game seasons, including CL appearances, where they otherwise may've only strung together 20-25 game seasons of mostly sub appearances and barely featuring in the CL, with an Arsenal or Chelsea, while the best years of their careers whither away. And internationally their standing could lift a heap, from being just squad players for England, to maybe supplanting that late 20/early 30 something, long cemented, but well tired, star from Liverpool or wherever (A guy they would've been backup to if they were in that team). Would lift the standards, intra NT squad competition immensely.

That may also function to put more pressure on the Chelsea's, Arsenal's and co when the English press and co see that those exported English stars are hitting it off in those rival leagues because some expensive foreigner, or two, plays their position at those clubs.

Would be ironic even, considering MANY of those foreigners in recent times are actually star players being bought up FROM those rival leagues, including many Spanish stars.

And in saying all that, I found it a great shame that one of the rare exports, Michael Owen (to Real Madrid) did NOT hit it off in his spell there and retreated back to England for another big money move. I know fitness was always an issue, but his returning back to the EPL always seemed inevitable, even when he got there.

Edited by GloryPerth: 4/7/2010 09:37:31 PM

While I agree that plays a big part, it's a phenomenom that explains the last 10 years, not the last 45. Stan Collymore on TalkSport Radio got it right in the hours after the Germany loss. They don't value technique in their development of players, they want the biggest, strongest ones produce results straight away. They were out passed by Algeria.

When you have players like Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney, Cole, Terry, Ferdinand the question isn't quality. It's the type of players and style they play. How many could combine to play short pass and move to break down an 8 man defence, opposed to using their running, strength and long passing?

I would say the other thing is the mental pressure and expectation.


Edited by mulhollanddrive: 4/7/2010 10:29:33 PM

[quote=Felixx_17]

Out of Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United I challenge you to find me one player who play consistently, came up through the clubs OWN youth system and is considered a young gun. Theres no one.quote]

I agree with some points. And I will keep you posted on how the EPL goes this year if you dont watch it because you despise it so much lol. But as a Man United fan I may be looking through reg glasses, but you said no players come through the big four academies and play consitently? Just some names for you. Giggs, Scholes, Neville, Fletcher..when not injured O'shea and Wes Brown are hard to keep out of the side. You will say a few of them are not young guns any more. They either were and/or still at the top of the game or in the middle of their career and keeping the young ones out. As a family friend of Darron Gibson, I am praying he continues to do well and cements a place when Scholes hangs the boots up. Also Jonny Evans will be one of the best central defenders for years to come, just because he doesnt bang in goals, he isnt considered a "young gun" but he is absolute class. So I think its a little tough to say that no players have come through the academies and doesnt play consitently.

Man United do go out and spend money across the world like many other clubs. But they do have a fantastic youth set up at Carrington.

I know that not all these players are English. They are from across Great Britain and Ireland. But they have been at the academies since they were kids and are considered local lads. If it wasnt a World Cup year with England doing poorly, people wouldnt be talking about it, just looking for excuses against English football.

Edited by simmo_1988: 4/7/2010 10:48:28 PM