This is what's wrong with football in this country

[Guest Knightrider]

Jose Mourinho's first XI beat Chelsea's youth team at Cobham this week but the youngsters did have a decent excuse. Some of the Academy's finest sent their apologies but were rather occupied elsewhere, starring for England in the Under-17s World Cup. Blue is increasingly the colour in many corners of young England dressing rooms.

 

During a week of frenzied headlines predicting everyone from Ronaldinho to Jermain Defoe turning up to work under Mourinho at Cobham, Chelsea have quietly been getting on with building for the future, nurturing players from the cradle to the gravy-train of the Premier League.

 

Chelsea have cut some controversial corners, with some aggressive recruiting of young players from other clubs, as Leeds United discovered. Now that their youth set-up is properly up and running, a sense of real pride suffuses their achievements in preparing players like Scott Sinclair for first-team action.

 

The talent factory is busy: 17 current Academy players have represented England at under-17s to under-21s, fulfilling the aim of Mourinho and Roman Abramovich to develop more John Terrys. On Thursday, five Chelsea players were called up by England Under-19s.

 

A visit to Cobham this week highlighted an ambition writ large in signs dotted around the training complex. "By 2014 we will be recognised as the world's No 1 football club,'' read one declaration. Another listed Chelsea's values: "Style, Unity, Integrity, Leadership, Excellence, Pride''. Another spoke of the Academy's overriding goal: "Our target is to get one established first-team player by 2010 and one a year after that.''

 

Aspiration is in the air at Cobham. Training has finished for the day, yet a lively tennis match is going on between Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini. Something else is in the air and it is the dust whipped up by the hard hats constructing the colossal new Academy complex.

 

Mourinho's players slow their cars as a huge crane inches along the entry road, edging towards an area where pilings are being driven deep into the Surrey soil. The symbolism is inescapable. Having invested heavily in the first team, Abramovich is hard at work on Chelsea's foundations.

 

"The support that the owner and [chief executive] Peter Kenyon gives us is fantastic,'' says Neil Bath, the Academy manager. "We needed to improve. We needed to have a facility that is second to none in Europe by 2008.'' Bath and his staff examined youth facilities at Manchester United, Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven and Rangers before launching their Cobham scheme.

 

Abramovich and Kenyon have enthusiastically bought into the understanding that it takes time, as Bath shows by some research into the ages of leading Champions League sides. "We looked at Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Liverpool, Lyon, Manchester United, Milan, PSV and Real Madrid and found that 10 per cent of their players were 21 or under, 40 per cent were between 22 and 26, with 50 per cent 27 or older. We need to show patience for them to come into the first team.

 

"We look for bravery and skills, watching for a player who takes a neat touch, gets down the line, with pace, takes a tackle and gets back up. If a player is big-time slow, but his touch is good, we would not look at them. If a player is raw quick but his touch is not good enough, we wouldn't look at him either, but we would talk to UK Athletics and say 'You might want to take a look'.''

 

In their pursuit of excellence, Chelsea players strive for the gold bib in training. "Most clubs have the tradition of the worst trainer bib, and players write [usually abusive] things on it,'' Bath adds. "But we thought to have a gold bib for best trainer.''

 

'Gold' attributes are detailed on a 'personal behaviour' card given to all players. These are kept in wallets and regularly referred to. The card depicts a graph with 'attitude' ('positive' or 'negative') on one side set against 'energy' levels ('low' or 'high'). Gold is when 'positive attitude' meets 'high energy levels', leading to what Chelsea call: 'Player! Champions' showing qualities of 'We can do this. Walk the talk. Team player. Makes decisions. Shares in successes as well as setbacks. Goes the extra mile'.

 

A player with 'positive attitude' but 'low energy' is given a 'white' coding by Chelsea, and the label 'Spectator' because he is 'comfortable, goes through the motions, sits on the fence - a Mr Nice Guy'. Down the scale lies 'negative attitude' and 'low energy' levels, leading to 'Victim, depressed' and a 'grey' colour coding. Chelsea list the 'Victim' attributes as: 'Why change? This is pointless. It's not fair. Constantly moaning. Blame culture'.

