Ange Postecoglou reveals that Australia has lost its reputation as a talent factory for Europe

Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou has revealed that Australia has lost its reputation as a talent factory for Europe, after returning from his scouting mission.

Few European football types knew his current crop of Socceroos, instead referring to the mainly retired golden generation.

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Postecoglou has been vocal in calling for A-League expansion to unlock the senior bottleneck for young players.

The Socceroos, who have a challenge to qualify for their fourth straight FIFA World Cup, are a team regarded as greater than the sum of their parts and Postecoglou hoped positive results could help change perceptions.

“We’ve got limited opportunities here but there’s also limited opportunities overseas for young players now as well,’’ Postecoglou said.

“Unfortunately we’ve lost a little bit of our standing as a developer of talent.

Being over in Europe now, we don’t register on our radar as much as we used to.

“There reference points are still (Mark) Viduka, (Harry) Kewell, (Mark) Bresciano, (Mark) Schwarzer, (Vince) Grella. Apart from Aaron (Mooy) making some waves, again that’s in the Championship, we don’t register that highly for them to say ‘let’s have a close look at Australian players’ and potentially open some doors up that way.


Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell were known globally.
“We’re in a difficult spot where the well is drying up on both sides, domestically and internationally. It’s really about opportunities and how we can open doors up.

“Maybe if we can make an impact at national team level, if that’s at a World Cup or a Confederations Cup, that might raise the heads of people from around the world who might start looking at us a little more closely as a league and as a nation as developers of talent but at the moment neither is happening.’’

While Dylan Pierias, 16, last week became the first millennial-born kid to play in the A-League, he is an exception.

Postecoglou said youngsters can’t afford to make mistakes in the cut-throat 10-team A-League, compared to the National Soccer League which usually had 14 Australian teams.


Aaron Mooy has impressed for Huddersfield in the English Championship. Picture: Getty Images
“There aren’t that many actually playing,’’ he said.

“The ones that do get a regular game, unfortunately because of the limited opportunities, they don’t get a chance to make mistakes, mature and blossom into the players that they could potentially be.

“Usually if they make mistakes, in our league because of the limited number of spots, they miss out the following week.

“Somebody like a (Brandon) Borello is beginning to mature now. Brisbane have persisted with him, coped with his inconsistencies and still given him fairly regular game time.

“He seems to be coming along quite well, the issue is we don’t have too many at this stage.”

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/socceroos/ange-postecoglou-reveals-that-australia-has-lost-its-reputation-as-a-talent-factory-for-europe/news-story/8982b175caf506ddf13cc28b25e096ee

Yeah well maybe the reasoj we get limited opportunities because Australia just is not good at football right now anymore. Literally our best club player plays in the second division in England. Not even in the top 5. We only have one player playing in the top 5 leagues reguarly and Leckie plays for a relegatin battling club
Even if a player makes one mistake which is rare epif they are good. If your good enough your gonna play for the top leagues regardless.

More of a case that older players and average shit players play week in week out in the league and the up and coming talent doesn't get a look in.

We have hit a point where average players are comfortable to play in the league with decent money and don't ever progress.

It's suicide to the national team

This, expansion, second division and transfers will be a revolution.
Why can't we ask some Chinese guy to fund our second division, unlike Portugal, we will play your Chinese players.

Its true the production line has dried up, from tom byer to ange everyone has a different opinion as to why its been the case.

No need to panic, we just solid leadership and good planning from the grassroots to the FFA and we can make our way back again...one day.

What are u reffering to
The first paragrsph are u talking about the A-league
And the second paragraph about or socceroos players?
A big factor is they cant make it to the big time where they can get paid alot so instead they choose to play in the csl or the gulf where they can still earn nearly as much as 'the big time' without having to be of such a level

opportunity breeds success. you wanna get better at playing at a higher level, you need to be playing at that higher level. simples.

And if we aren't a factory for Europe? Who gives a fuck. Europe is not some Mecca for football, not anymore. Fuck it. That's what we have a national league. Need to stop being obsessed with what others think and do our own thing. Player A playing for Melbourne city is just as good as player a playing for Manchester city, it's the perception of narrow minded sheep that is different.

The institution of the cirriculum has stuffed the development of creative footballers.
Time to ditch the Dutch idiocy that they themselves dropped 3 years ago.

We need the NYL to be a full home and away season.
We need a-League benches to allow 7 with the additional optional 2 spots reserved for youth players (u23)

Doing our own thing at the moment means drawing with the likes of Thailand and not qualifying for any youth tournaments.

Not even in the same universe as the top international teams.

We have one decent player playing well. We need 10 or 15 more at the same level to compete. 
Not to mention my biggest annoyance that there are not many young players being developed in the league.

The likes of Jade North getting another contract is a perfect example. Yes he is good for the league but he is denying an up and comer a spot.
Only in the shittest leagues in the world does this happen. 

@paul01

FFA don't want to pay to fly extra players around the country and have them stay in hotels.

Im sorry but how could you blame the NC when its only been around for a few years, too early to judge its impact, i was a bit skeptical of it recently but after talking to a couple of coaches who in a SAP team they would disagree with you.
And like anything its a document not a bible which means it will evolve from time to time it might have confused a lot of people.

From what i see coaching is still the problem many are coming to grips of it and what's its purpose is(there are some apparently don't do it properly), and at the same time kids these days don't practice outside of training which doesnt help either.

Ange has made 2 pretty big excuses in recent media. Pretty sure he's already bailed on Socceroos qualification lol

Not a mecca for salaries but by playing standards yes it's still Europe. The more things change the more they stay the same. If you're not in England, Germany, Spain, France then you're nowhere near it.

