Great episode. I think the kids who get spotted by the right scouts have a massive advantage. There is a network there of who you know to get viewed by an academy. It's nice to see players make it who don't have the luxury of parents who have the time and money.
It's interesting that of the kids that got into the academy at 9 or 10 by the time they are 14 or 15 are dropped and some of the later developers get trials who were over looked. I think kids should play a variety of sport it's a shame when they have to specialise to early.
Having Coached in UK and Spain for 15 years esch, i think the main difference is the emphasis on SSGs (for Example Barcalona’s (Catalan League) play 7-a-side until the age of 12(Contact time), when they switch to 11-a-side football. This allows players to develop a higher level of technical ability and football IQ. England’s rush to play f11 puts more physical demands on players as well as learning a “Position” early. Therefore i think this reduces English players ability to develop to the lvls i have seen in Spain and Portugal..
We have the same problem in the US. In fact we have lots of problems with football development, but this notion that only 11 v 11 is “real soccer” means that we have kids playing glorified kickball, just booting the ball at the first sign of pressure from an opponent in front of a baying crowd of moms and dads. It’s very hard to develop any technique or sound decision making in that environment.
@@Michael-cb5nm yes, i would agree. I coached in US about 20 years ago for about a year and saw this, but, without root and branch change it will not. When i asked a skills Coach what he thought were the top ten basic football skills were and he got 2. He clearly did not understsnd ball mastery or basic skill development. So sad, but, he was getting paid well to teach skills!!!! What i thought was interesting was the female side, which seem to have good foundation of inteligent female Coaches who had a good understanding & perspective on the game of soccer and the ladies played well !!!!
@@wassim9763US implemented something similar in 2017, but it is not consistently followed. We don’t have the overall sophistication at the youth level to understand the benefits of small sided games, and the USSF can’t police a country our size.
Great interview but so frustrating shows exactly what is missing from our academy system not giving intelligent kids a chance because of their physical attributes and date of birth, these kids are 7/8/9/10/11 that just ridiculous it just shows it’s all about money which I get because it is a business, this is the reason we don’t win world cups euros, football intelligence is the most important thing in my view you start from there and build your team with physical attributes around that players you see it with most club teams in Spain they all have central players that control the game, I see this every week in grassroots football scouts just pick big quick technical kids, I can see they’ve are limited in football intelligence straight away forget the wow moments be more worried about good decisions
this is so true. Take my son for example. Now I am not saying he’s remotely good enough to make it pro, but he’s the 2nd youngest in his year at school. when playing footie, you can see the other players are stronger and more confident than him. Some have almost a year on him! I really think this has stunted his development somewhat, as he’s not had an opportunity to play other kids his relative age. If he was born a few days later, then he’d be one of the older kids and probably dominating the football pitch, instead of being the grey player. perhaps.
Completely agree mate very similar to my boy, not saying he’s as good as some of the academy boys but the fact that he wouldn’t even get looked at seems harsh, attitude and intelligence goes a long way football and in life, where the boys with the physical attributes find it so easy at a young age I think it goes against them in teenage years, because they become frustrated as other boys catch them up they start to show a poor attitude, where as the smaller kid who has had to work so hard to compete at even at the high level grassroots team, then excels but maybe to late to break into the professional game we loose so many players because of this it’s crazy
I’ve been saying it for a long time, the UK’s academy system is a failure. There’s a reason why all the best players are not from England in its own league, although being the apparent best league in the world we can’t replicate Spain or La liga, whether it be club level or international. Our best academies would rather scout kids abroad rather than look locally. Which makes no sense as these academy players still fail to break into the 1st teams for the most part. And the ones that do happen to get into our academies are usually only there because their parents wanted them to be there so took them there at 8-10 years old which is again stupid because even one of the greatest of all time Messi wasn’t scouted till 14. There’s no reason why the uk doesn’t have its own version of clairefontaine like France does to capture all the talent that are not at professional clubs or implement a system similar to americas where the education system and sports work hand in hand like in basketball, American football etc. It’s frustrating because we have so much talent in the UK but it’s like they don’t want to find the best footballers, there’s a lot of nepotism and closed mindedness which is why our country is limited in some many ways. Just imagine if we had a competitive school league system around each borough, imagine we had an academy centre for talented footballers that are not in the academy system. I believe we’ve probably had the next neymar here but he probably gave up due to the environment he’s grown up in or lack of opportunities. Hopefully they can change it for the next generation
