| Sir
Trevor Brooking says the English game needs a coaching revolution
to stop it lagging behind the rest of the world.
By Jamie Shore
27 Feb, 2008
Soccer International
It is Spring 2007 and Alfie Apps, who makes a living unearthing
Premiership footballers, is watching a coaching session for 15-
and
16-year-olds at PSV Eindhoven's training complex in the Dutch countryside.
While watching the youngsters Apps, who spends more than 200 hours
each year flying around the Continent in the hope of discovering
'the Thierry Henry of tomorrow today', is struck for the umpteenth
time how the coaching philosophy in Dutch youth football contrasts
with England's.
'The difference is immense,' says Apps, who is European scout for
West Ham and, for former employees Aston Villa, discovered Gareth
Barry, Jlloyd
Samuel, Liam Ridgewell and Thomas Hitzelberger. 'The kids at PSV
were
having fun. That's what we should do here, just let them play football.
'In England our clubs put so much money into it and they only want
the
best, and they want it now. The problem in the UK is that if players
are
not deemed to "have it" at 18 we discard them, we basically
say they're
not strong enough. There's too much emphasis on strength. On the
Continent they persist with players until they are 22. That's when
English clubs often pick them up.'
Dropping them too early is not the only problem. What they are taught
is
also a cause for concern. Brazil continues to produce a ceaseless
line of
top-class players and one of them who lit up the Premiership, Juninho,
said this after watching an FA youth coaching session in England:
'This is
a load of rubbish. It's like learning to swim on dry land.'
Juninho is not alone in expressing such a view. English coaching
is seen
by many outsiders as backward and the clubs appear to be increasingly
unwilling to invest in local talent at their youth set-ups.
Liverpool have forged a link with the Hungarian club MTK Budapest
and
signed two of their teenagers, Krisztian Nemeth and Andras Simon,
last
month. 'Hungary,' says Apps, is 'one of the emerging nations for
talent.'
Others include Poland, which has six teenagers on the books of Premier
League academies. There are also five Germans, four each from Australia
and Austria and 24 other countries are represented. The number of
non-British youth players at Premier League clubs this summer is
66 and it
is growing all the time. At least two clubs have set up scouting
operations in India and Arsenal have an academy in Africa.
The coaching structure and growing number of foreign teenagers pose
an
enormous threat to the wellbeing of English football, according
to the man
whose responsibility is to safeguard its future.
'While there might be an issue now with English players managing
to make the starting XI in Premiership matches, says Sir Trevor
Brooking, the FA's director of football development, 'in five years'
time we are going to
have a far more serious problem: can our English youngsters even
get into the academies at Premiership clubs? 'It's a challenge that
everyone has to face up to.'
So far, Brooking believes, they are not facing up to it. The professional
clubs do not want to be told by the FA how to run their coaching
schemes
and spend the money they invest in future talent. And even within
the FA,
Brooking does not have total support from the top.
In 15 years of the Premier League, the number of overseas first-team
players has increased by nearly seven-fold. A similar trend at the
academies - set up a decade ago to provide elite coaching for talented
youngsters - is what prompts Brooking to warn of dire consequences
within five years.
Officially, young foreign players can only become attached to a
Premier
League club at 16 and can sign professional forms a year later,
though
they might be offered a scholarship at 14. Brooking's chief concern
is
that by the time elite English players reach that age they are way
behind
their overseas counterparts, which is why so many clubs employ men
such as Alfie Apps to scour the world for talent.
The coaching of boys, from when they first start playing, aged
five or six, at grassroots level, right through to tuition at Premier
League clubs, is inadequate, Brooking believes.
Cesc Fabregas, tutored at Barcelona but brought to Arsenal as a
15-year-old, is one example Brooking mentions of a foreign player
whose
early coaching gave him an advantage over English players.
He has backing from Sam Allardyce. 'We don't grow top sportsmen
from a
young age,' says Newcastle's new manager, who believes the government
should help with funding. 'Football cannot be expected to develop
players from six years old, as it is, without proper quality identification
programmes and ways of schooling young people of promise through
the early ages to develop their talent. Until we get those basics
in place our chances of breeding a World Cup-winning side are as
remote as our chances of breeding an English Wimbledon champion.'
Ten days ago Brooking was at Wembley to launch such a skills initiative
-
one that specifically targets a million young players aged five
to 11.
This, according to experts, is the age range when children are best
able
to learn vital skills and practices that will last a lifetime.
The new scheme places 66 coaches in nine regions throughout the
country and its objective is to raise standards in the general attributes
of
agility, balance and co-ordination. Brooking has placed a further
coach in
all the regions whose role is to improve the standard of youth coaching.
These are the first moves in what he wants for the professional
game -
better coaches better able to guide the cream of young players,
who will
focus on a technique-based, touch-and-pass game.