 

The worst combination for a player is 'negative attitude' and 'high energy' level and described as 'Terrorist' by Chelsea. Coloured 'envious green', this player is dubbed a: 'Cynic. Two-faced. Negative comments. Bully. Sarcasm. Gossip/stirs. Big-time Charlie'.'

 

Temperament is vital for Chelsea and the Leicester Tigers sports psychologist comes down to Cobham for one-on-one motivational sessions with Academy boys.

 

Yet for all the widespread fears of a dipping in desire levels, Bath believes his pupils are as committed as ever. "I accept society has changed, but the boys we have here are passionate about being players. There is a real hunger.

 

"They are very professional. At breakfast here, you will see 15-year-olds picking up brown bread, fruit and being careful what butter they choose. We teach kids to cook so that if they go on loan somewhere, they can cook themselves chicken and pasta.''

 

Seventy per cent of Chelsea's players between 15 and 21 are English, but problems briefly arise with some arrivals from overseas. "We've had African boys who can't use knives and forks,'' says Bath. "They are in a restaurant eating with their hands. Some kids are not used to a bed. They sleep on the floor.''

 

Entrusted with parents' pride and joys, Chelsea are very mindful of their charges' welfare and medical checks are stringent. A heart murmur recently showed up on a screening of one of the boys. "The screening here now is second to none,'' Bath says.

 

Chelsea advise players of the pitfalls of life as a budding professional. "Young girls all know there are 26 young Chelsea players living in the Cobham area. They are the centre of attention. There's a night life in Kingston. It's a potential risk. There is a code of conduct about staying in digs, and we put on training sessions for landladies.

 

"We have suspended players because of behaviour at school. We don't allow baseball caps, scarves, earrings and there's no swearing allowed. We used to have 12-year-olds who said 'this is my agent', but we only allow them from 16 now.''

 

Parents also have to sign a code of conduct, far stricter than the Premier League accord, agreeing to the PARENTS acronym of 'Praising. Accepting. Recognising. Encouraging. Nurturing. Teaching. Supporting and smiling''.

 

"Parents have been pulled in and warned that if negative behaviour on the touchline continues, we will suspend you,'' Bath says. "We have little barriers, or chains, and make them know that foul language is unacceptable. But our parents are really good on the whole.

 

"I have gone to meetings with colleagues from other clubs and so often I hear [complaints] of 'parents, parents, parents' and I think 'our parents are really good'.

 

"We fully understand the father wants to kick every ball with his son. But we speak about controlling that and tell them: 'If you put your son into Oxford or Cambridge you wouldn't turn up telling them how to teach your son geography.' "

 

The Blues of Chelsea are quite capable of helping their youngsters graduate.

 

Source

 

[Northern Monkey]

Sorry Mr Beckham, little David isn't quick enough with the ball.......

[Guest Knightrider]

Sorry Mr Beckham, little David isn't quick enough with the ball.......

 

Exactly.

 

Sadly many academies now think like this, including our own.

[Colos Short and Curlies]

Sorry Mr Beckham, little David isn't quick enough with the ball.......

 

Exactly.

 

Sadly many academies now think like this, including our own.

 

Just as well the first team bucks that trend

[Northern Monkey]

Sorry Mr Beckham, little David isn't quick enough with the ball.......

 

Exactly.

 

Sadly many academies now think like this, including our own.

 

Just as well the first team bucks that trend

 

i'm trying to recall if Duff has much pace? I honestly can't recall him opening up much for us, but that might just be a perception thing because he's never played that well overall.

[Keefaz]

Duff used to be insanely quick but hasn't shown it at all for us.

 

This article was interesting and a bit depressing, tbh. All this code of conduct, rules for this, rules for that, personal behaviour stuff. There seems to be no love of the game. When these kids have 'made it' (i.e. earnt a few bob) it's the love of football that will keep them motivated and interested in the sport, not personality cards or whatever.