@@beezy_1413 mate absolutely spot on I’ve heard Sean on this podcast literally right kids off at the age of 8/9 because they not in the system what a joke, they keep saying all the players in the most recent England team were at academy’s at 9 well maybe that’s why we can’t win anything and just play in moments if needs a change, it’s all geared for big kids at 9 years and if your not that there’s no point, the school league is the best idea I’ve heard, my boys go to a secondary school that don’t even play competitive football after year seven it’s pathetic, our education system is working against us, part of the problem is the PE teachers are rubbish and don’t have a clue about football and just want to tick boxes they make excuses for even doing a sports day saying it’s got to be inclusive and then call it off when it rains for 10 minutes, like you said how good would it be to have a proper school league, mind you I don’t think they want boys to be boys these days 🙄
@@beezy_1413 one inaccuracy in your post. Messi was scouted at around six, playing for Newwell Old boys. That’s a pro club in Argentina. so he was in the football system very young. He went to Barca at 13. English football youth system is not the best but by far it’s not the worst. many players have opportunity to get into academies, and many do. the problem is most don’t make it. If you’re good enough most times you’ll make it. The problem is really for those on the fringes who may or may not become good enough. If Harry Kane was born outside London for example, and Spurs didn’t take a chance, then he’d probably not have made it
I seen a kid play last month at a youth competition I went to Belfast for. I watched him the whole tournament and he was the standout by miles. I spoke to his parents who where really nice people apart from his local boys club he is unsigned but very young, so probably because of his age. Just starting secondary school Ithey said the boys model in Belfast which has a great soccer history and reputation. Honestly touch skill speed kid was the full package. Kyle Higginson. His name was. I won't forget it and will be looking out for him. I've never seen a kid that good.
Fantastic insight! And great guest to have on. This resonates with me having spent time trialling at Chelsea, Fulham (twice), Watford, Colchester, Northampton, Scunthorpe, Barnet and Leyton Orient (professional level) and considering the different styles of play. I am building a professional football franchise and so interviews like this, and drawing on my experiences (good, bad and ugly) will hold me in good stead heading into the next stage of my journey. Thanks again.
I felt like they are trying to tell him about players like Pirlo or Jorginho where they are not fast, tall or strong yet they brain is so far ahead of other players and he is talking about Mount and De Bruyne which is different type of player. Last English player i would mention would be Carrick. Did so well at United yet didn't play enough for England. I felt like they were getting frustrated with trying to tell him that but they didn't want to come out too rude.
Carrick didn't play because the media, pundits and FA were obsessed with having Gerrard and Lampard in midfield. It should have been Carrick and Hargreaves with one of Scholes, Lamps or Gerrard
We need more community mini pitches everywhere too, I see these about in other countries with good football culture but then we need to somehow change our entire culture to not ruin it also
I like the fact that he said “players needs to have the ability to dominate 1v1’s “ this technical aspect gets trained out of players in the academy system. Most of the young kids continue to develop the technical ability with coaches like Mateo Esposito and others by having 121 sessions only to go back at their club and be told to play quick fast football 1-2touches
Dominating 1v1 isn't necessarily technical. Strength and acceleration helps hugely. Playing fast 1-2 touches however requires technical ability and is a focus in countries like Spain where Rondos dominate training drills. The FA's new development programme for girls highlights the FA's focus on 1v1 requirement instead of 1-2 touch passing. My daughter's grassroots team dominates their high level league and regularly competes with superleague teams using training focussed on ball retention. None of these girls are deemed good enough to even get in to ETC's let alone the new academy style teams yet they regularly play 'teams' stuffed with ex/future academy players and beat them. It seems England's future is having lots of Buyako Saka/Jeremy Doku style players without a Rodri/Busquets to actually get them the ball.
