Numbers that shame the English game and inhibit the development of talent
FA chairman Greg Dyke aims to shake up system with 'radical' recommendations for future and will list some damning statistics when presenting his commission’s findings
By Henry Winter
11:00PM BST 05 May 2014
Of all the numbers that Greg Dyke will throw at the Football Association board on Wednesday when he delivers his commission’s findings into the problems inhibiting the development of English talent, two incriminate English football most: 106 and 16,000.
The first damning figure, 106, is the number of full-time skills coaches working with the key 5-11 age group, the period that Dennis Bergkamp calls the “golden years of learning”.
Only 106, not enough for London, let alone the whole country. The second alarmingly low number, 16,000, is the amount of pounds a youth coach is paid, according to Sir Trevor Brooking, the FA’s director of football development.
Dyke’s organisation has worked to increase the number of skills coaches, and the gleaming coaching hub at St George’s Park has been a boon, but 10 times as many are required.
The wages of those involved from grass-roots to clubs in enhancing youngsters’ promise must be increased, keeping the best tracksuited teachers. Coaching is good at most academies but the early years are vital in helping nurture the core techniques such as trapping the ball, turning in possession, passing, shooting et al.
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Roberto Martínez, Everton’s enlightened coach, has been talking of turning Leighton Baines into Philipp Lahm, a full-back at ease in central midfield. For all his abilities, Baines is too one-footed in comparison with the versatile German.
Baines is not alone; England have too few two-footed players. The World Cup finals will doubtless show the excruciating sight of an English player shifting the ball laboriously on to his favoured foot. Some mobile talents are emerging, the likes of Ross Barkley and Adam Lallana, who can switch to either foot but not enough.
The problem runs deep, having its roots in the 5-11 group, yet Dyke’s commission has been focusing more on the roadblock for 18-21s; if they had even more skills, acquired before the teenage years, they would have more chance of racing along the pathway to the first team.
Encouragingly, Dyke promises “radical” recommendations and anyone who has spent any time in his company recently is aware of his desire to shake up the English system. He wants to make a lasting, positive impact during his time as chairman and is not worried about upsetting established interests, including the Premier League and also the recidivists still found in the counties.
One grass-roots league held a long, frankly laughable dialogue with an outraged FA about its desire to spend almost more on end-of-season medals and trophies than coaches.
Dyke has consulted many in the game and some outside. He has had a team of researchers processing all the evidence, all the ideas and all the numbers, including 106 and 16,000.
Dyke has examined the loan system, a winter break, quotas, work-permit regulations, feeder clubs and 3G pitches but the overwhelming need is for even more investment in skills coaches for schoolchildren.
While Dyke addresses the FA board, Cambridge United’s director of football Jez George continues his trek across the country, walking 26 marathons in 26 days, taking in 18 Premier League stadiums, to raise £200,000 for Cambridge United’s Community Trust.
Cambridge have some good kids, its 9-16-year-olds playing against Chelsea and Manchester City, but receive no funding from the authorities. Imagine how they would benefit from more coaches, trained-up graduates from St George’s Park.
As well as investing in coaches, further funding of grass-roots facilities is important. When Ashley Cole skied a shot into the Shed on Sunday, some onlookers reminisced about his prolific early years, as a schoolboy striker with Puma FC, scoring 100 goals and more a season against defenders of the calibre of Ledley King and John Terry, who were playing for Senrab. The formative days of Cole, King and Terry were spent on Wanstead Flats, a stretch of modest playing fields at the foot of the M11.
As elsewhere, kids growing up in that area of East London now need more pitches, better pitches and more coaches. Sport England’s decision to cut its grant to the FA’s grass-roots work was spectacularly ill advised; the FA, a non-profit-making body, lacks the huge revenues of the Premier League.
But those at the FA who pursued the £757 million rebuilding of Wembley, when the game was crying out for money spent on coaches, should hang their heads in shame. English football does not need a national home, not with so many fine club grounds. The England team belong to the nation, not just to those with Oyster cards.
On a positive note, the FA envisages Wembley being 3G one day, allowing even more events on it, an important consideration given outstanding bills to pay. Dyke is a fan of 3G which is particularly the future in grass-roots leagues bedevilled by inclement weather and also permitting more coaching sessions. Skills sessions.
The commission has analysed quotas on European players, which are difficult under EU law. It has pondered feeder clubs, which would cause outrage among Football League fans. “The backlash would be absolutely huge,’’ a representative of the Football Supporters’ Federation told Dyke’s commission.
Improving the loan system has been scrutinised by Dyke and his commissioners. Its usefulness is widely accepted with almost half of those likely to make up Roy Hodgson’s World Cup 23, including the likes of Daniel Sturridge (loan to Bolton Wanderers), Jack Wilshere (Bolton), Gary Cahill (Sheffield United and Burnley), Jordan Henderson (Coventry City), Joe Hart (notably Birmingham City) and Danny Welbeck (Preston and Sunderland) have benefited from spells away from their parent clubs.
Dyke needs to iron out the anomaly of loanees not being able to face their parent club, something Uefa stamped down on in the Champions League with Thibaut Courtois. Atlético Madrid’s keeper hardly eased up against Chelsea.
A winter break would be an advancement, bringing England more in line with more sophisticated footballing countries, ensuring players are not beset by niggles as the season progresses.
The obvious time for the Premier League to draw breath would be between the third and fourth rounds of the FA Cup with the stipulation of no exhibition games. Replays would have to go, sadly.
Dyke has considered tightening up work permits to reduce the number of average overseas players coming in, easing the pathway to the first team for home-grown talent.
The Premier League will try to head off criticism with its glitzy, televised Under-23 league for Category One Academies. The success of Southampton’s Academy will feature in Dyke’s report. As will numbers 106 and 16,000.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/news/10809569/Numbers-that-shame-the-English-game-and-inhibit-the-development-of-talent.html