Huh? He is still undefeated

In all our history, we have only ever produced Kewell & Viduka once each.

Go back to the golden generation period look how many of the more physical playing countries England, Scotland, Australia & see how many playing in the top 5 leagues, now look again & you don't see the qtys as large & in England's case, very few stars. The Top leagues are covered by Europeans,Sth Americans, Eastern Europeans & Africans that were not around in the quantity in the days of Slater, Cahill, Emerton, Neill & Grella.

I'm also going to suggest contributory negligence on the behalf of young players (and their agents) - how many times have young players broken into an A-League first team squad, played two good games and then buggered off to obscurity in Europe? Pasquali (2 games) and Deng (13 games) for the Vuck. Yeboah (12 games) at the Roar - these young players have broken in and then made the decision to spurn that opportunity to go to Europe. Contrast that to Viduka (48 games), Bresciano (28 games), Emerton (94 games) and Schwarzer (58 games) who all spent significant time in the domestic league before leaving for overseas.

More opportunities for players are great, but you can't blame managers for being reluctant about young talent being played before having them locked down on long-term contracts.

null player a for melbourne city is as good as player a for manchester city?
That's is the dumbest thing i have heard in a while. So your saying melbourne city have players as good as Jesus, Aguero, Toure etc?
Wow

The institution of the curriculum has focused on creating creative players.

One big issue is the full home and away season of the NYL, as you suggest. We need more  HAL teams.

I don't think it is a problem that Oz teams are considered greater as a team unit than the individuals that comprise those parts.

It demonstrates excellent coaching, teamwork and tactical nous. This validates the European powerhouse current coach education now offered in Australia.

This year I've been able to see a lot more football overseas on BEIN.

It is disappointing we have few players good enough for the big five in Europe, Portugal, Brazil and Argentina. The best we can do outside those leagues is probably Holland, Belgium and Denmark.

A point well made.

Most of our supposed GG played losing World Cup qualifying football.

I am seeing this more as excuses for failing to qualify. Ange has been selecting favourite not players in form. Allowing players to go to the middle east and China to play in for the Roos.

Anyway more teams are a must through expansion followed by pro rel. The cap floor must go. Need more games in a season so you forced to rotate your squad.

I'm pretty sure all over youth teams play in the NPL. Playing in the NPL> youth league game.

Except for when they did qualify. Even when they didn't qualify, they did a decent job in the most testing of circumstances (at least against Uruguay). How often did Uruguay used to lose at home against Brazil and Argentina?

And, of course, the qualification pathway involved playing some of the worst sides in the world then suddenly needing to beat the trickiest sides in the world. That can be expected to mess with any football side.

Against Iran, they choked. But I know what it's like to choke in sport. Things that mess with your rhythm happen to the best in all sports. And it's uncanny how much it can unseat you.

robbos, I think the general standard of football (across the world) has lifted. But it looks horribly like we've gone backwards some way while the rest of the world has gone forwards.

totally agree. the climate has changed and pathways have changed considerably. but peoples attitudes haven't and most think that going to Europe is the only way to succeed. If the current Socceroos team as good as the 2006 team? no way, but is the depth behind them better? I would argue yes. we're just crying our for a decent finisher (and perhaps a system that suits our team).

He is always tries to regenerate.

Players like Brosque and Santalab are scoring goals, but are too old for Ange's criteria of looking forwards to the future and constant regeneration.

He does appear to have favourites though.

Pretty much this. The Pasquali deal is turning out to be a bit of a farce, late February and he still doesn't have a work permit. Kid has gone from starting to play regularly with a first team outfit to only being able to train with a bunch of kids at a critical juncture of his development. Ridiculously bad management.

got to get more teams (with quality coaches and setups) to get youth on the pitch,  However fans will protest how it has lowered the standards CCM and Jets have very young rosters and have struggled in past seasons and people complain so you can't win.  

Is there a way to structure the salary cap so that starting youth players has an incentive - just a thought but you could  have a system where you can pay 4 youth players under 21 up to $200K out of the cap provided they start 10+ matches a season.  if every club had 4 youth stars getting guaranteed matches it would surely be a good thing.

Look at roar on saturday,  because of their scheule and injuries lately they have been forced to throw some you in,  and those players haven't disappointed.

Problem is once it settles down they will all disappear again..  

Any youth that get regular matches are seen as amazing and quickly get snapped up over seas (mauk, Gersbach, jeggo, mabil etc)

I totally agree that thew standard of football (across the world) has lifted. But I don't see that we have gone backwards, We were unfortunately already behind the blackball, the standard of fitness has gone thru the roof & those countries (Sth America, Balkans, Southern Europe) where skills were already highly regarded benifited, suddenly countries where there physical abilities were more highly regarded like England, Scotland & Australia, fell behind.
If one looks back to the peak of the golden generation 2007 Asian cup in that heat, we failed because we weren't able to exert our normal physical dominance.
However, I do not recall ever having 3 central midfielders of the quality of Luongo Mooy & Rogic ever in Australian football, shame we don't have a Kewell & Viduka to take advantage.

100%.

Pasquali would be a first team regular by now. Even pushing for socceroos squads. Now he's fu-cking nowhere, what a complete fool. 

Imagine how much better Burns would be if he wasn't so stupid to make the career moves he has. 

What about Taggart, just wasting 2 years doing nothing. Would be first choice socceroos striker if he stayed in Oz. 

Not a mecca for salaries? 

Salaries are the only reason we think europe is so great.