Very interesting conversation. He’s a smart bloke, but when you asked him about the difference between Spanish and English youth systems, he said the characteristics and things they’re asking for are probably really similar. I have experience watching Spanish youth football and either this just isn’t true or the way these players are produced before they get to academies is totally different. The youngsters are fed with so much information and pushed to become technicians. It’s much more collectivist in its approach. They really play as units rather than individual 7yr olds running around like a pack of bees. Some are now even complaining it’s too much info. They’re so technically and mentally ahead of English players it’s a joke. Also no small matter that English players are largely uneducated working class kids. The Spanish team is much more mixed
@@Hiprich actually I’m not. There are very intelligent working class kids. And we all know that those kids often have more guile and trickery about them. But, and I think Bellingham is a good example of this, kids from other classes and backgrounds, who are perhaps a bit more academic and polished, can often handle more information and deal with more situations on the pitch. Many of the Spanish players are well spoken and clearly think quite deeply about the game. In fact, not just Spanish, we see it with French, German and Italian players. The English game is so working class dominant, which isn’t good from a just cultural diversity perspective either. You’d think any team would thrive with a greater mix of characters and backgrounds
@@HM-mw7cg you have raised some thoughtful points. I am wondering, though, what you make of the Brazilians my friend. Would be interesting to hear your thoughts on that 😊
@@Hiprich funnily enough I lived in Brazil for three years and worked with young footballers…albeit in a deprived neighbourhood of São Paulo. The thing that shocked me was just what great team players they were. I saw 7-10 yr olds pass and move in ways I didn’t in London and Essex. This was mainly street court football. Most of them learnt how to time nutmegs perfectly at a young age, because taking the piss was more valuable than scoring goals. The best of them had street smarts too, always looking to fool you with a look or hesitation. They’d play every night in the courts, something English kids can’t do much of anymore because most courts are now pay to play and the motivation isn’t even there when half your would-be teammates are inside playing video games. There’s a myth of the dirt poor Brazilian player, but the truth is that most of the kids who make it have either a decent family structure or one strong and stable parent/sibling around. Most of the best kids I saw had way too much madness going on in their personal lives to ever make it. Parental drug use, open sex at home, needing to work at a young age…unimaginable stuff for us in Europe. While amazingly talented, those were the sorts of kids who just could not be disciplined for long. Some of them even got taken across the country to some club or another, but they couldn’t turn up to training on time or quickly got hooked on girls, drugs, gangs etc. It’s really hard to add the structure required to make it in modern football to a kid’s life when he’s had zero structure since birth. But in terms of talent pool, Brazil is ridiculous. It’s not like every single person can play, but the ones who can all have a baseline of technical ability that’s above what you see anywhere else bar maybe Spain. The under 10s I saw were all way ahead of their English age mates in touch, passing, skills, agility with the ball at their feet… And they’re practising new and genuinely wacky skills all day long. One thing catches on in the neighbourhood and before long they’re all doing it. Fascinating place for football fans. Football culture and training, and style for that matter, is quite different from region to region though
With all due respect I don't think an academic education makes a better player it's a combination of skill, hard work, attitude, and ability to take information.
Angel Gomes could be that player but gets overlooked because of his size. Was often played as a #10 or out wide throughout his academy years when he should have been playing central midfield.
what nonsense - at the younger age groups developing ability on the ball is paramount rather than just treating it like a hot potato. I'm guessing this guy knows a bit more than you given his background, Mr Armchair.... Do you think Messi was told to just pass it when he was a kid?
@@itsinthetreesitscoming7431 Okay calm down no 1 am not mr amrchair am actually involved in football. no2 many guests on this channel have echoed the exact same concerns about early training methods. no need to name call pal. be civil we can all agree to disagree and we all can voice our opinion
One of the questions i have, are the players (not in A teams) playing a decent lvl of competition ie Barcelona B (Barcelona athletic ) are playing La Liga 2 with professionals. This lvl of competition in Catalonia (Barcelona) goes right down to Under 10s(even though they do not start F11 until Under 13s…In Spain Under 13s to U18s play regionally, and best leagues are in National leagues before entering Pro leagues!!!!