[Cronky]

The article doesn't really tackle the question of how a club like Chelsea gives an Academy player the kind of first-team experience that they need to become the finished article. Because Chelsea aim to be at the top all the time, they can't afford to do this.

 

To a varying extent, it's a problem for all the big clubs, but I can't think of any club with a worse record for bringing younger players through than Abramovich's Chelsea. If I was a talented young player, they are the very last club I'd want to join.

[Keefaz]

The article doesn't really tackle the question of how a club like Chelsea gives an Academy player the kind of first-team experience that they need to become the finished article. Because Chelsea aim to be at the top all the time, they can't afford to do this.

 

To a varying extent, it's a problem for all the big clubs, but I can't think of any club with a worse record for bringing younger players through than Abramovich's Chelsea. If I was a talented young player, they are the very last club I'd want to join.

 

They'll take the Arsenal approach of loaning them all out and seeing how they do, surely?

[Northern Monkey]

The article doesn't really tackle the question of how a club like Chelsea gives an Academy player the kind of first-team experience that they need to become the finished article. Because Chelsea aim to be at the top all the time, they can't afford to do this.

 

To a varying extent, it's a problem for all the big clubs, but I can't think of any club with a worse record for bringing younger players through than Abramovich's Chelsea. If I was a talented young player, they are the very last club I'd want to join.

 

Have Chelsea under the Russian had that much time to bring through young players? I'm guessing that doing so is part of the longer term plan, but someone like Abramawotsit demands instant success, which isn't going to come from the youth team, i suppose.

[Guest Stephen927]

They've probably got one of the best academy's in the League, but the set-up sounds inhumane in a way.

 

I don't agree with what they look for in a player, pace isn't all important, but thats obviously depending on position as most managers are more likely to go for pacey wingers etc.

 

The likes of Kevin Keegan have been told they are too small for the game, but have gone on to have fantastic careers. I think if you look for pace as the be all and end all, then chances are you'll miss out on quite a few gems through the years.

[Shak]

It does specify that the player has to be very slow to be fair ("big-time slow") so I can see their point to some extent.

 

And if their touch is exceptional I'm sure they'll make an... exception for them.

 

Also says that if they ahve l0oads of pace but a bad touch they won't look at them.

 

Agree with the general point though, but I doubt if a 14 year old Riquelme showed up at most academy's around the country he'd be told to fuck off or anything.

[Newcastle Fan]

The EPL is starting to get a bit closer to the  Scottish league, everything about physicalty, the players need to be strong, fast and have fantastic fitness, otherwise they'll be on the bench, just like we are doing under Allardyce (although what he's doing is the best thing for the club considring that he's only going where all the other clubs are going), its all about the physicalty of the player, if he can knock the ball past the other players and like a freaking maniac then he's a fantastic player "See Kerion Dyer" But if he has a decent technique and abillty then he's just "not cut out for this league".

 

Watching AC.Milan play while writing this post, they have one of the slowest sides i've ever seen in my life, they really lack indvidualy, if you exclude Kaka, all of their other players are slow, old and have limited abilltys, what they do have is a full understanding of the game, they understand how every game is going to be played and even though they usually play boring, shit football they still end up winning every single game, and are the hardest team to beat imo..

 

English youngsters should be taught to Understand the game before playing it, its not all about running with the ball and kicking the shit out of any player who has it, this game is called Rugby, it has its own league.

[Guest Reading Fan]

The EPL is starting to get a bit closer to the  Scottish league, everything about physicalty, the players need to be strong, fast and have fantastic fitness, otherwise they'll be on the bench, just like we are doing under Allardyce (although what he's doing is the best thing for the club considring that he's only going where all the other clubs are going), its all about the physicalty of the player, if he can knock the ball past the other players and like a freaking maniac then he's a fantastic player "See Kerion Dyer" But if he has a decent technique and abillty then he's just "not cut out for this league".