'We have to integrate to raise the bar at grassroots level,' says
Brooking. 'If we're doing that we'll do it at the top level. That's
why
multi-skills are the starting point for every youngster. We want
to look
at agility, balance and co-ordination, then try to identify the
ones who
can become football specific. From those in the five-to-11 age range
we
can get the best, who should go into an elite programme.
'Only a small percentage of clubs - Manchester United is an obvious
example - have full-time coaches working with the five to 11s. Most
of the
other staff working with five to 11s at clubs are working for expenses
only, or just being paid for a session here and there. It's not
specialised coaching and that's the area I believe we've got to
invest
in.'
He wants more resources directed at the five to 11s and for coaching
to
'be age appropriate', with new qualifications introduced for youth
coaching. He wants the coaching philosophy to shift, bringing England
in
line with the way the game is approached in mainland Europe, Africa
and
South America. There is also talk of strict tests to ensure standards
are
met and maintained.
Brooking's on-field challenge is to oversee a new philosophy, to
ditch the
endemic English style of play that lacks subtlety and technique
and has
taken a stranglehold on football from grassroots to international
level,
where England have won nothing for more than 40 years. 'Clubs have
scouting networks all over Europe and the world,' he says. 'And
the
funding to bring young players here. To be honest, I don't blame
them. At
the moment children join their academies at nine. We should target
them
before that and ensure that they have already encountered a far
better
quality of coaches.
'We also need to change what is being coached. Let's have more small-sided
games so that they have more ball time. Let's allow them to have
fun, take away the importance of winning and stop the young players
being afraid of making mistakes. Concentrate on first touch and
technique, allow that a short pass can often be more of a killer
ball than the big hoof up to the centre-forward. And any parents
who are too enthusiastic should, as a last resort, be removed.
'If we don't do all these things then even the kids identified as
elite,
when they join academies at nine, will still be starting behind
[players
in other countries]. By the time they are competing at 16 with a
foreign
youngster they have even less chance of being taken on.'
Brooking's determination to revolutionise English football is supported
by
a wide range of stakeholders in the game who spoke to Observer Sport,
including coaches in academies and those in charge of football strategy
at
several Premier League clubs.
'The quality of our academy is top class,' one director says. 'But
if the
game continues this way then sure we'll produce World Cup winners,
but
they won't be English.'
When Juninho, who won the 2002 World Cup with Brazil, offered his
'load of rubbish' verdict on English youth coaching he had a supporter
in Simon
Clifford. The owner of Brazilian Soccer Schools, which coaches more
than a
million children in 61 countries, is a big fan of Futebol de Salao,
a
version of football favoured by Juninho and played by boys and girls
in
Brazil with a smaller, heavier ball.
'It compels you to play and even think in a particular way,' Clifford
says. 'You've got no option, you have to quickly pass short, support
the
pass and find gaps. Spaces are so tight, you haven't got a long-ball
option out of anything. Brazilian kids have learned the game in
this way
for years and not surprisingly find it so much easier when they
step up to
the bigger pitch and lighter ball.'
Clifford, who was appointed head of sports science at Southampton
by Sir
Clive Woodward when the rugby guru switched to football, encountered
resistance to his ideas at St Mary's from the older school of coaches,
among them Dave Bassett, then assistant to manager Harry Redknapp.
He left the club in November 2005. Officially he resigned, though
there were rumours that the 36-year-old had been sacked following
his claim that professional footballers do not train enough.
Clifford underlines, broadly, Brooking's views on focusing on the
five-to-11 age range, but would go even further. His company has
a
programme, Socatots, for infants from six months to five years old.
'My
personal take is that if we can get ages nought to 12 right then
the rest
will pretty much take care of itself,' he says. 'Make our own raw
material
better in terms of instinctive skill and attitude, things that can
be
coached and trained, and let the rest of the world try to keep up.'
He supports Brooking's view that young players should not play
11 against 11 too early, and notes that Juninho did not kick a size-5
football until he was 14. 'There's a lot of rubbish talked about
Brazilian football - you know, that they're so good because they
play in the streets or on the
beach. OK, maybe they do, but you see kids in this country playing
in the
parks and that isn't why we play the way we do. Brazil are light
years
ahead.'
After defeating England in the semi-final of last month's European
Under-21 Championships in an epic penalty shoot-out, Holland went
on to
retain their title with a 4-1 defeat of Serbia. Since England won
their
only World Cup 41 years ago, the senior Dutch side have appeared
in two
World Cup finals, won the 1988 European Championship and produced
numerous world-class players including former world player of the
year, Marco van Basten.
How? 'Dutch soccer is based on technique and tactics which we believe
is
important for a player's professional career, the fortunes of our
clubs
and the international team,' says Peter Jeltema, head of youth coaching
at
Groningen FC, the club that sold Arjen Robben to Chelsea for £12m.