Barcelona Athletic play in the third-tier Primera Federación, which isn't considered professional football. Still, it’s a quality league with historic clubs trying to make their way back to elite football, like Real Zaragoza or Deportivo de la Coruña, who were recently promoted to LaLiga 2 (Hypermotion).
Fantastic and interesting episode. A great question to benchmark were England should strive, “why are Spain and Portugal players/Coaching ahead? More small sided games and leagues, more tournaments, more plsy and different levels of Competition & Coaches on the grass…Each player must have a decent lvl of ability and a “Superskill” or “WoW Skill”. But football IQ is so difficult to spot
UK elite system completely unable to produce a Jorginho or Rodri because they release and jog those players on. Way before they ever got near first team. Even when we had a player like that in Scholes we played them at LM and he retired early in disgust.
I have a grass roots Football Club and the scouts come to us when the players are really young. Parents will bring the kids to us around 4 years old to develop them. But if you are around 12 Years old the only way you will get into an academy is if your grass roots Club plays in a really good youth league or if you play for the district or the County FA Team. At County level most of the players already play for Professional academy and that’s where the scouts will be. When you get to 15 & 16 the academy players are at the stage where they will be moving up to the U18 Team, you have to be better than the players who have been there since they were 7 or 8. You will also have an additional problem, the parents of the established players will not take to you if your there to dislodge their kid. Your next step will be to go to a Non-League academy and work your way up. Good luck😢
@@scriptkiddy1492 Left Midfield. The issue being his natural position was the controller in centre midfield, but he could never play there as the manager had to lump Gerrard and Lampard in the same team. Two players who never played well together for england ever.
@@richard_M7116 basically are you saying only chance a kid has is to start at 4 to have proper chance at making it pro, the each year that goes by the harder it gets
54:15 Rodri is not a dribbler. Lets just be honest and say it how it is. We dont pay importance to developing a 6 who is a controller the only 6 we want if any is a distroyer and we dont even have many of them. We want 8 box to box. Untill our methods change we will keep getting same results.
@@joachimschmidt7662 calvin phillips and jonjo shelvey.... really? your comparing them to rodri xavo busquets pirlo jorjinho they are not even game controllers to begin with if anything they are game destroyers have u seen peps recent comments on calvin?
@@joachimschmidt7662 if englands claim to fame for game controllers is jonjo shelvey and calvin phillips we are doomed calvin phillips at 28 no one even wants to touch him right now. sorry but this was a weird comment from urself
@@LOOKING-FOR-GLAZE-GALAXY you say hes not a dribbler, but his body, ball and movement “DECEPTION/DISGUISE is masterful. If you Watch him carefully he is a HYBRID of the perfect English /Spanish player. He has the skill of the spanish and strength of an English bulldog. The ball sticks to his feet like glue (Bribbler) and if you fall for his trickery, he goes past you with ease… i would say, hes got the skills of a static dribbler with excepcional awareness and passing skill. But what makes him and all world class midfielders, is his football IQ & Skill
Football IQ definitely gets missed, because the irony is you have to have said IQ to notice it in others. That's why physicality is always rewarded in age group football, because it's easy for any pleb to observe and quantify it. Unfortunately physically and physical feats are just proxies of talent, not actual talent.
Yes. A big problem was the big 14/15 year olds were bigger, stronger, faster and fitter than the rest and it made them look significantly better until maybe 18 when the rest caught up. The problem is the "rest" got dropped way before then so there was nobody left but the big players left with one or two exceptions.
Brian clough said it very well would you learn to drive from some one that can’t drive My point being many of scouts or coaches have never played at an elite level I am not saying that all of it but there should be a lot less emphasis on winning and learning to play developing fundamentals Football is a simple game of passing and receiving the ball !
Most his work at Spurs has been undone. They've reverted back to scouting athletes first, and technicians second. How do you engrain a new philosophy into a clubs DNA - that'd be worth exploring?