 

Watching AC.Milan play while writing this post, they have one of the slowest sides i've ever seen in my life, they really lack indvidualy, if you exclude Kaka, all of their other players are slow, old and have limited abilltys, what they do have is a full understanding of the game, they understand how every game is going to be played and even though they usually play boring, s*** football they still end up winning every single game, and are the hardest team to beat imo..

 

English youngsters should be taught to Understand the game before playing it, its not all about running with the ball and kicking the s*** out of any player who has it, this game is called Rugby, it has its own league.

 

Milan are not that slow..........

 

Gattuso is a little tiger..... Kaka as you said is pacy and skillful........ Seedorf is strong and quick...... Cafu has always been strong, athletic and fast down the flanks..... Serginho, Oddo are fast........... Nesta wasn't exactly slow in his day. Nor was Maldini in his day. Pirlo and Emerson are fast enough.

 

Its probably just Inzaghi that walks about the pitch.......

 

Milan are as athletic and quick as any team in Europe. They just play slower, patient, boring, Italian football.

[Guest Reading Fan]

Regarding Chelsea, they are probably trying to create the perfect team.......

 

The team that has plentiful skill and tons of pace.

 

If those two qualities were combined, it would create possibly the most devastating, formidable team possible.

 

However, Man is not perfect and its has in the past been impossible for one team to horde 11 players who fit that profile. They have in the past needed a mix of skills and attributes.

 

However with Chelsea's clear financial advantages they feel that they should aim to get the perfect profile, pace and skill combined. With the money they have available to spend at all levels within their club from academies to first team, they can probably manage it.

 

But I agree with the overall sentiment. This is definitely not good for English football.....

 

Its terrible....... The game is becoming distorted, unequal, uncompetitive, predictable and boring as a result of the way money has distorted the game.

[Newcastle Fan]

The EPL is starting to get a bit closer to the  Scottish league, everything about physicalty, the players need to be strong, fast and have fantastic fitness, otherwise they'll be on the bench, just like we are doing under Allardyce (although what he's doing is the best thing for the club considring that he's only going where all the other clubs are going), its all about the physicalty of the player, if he can knock the ball past the other players and like a freaking maniac then he's a fantastic player "See Kerion Dyer" But if he has a decent technique and abillty then he's just "not cut out for this league".

 

Watching AC.Milan play while writing this post, they have one of the slowest sides i've ever seen in my life, they really lack indvidualy, if you exclude Kaka, all of their other players are slow, old and have limited abilltys, what they do have is a full understanding of the game, they understand how every game is going to be played and even though they usually play boring, s*** football they still end up winning every single game, and are the hardest team to beat imo..

 

English youngsters should be taught to Understand the game before playing it, its not all about running with the ball and kicking the s*** out of any player who has it, this game is called Rugby, it has its own league.

 

Milan are not that slow..........

 

Gattuso is a little tiger..... Kaka as you said is pacy and skillful........ Seedorf is strong and quick...... Cafu has always been strong, athletic and fast down the flanks..... Serginho, Oddo are fast........... Nesta wasn't exactly slow in his day. Nor was Maldini in his day. Pirlo and Emerson are fast enough.

 

Its probably just Inzaghi that walks about the pitch.......

 

Milan are as athletic and quick as any team in Europe. They just play slower, patient, boring, Italian football.

 

Emerson, Seedorf and Pirlo are so slow they make Gattuso look like Martins, Cafu is 107 years old,  Serginho is nothing more then a fringe player, Maldini and Nesta are also slow. Milan don't run, they don't, they just play slow football that fits their abilltys and win games by simply playing it their way;

[McCormick]

The EPL is starting to get a bit closer to the  Scottish league, everything about physicalty, the players need to be strong, fast and have fantastic fitness, otherwise they'll be on the bench, just like we are doing under Allardyce (although what he's doing is the best thing for the club considring that he's only going where all the other clubs are going), its all about the physicalty of the player, if he can knock the ball past the other players and like a freaking maniac then he's a fantastic player "See Kerion Dyer" But if he has a decent technique and abillty then he's just "not cut out for this league".