He then echoes the views of many who can see problems on the parks
and recreation grounds around England. 'It's also really important
they have fun. And we allow them to display their individual qualities.
Arjen was a very special talent and when I see him playing for Chelsea
it is as the same player who used to cycle here to be coached at
the club when he was 13.'
Winning seems to be more important than fun in England. One of the
grassroots coaches Observer Sport talked to, who also works at two
centres of excellence at clubs in southern England, explains the
problem.
'Before they reach the centres, they can already have bad habits,'
he
says. 'I've seen players who individually are good, but in their
Sunday
league teams it's all about winning, and they're scared to make
mistakes.
When a match situation demands of them skills they're comfortable
with in
training, I've seen technically gifted kids of nine through to 11
who'd
rather kick the ball away because they have a bloke on the touchline
screaming at them.'
But if coaching of primary school-age children is such a problem,
how come
Africa produces so many good players with far fewer resources than
England? They would have barely any coaching in that age range.
Here is
the view of a highly qualified youth coach who works at a Premier
League
club and also has experience of teaching boys in Namibia. 'It's
surprising
how the kids there are so adept and have confidence, ability,
decision-making and fluency that the children I might coach in England
do
not.
'The only conclusion my colleagues and I have come up with for this
is
that they're not as bothered about making mistakes. Maybe we coach
them a little too much in this country and don't allow kids to come
up with their own solutions. We don't let them trust their instincts.'
Whatever Brooking might think, he will struggle to implement change
in the current structure of English football.
Following discussions 15 months ago, 50 coaches from the FA, the
Premier
League and Football League agreed that the FA Charter for Quality
- drawn up in 1997 and the basis for youth coaching policy in England
- should further address the section that states 'elite young players
require a development process to protect and nurture their special
talents.'
There was a general consensus that there should be 'a stronger quality
of
coaching throughout' and some at the FA were unhappy with standards
at
professional club academies. Neither the Premier League nor the
Football
League would accept any criticism, however.
'The leagues are getting increasingly tired of being blamed by voices
within the FA on youth development issues,' said a spokesman at
the
Football League. 'The majority of money spent in this area comes
from
professional clubs, not the Football Association.'
The Premier League's response was: 'We are not surprised, but a
more than a little disappointed that the FA is briefing this kind
of stuff in
advance of the Lewis review into youth development especially given
all
three football authorities signed up and contributed to the process.'
In
other words: shut up Trevor Brooking, and get off our backs.
The Lewis report is a review of elite youth development carried
out by
Richard Lewis, chief executive of the Rugby Football League. His
independent report was commissioned by the FA and Premier League
chief executives - who, it is understood, are aware of its headline
findings - and is due for publication this summer.
Brooking would never criticise his boss in public, but he was disappointed
that the review was carried out by 'a non-football person' and must
have
been galled that Brian Barwick, the FA chief executive, sided with
the
professional clubs in signing up to the report. 'The leagues are
often
working against the governing body,' Brooking says. 'I'd like the
FA to
have more control over youth development. But it isn't easy.'
'The issue as we see it is this: should the two leagues prevent
the
governing body trying to improve the long-term future of the game?
Obviously our answer is no.' That is the view of one senior source
at the
FA, outside the chief executive's office, who adds, 'Once the Richard
Lewis report arrives then we've got to have a sea change in policy.'
Will there be a sea change in clubs' recruitment policy to go with
it?
Hardly likely, says West Ham's Apps. 'Put simply,' he says, 'it
is cheaper
to buy from abroad than here.
'The general level of compensation set by the Premier League to
buy a
[young] player from a club who has been an international in his
age group
is around £400,000. In Europe it usually less than a quarter of
that,
about €120,000 [£85,000].
'Also, some of the lesser clubs, certainly those outside the Premiership,
take the £138,000 grant given to them [for youth development] by
the FA
and Premier League to spend specifically on academies but use it
for their
first teams. I can name a few where the money goes nowhere near
the youth set up.'
If that does not change soon, Trevor Brooking could be fighting
a losing
battle. He can only win it, he believes, by addressing a worrying
culture
of inactivity among the youngest. 'The sad fact is that some of
the
quality of introduction into physical activity these days is not
good.
It's reckoned nearly half of 11-year-olds leaving primary school
are
physically illiterate. So if we can get good quality coaches working
with
the five to 11s, my belief is that at 11 most youngsters should
have the
first touch, the ball manipulation and individual skill in place.
It's
pretty evident a lot of youngsters haven't.
'Next month we should have a sponsor to get some full-time people
and
regional people in to work with those age groups. In other countries
you
get top-quality coaches encouraged to stay full-time in that age
group.
Here you work your way through the age groups and think you have
to be in the 16-plus group to earn any money. By then coaches are
working with damaged goods, players who are simply not good enough.'
Five years to make a difference, and the clock is ticking.
Jamie Shore
Director
For and on behalf of Soccer International
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