The problem is the volume of football the youngsters have to play in academies they need to be physically capable Big strong players shame messi would of been overlooked by many
1:17:18 Political answer, My son is at a cat 1 academy the younger ages dont have any drills for awareness decision making scanning etc. They would only see tht from the kids in small sided games.
@@LOOKING-FOR-GLAZE-GALAXY it depends on his age and his lvl of development. But, no doubt SSGs, futsal and regular challenging competition is required so these skills can be tested and learnt. Of course you should be getting the best Coaching at that lvl, so hopefully he is getting it
Interesting, because Euro 24 was not a success in terms of this tournament compared to past tournemounts under Mr Southgate. Even though we have world clsss passers/crossers of the ball, it makes me think crosses above the knee lvl are dead…
Harry Kane’s example emphasis the importance of playing and personal attitude. To improve you must have a development growth & development attitude, a resilient mindset and understand the importance of hard work & practice. Finally, you will only become a Brilliant footballer with practice. You need to play otherwise you will not improve and never reach peak potential…
He's also an example of how we've come along way with our development of kids but still a long way to go. If we're considering dropping a player because of the month he's born in there's something seriously wrong with the system. The whole point is to make international footballers but if you're still gonna drop a kid at 11 because he's born in July what chance are you giving yourself.... Makes no sense.
Its interesting that Top Academies do not produce world class 6, they are not as vsluable as a 7,8,9,10 or 11, its all about the financial outcomes, maybe thats why many Coaches do not understand what a 6 does and therefore they fall under the radar…
I feel like so much footballing talent is never found because of the way things are setup in England. Most kids play football for fun, they don't even think about making it as a professional footballer as they aren't told of that being a possibility - there is no opening. You are only going to make it by the luck of a scout appearing at a boys match and you playing well in that single match. I played boy's football and who knows if a scout ever came to watch our team - it's probably unlikely anyone did. Why don't we have setups in every town / city where, for example, in the town of Crawley you have ~4 teams in each age group which are all interlinked. You have an A, B, C and D team. The aim is to get the best players in the A or B teams. Then scouts from Premier League clubs come and watch the A and maybe the B team. The whole point in this system would be for local areas to get their best players into 2 specific teams. The system would also motivate young kids to aim to get into that A team and be the best 11+ players in that town at their specific age group. Kids would improve with this motivation of knowing they could become a professional footballer.
The harsh reality is if you're not in a football team by 7/8 you're even less likely to surpass the insurmountable odds. Kids playing in the academy at 8 will be so far ahead of kids only just starting to play football at 10 that's it's almost impossible for them to catch up. The academy kids will be training 3x a week compared to once or maybe twice at most to the other kids and their training will be far superior. I didn't start playing football until 10, played against an academy for pre season and soon realised how far ahead these kids were compared to me. If you're not in the academy you literally need to be practising every day to give yourself even a small chance of getting there as their training and coaching will be 10x better and more efficient than your Saturday league coach is gonna give you.
I've seen many boys come through to academy level at 12, 13 and still Gon on and thrive. It all depends on his up bringing, size and technical ability. The majority of the academies are average at best (my boy was at an academy from 6 - 14 yes old).
If your children want to play football just let them have fun, 5 a side or in the playground or the street is what its all about. Dont put them in any structured organised system. The whole grassroots system introduces success and failure too early into a child's life. Fun fun fun. Not winner or loser
I think he means, you’re not going to become a too class ball carrier, like Neymar, Hazard, Sane. You can certainly learn to dribble but it’s not going to be what you’re known for
I am a player who is in a situation where the chance of me being scouted is very low because I am an American who playes for a smallish school, I probably wont get onto my club team due to a weird situation and I am a dm who has very little flair. What would you suggest to someone like me so that I could get on a scouts radar.
If you're good enough there are so many opportunities to show your abilities, even through data, video and AI examples so where you are and who you play should never limit you anymore.
What age are you? If you are a defensive type player and not already signed by the age of 12, then you have very little chance of making it. When you see a lot of the players who make it very few signed as pure defensive type players. Scouts are looking for players who can do it all and will then adapt those players to specific positions.