 

Watching AC.Milan play while writing this post, they have one of the slowest sides i've ever seen in my life, they really lack indvidualy, if you exclude Kaka, all of their other players are slow, old and have limited abilltys, what they do have is a full understanding of the game, they understand how every game is going to be played and even though they usually play boring, s*** football they still end up winning every single game, and are the hardest team to beat imo..

 

English youngsters should be taught to Understand the game before playing it, its not all about running with the ball and kicking the s*** out of any player who has it, this game is called Rugby, it has its own league.

 

Milan are not that slow..........

 

Gattuso is a little tiger..... Kaka as you said is pacy and skillful........ Seedorf is strong and quick...... Cafu has always been strong, athletic and fast down the flanks..... Serginho, Oddo are fast........... Nesta wasn't exactly slow in his day. Nor was Maldini in his day. Pirlo and Emerson are fast enough.

 

Its probably just Inzaghi that walks about the pitch.......

 

Milan are as athletic and quick as any team in Europe. They just play slower, patient, boring, Italian football.

 

Emerson, Seedorf and Pirlo are so slow they make Gattuso look like Martins, Cafu is 107 years old,  Serginho is nothing more then a fringe player, Maldini and Nesta are also slow. Milan don't run, they don't, they just play slow football that fits their abilltys and win games by simply playing it their way;

 

 

actually if you look at how they play, it just drips with undersanding- theyre not slow; watch them.. they slow down the game and play to their pace, and then suddenly they break very quickly with nice passes to the forwards (gilardinho has quite a bit of speed).

 

still ac milan, like most italian clubs, would struggle against the more physical teams.

[Newcastle Fan]

The EPL is starting to get a bit closer to the  Scottish league, everything about physicalty, the players need to be strong, fast and have fantastic fitness, otherwise they'll be on the bench, just like we are doing under Allardyce (although what he's doing is the best thing for the club considring that he's only going where all the other clubs are going), its all about the physicalty of the player, if he can knock the ball past the other players and like a freaking maniac then he's a fantastic player "See Kerion Dyer" But if he has a decent technique and abillty then he's just "not cut out for this league".

 

Watching AC.Milan play while writing this post, they have one of the slowest sides i've ever seen in my life, they really lack indvidualy, if you exclude Kaka, all of their other players are slow, old and have limited abilltys, what they do have is a full understanding of the game, they understand how every game is going to be played and even though they usually play boring, s*** football they still end up winning every single game, and are the hardest team to beat imo..

 

English youngsters should be taught to Understand the game before playing it, its not all about running with the ball and kicking the s*** out of any player who has it, this game is called Rugby, it has its own league.

 

Milan are not that slow..........

 

Gattuso is a little tiger..... Kaka as you said is pacy and skillful........ Seedorf is strong and quick...... Cafu has always been strong, athletic and fast down the flanks..... Serginho, Oddo are fast........... Nesta wasn't exactly slow in his day. Nor was Maldini in his day. Pirlo and Emerson are fast enough.

 

Its probably just Inzaghi that walks about the pitch.......

 

Milan are as athletic and quick as any team in Europe. They just play slower, patient, boring, Italian football.

 

Emerson, Seedorf and Pirlo are so slow they make Gattuso look like Martins, Cafu is 107 years old,  Serginho is nothing more then a fringe player, Maldini and Nesta are also slow. Milan don't run, they don't, they just play slow football that fits their abilltys and win games by simply playing it their way;

 

 

actually if you look at how they play, it just drips with undersanding- theyre not slow; watch them.. they slow down the game and play to their pace, and then suddenly they break very quickly with nice passes to the forwards (gilardinho has quite a bit of speed).

 

still ac milan, like most italian clubs, would struggle against the more physical teams.

 

Actually its Spanish clubs t hat struggle against physical teams..While teams like Milan find it piss easy to beat them.

[McCormick]

spanish as well;  italians (and ac milan is full of italians) need space on the ball and the more physical teams that close them down give them problems.

[Mr Logic]

A current BBC article about Brooking

 

I think Brooking doesn't help the future of England anyway, considering it's supposed to be his brief. That is if memory serves me right anyway. Didn't he want to introduce all these set procedures for coaching.

 

My memory is a bit foggy now but I seem to recall he had all these ideas which, taken on their own may have been quite good, but as a whole it was just turning the training into a production line. Removing all the potential for creativity and real skills, turning them into 'soldiers' rather than thinking adaptable footballers.

[Cronky]

I don't really agree with all this negativity. Yes, the game in the EPL is getting faster, but I don't see any reduction in the skill levels of the players. Quite the opposite in fact, and I'm not just talking about the foreign players. The English players have improved their technique as well.

 

You younger guys should count yourselves lucky. IMO the product has never been better than it is now. We were fed rubbish for years.

[Guest Reading Fan]

Yeah, I don't think the England team is suffering just yet as a result of the foreign imports.......

 

The EPL has become an International League. Its no longer the top flight of English football. It is now the international league of excellence. Foreign owned, Foreign managed, foreign teams, played out on English soil in front of English crowds.

 

Its no longer the league of the English People. The Premier League belongs to all peoples of the world. When 70% of its players are non English it can't any longer be considered English. We have to accept that we are watching an international product.

 

For me, this loses its appeal. Its not what football was about when I was getting interested as a Reading Fan 20 odd years ago, standing on the terraces, bantering with the opposition, getting hammered before and after matches. Having an equal and fairer competition even if we were sh*te! I enjoyed the football experience rather than the quality of product on the pitch. I'm not really into hotdogs, I feel good being played out after you've scored, rumblestix, all seater stadia, fans having to organise over the internet, through the press an atmosphere. The atmosphere used to be spontaneous. Now its pre-planned and organised. Stewards these days really spoil the game by not tolerating any form of singing.

 

Money has actually helped Reading to the top flight, but the competition is now more boring and predictable than ever. I wouldn't enjoy Reading being crowned champions if we needed to outspend everyone to win it and it was obviously because of clear financial advantages. That would be an unfair way to win. Thats why I can't understand how Chelsea fans can puff their chests out and enjoy beating minor teams like Reading when they have spent £100's of millions on their team. They should be winning such games easily.

 

Regarding England, in the one International League of excellence, the highest standard of world football, we have 30% of its players. The top English players are facing the toughest challenges in world football week in week out. How can that be bad. That has got to be the best preparation for a World Cup or European Championships. Each week our top defenders face another set of deadly strikers. What a place to learn how to handle the worlds top talents.

 

The football league is the English League with the Coca Cola Championship being the top division. There is a strong enough football structure in England to create a top international team. So there are no excuses. McLaren, Brooking are just lining up the excuses for another failure.

 

There are lots of countries who are bigger than England and who are just as passionate about football. Its just our expectation levels are so high. We have no more right to win international tournaments than anyone else. We are certainly not better than anyone else. When we have the right management and the timing is right we will win again.

[Guest gggg]

The foreign player thing is just an excuse, we've been shit since 1966 ffs foreign players or not.

[Keefaz]

I guess the FA have finally decided that we'll never compete on a technical level and are simply breeding athletes to try to win something.

[OzzieMandias]

For me, this loses its appeal. Its not what football was about when I was getting interested as a Reading Fan 20 odd years ago

 

Don't worry. You'll soon be relegated again and not have to worry about exciting Premier League football any more.

[La Parka]

Exactly what is wrong in this county.

 

You can guarentee Messi would not have got a look in.

 

Its all physical attributes nowadays. Its why we still play long fucking ball and cant keep hold of possession at a national level.

 

And they wonder why so few players come through