@lukebignell7846 I am 16, but the way I play is that in Buildup, I play a little back to provide options to my other midfielders or CBs or anyone else but once we get to the attacking 3rd I usually push up to a little outside the box or up farther if I see space in the box for a easy pass and tap in. In short, I play as a mix of a 6 and 8.
You just have to keep grinding it out. Go to the coaches and ask where you can improve and take responsibility of the factors you can control. I am not sure of the system there as I coached out their 20 years ago, but get some game tape on Hudl or equivalent. Write to MLS or A-League (if that still exists for trials). Work harder than anyone else and be super open to feedback and most importantly be honest with yourself - enjoying football as an amateur has its rewards and it is the reality for 99.99% of people.
Because at a young age even 6 months can make a difference in physical development. In Canadian ice hockey they switched to having two teams per age year
Another reason to consider; elitist attitude in English football in the sense that players are usually scouted in the working class area instead of all walks of life. Thus most players that enter English football academies come from a relatively less educated with working class background, rarely if ever they come from more educated families. As if they are allergic to the more privileged and/or educated people.
I don't disagree with what you've said. However, working class families have a different view and see football as one of the only ways out of poverty. They tend not to push their children into education leaving them with less options in the future. A kid brought up middle/upper class has education drilled into them from very early on. They'll be into numerous sports and other after school activities not just football. They will have 3/4 plans on what to do after school. They will have 10x the opportunities compared to a working class kid that it's not the be all and end all if they don't make it. Percentage wise education is still the smartest option as 99% of the working class academy players still won't make it and they just put their whole life into it compared to the other kid who's got lots of other talents and paths he can go down.
@@willnestor6422 gambling education for sport is the stupidest move one can ever do in life, considering chances to succeed is only less than 0.001 percent. English clubs and scouts should pick players for their academies with no regards to their family nor education backgrounds; a baller means a baller. Family background should never be given priority nor compassion. Everything is based on merit. When accepted education should be number 1 priority. Fail exam once and get banished from the academy, forever. No second chance. That is what Ajax Amsterdam is doing and no one can dispute how good they are at producing talents as often as we change our underwear. Those from working class and/or less educated backgrounds should never use sports as the way to get out of poverty. Can't make it in academic then trade jobs are always there; available, constantly in demand, and well paid.
@@wanr5701 I don't disagree with what you've said but these families are not necessarily gambling their kids life with football. They're not focusing on education in the first place regardless of whether they play football or not. I've got mates where their kids are in the bottom half of school at best but they're not bothered. They seem to think as long as their kid goes to school it's not their problem. Some kids will just be smart and good at school regardless but there's a large percentage that need the structure and support from their parents to put the effort in. In a lot of working class families this is simply not there. It's simply not a priority for them.
@@willnestor6422 either way, I really can't comprehend the need for English clubs and scouts to prefer working class areas over scouting all areas equally. They really didn't do themselves any favour by omitting youths with better education and supposedly the source of more intelligent players. Germany's World Cup 2014 winning squad, more than half of the players are graduates from Gymnasium which is as prestigious as elite boarding schools in England. Not forget to mention that Mario Gotze who scores the winning goal is a son of a university professor. It is a pure hypocrisy that English football practiced elitism when they themselves claimed that football aren't elitist.
@@wanr5701 claiming that having a preference for working class players is ‘elitist’ is one of the most backwards and perverse things I’ve ever heard. The working class by definition are not ‘elite’. Professional football in England has always been a working class game and this has been the case since Blackburn Olympic beat Old Etonians in the 1883 FA Cup Final. Gymnasiums in Germany are the equivalent of the old grammar school system we had in this country, not the same as public/boarding schools. At the end of the day you are asking why there is a preference for people who have low social mobility in one of the few outlets available for them to advance their status in society as compared to people who have far more opportunities available for lucrative careers other than football. Rugby Union and Cricket are also relatively more popular amongst the more privileged so the sportsmen amongst them are more likely to chose sports other than football. That the people with more opportunities to do other things choose to do those things other than football shouldn’t be surprising.
They scout kids that are larger/more developed for their age group (aka earlier puberty). The other other kids will catch up later but hy then it's too late for their football careers
the reason Spurs never chose players from Harringay and surrounding areas was their "color bias" it was well known that they didn't want a lot of black players at the club back then until he came along .
Absolutely no surprise nobody rated Kane as a youngster, unremarkable ability on the ball, purely carried by ability to score. And I don’t agree with what he said about strikers, finding scorers is the easy part, it’s finding them who are skilled which is difficult. So many of them rely on service rather than being good ball carriers and also decision making, a lot of them are just shoot on sight.
I’ve been saying it for a long time, the UK’s academy system is a failure. There’s a reason why all the best players are not from England in its own league, although being the apparent best league in the world we can’t replicate Spain or La liga, whether it be club level or international. Our best academies would rather scout kids abroad rather than look locally. Which makes no sense as these academy players still fail to break into the 1st teams for the most part. And the ones that do happen to get into our academies are usually only there because their parents wanted them to be there so took them there at 8-10 years old which is again stupid because even one of the greatest of all time Messi wasn’t scouted till 14. There’s no reason why the uk doesn’t have its own version of clairefontaine like France does to capture all the talent that are not at professional clubs or implement a system similar to americas where the education system and sports work hand in hand like in basketball, American football etc. It’s frustrating because we have so much talent in the UK but it’s like they don’t want to find the best footballers, there’s a lot of nepotism and closed mindedness which is why our country is limited in some many ways. Just imagine if we had a competitive school league system around each borough, imagine we had an academy centre for talented footballers that are not in the academy system. I believe we’ve probably had the next neymar here but he probably gave up due to the environment he’s grown up in or lack of opportunities. Hopefully they can change it for the next generation
england litreally rebuilt there youth system with the elite player develpoment plan. They use st geroge park as their own version of clairefontaine. You're actually waffling while using points that are outdated. England have one of the best national teams in the world rn. I'm not even an England fan and I can see the vast improvements in their youth system.
Your example of Messi is misleading as he was playing for Newell's old boys youth teams before his family reached out to get him over to Spain for medical treatment. If he'd have been based in Europe he'd have been snapped up as an 8 year old,
@@tyrellking6332 you don’t know what clairefontaine is, clearly as nobody at St George’s park is a free agent, the youth system here is terrible, in comparison to where it should be. Stop being overly patriotic to realise that, the whole Spanish football as a whole improved, English football has not improved. Our top academies are not filled with local talent. And the scouting system is a failure
@@Geokinkladze and if my nan had wheels she’d be a bike, life doesn’t work out like that, no ifs and buts only absolutes. He wasn’t brought over at 8 but 14 which is a big reason as to why he developed to the player he did and are you really trying to compare the facilities of that team to a top club like Barcelona. Like be real my guy.
@@tyrellking6332 and England players benefit from the premier league being good but I wouldn’t say they are in top5 best teams in the world footballing wise, and they should be. England play timid football and struggle to beat teams that they are supposed to be 100s of ranks above, as we say in the lead up to the euros and in it, without 1 convincing win. Oh and I’m telling you this as an England fan that has lived in England their whole life,
I love all this talk about how the English always had these “big strong lads” on the national team. I went back and looked at the 1990 WC team that played in the semis, and only Butcher, Wright, Shilton in goal, and Waddle were 6 feet or over. Gazza was not tall, nor Platt, or Lineker or Beardsley. Paul Parker was a midget. And in terms of physique, none apart from maybe Stuart Pearce or Shilton were that imposing. So mainly, a bunch of 5’7 to 5’10” guys weighing between 10 to 12 stone. They weren’t even that big for that era, Germany and Holland had much more imposing players. I think English football has a lot of myths that just don’t stand up to scrutiny. England teams of the past were not only technically inferior, they weren’t as big and strong as people like to remember.
1990 is a long time ago. Probably the beginning of players starting to take their diet and fitness seriously. Look at the 2002 team and you have a couple 5"9 guys then Darius Vassell 5"7 as the smallest the rest are all bigger. I think it's more than just about height. The other nations looked at England as a big physical team because they didn't have much else going for them, not that they were all necessarily bigger than the other teams. The dutch have pretty much the highest average height on the planet but they're not known for having only tall players...
Did it have to do with race?? Being a black lad people automatically assume your bigger or more imposing than you actually are. Quite a few black lads on 02 squad.
Bro game intelligence is something can not be taught in football, it’s also part of board genetics scouting should take account into academy selection at younger ages, not just looking into physical and technical abilities, vision, anticipation and positioning those attributes can be seen at 7, 8 years old grassroots game …….intelligent players will turn into intelligent scouts/coaches/managers one day, they in turn have the ability to create/select more intelligent players for next generation.
@@CodPatrol i think Kane deserves his Pro contract, he scores lots of goals. I just think from an Englsnd piont of view, why both Southgate and Kane think he should play No.6, No.8 , No. 10 position and everything apart from his No.9 position “Fox in and aroubd the box”. Its staggeribg to me that Southgate said he was struggling with fitness snd sharpnesz, yet he let him run aroubd the pitch like a headless chicken… The word football Stupidity cone to mind!!!! Esp when England were playing with 2 wingers 🤭
As Michael Owen said, you DON'T have to be a good footballer to play in the Premier League any longer. You just have to be an athlete who is robotic and learns a 'system'. Actual talent, skill and a footballing brain is a disadvantage in our ever decreasing league. England's senior team has had 3 tournaments on the bounce where they have had ridiculously easy draws against awful teams and yet they still managed to lose each time they faced a decent team. Our UK players get worse each season, and the majority of the best players in our league are foreign. Prime Michael Owen would be worth £200 million in this league.
Honestly, this is a pretty rubbish comment. The prem and the national team are at a much higher standard technically than when he was playing. Players like Bellingham, Foden, Palmer, Trent are very technically gifted. The problem isn’t ability, it management/tactics.
The players are now much more tactically agile, many prem clubs playing in different styles. Spurs, Liverpool, Arsenal, Brighton, Manchester City all playing truly top class football. England's failures are all on the FA and their safety first attitude to recruitment
Same old story. English grass roots about winning. Not developing. Football is three things. Pass Shoot Dribble That's it. Parents pick their son's or daughters. Coaches pick their favourites Managers pick their wing men. Some of the best players never make it And that is mostly because of the system Who you know Not what you know. ⚒️
All you guys do nowadays is creating robots not football players. The game is getting more and more boring due to the inability of a lot of players to dribble and improvise!!!
No World Cup-winning experience from ANYONE. Check out the children on Spain's wings. Need that 'doing it' experience. Anything else in the same old, same old from when I played back the 80's. NO CHANGE, NO TROPHIES LOTS OF CHITTER-CHATTER.
Great episode. I think the kids who get spotted by the right scouts have a massive advantage. There is a network there of who you know to get viewed by an academy. It's nice to see players make it who don't have the luxury of parents who have the time and money.
It's interesting that of the kids that got into the academy at 9 or 10 by the time they are 14 or 15 are dropped and some of the later developers get trials who were over looked. I think kids should play a variety of sport it's a shame when they have to specialise to early.
Having Coached in UK and Spain for 15 years esch, i think the main difference is the emphasis on SSGs (for Example Barcalona’s (Catalan League) play 7-a-side until the age of 12(Contact time), when they switch to 11-a-side football. This allows players to develop a higher level of technical ability and football IQ. England’s rush to play f11 puts more physical demands on players as well as learning a “Position” early. Therefore i think this reduces English players ability to develop to the lvls i have seen in Spain and Portugal..
We have the same problem in the US. In fact we have lots of problems with football development, but this notion that only 11 v 11 is “real soccer” means that we have kids playing glorified kickball, just booting the ball at the first sign of pressure from an opponent in front of a baying crowd of moms and dads. It’s very hard to develop any technique or sound decision making in that environment.
@@Michael-cb5nm yes, i would agree. I coached in US about 20 years ago for about a year and saw this, but, without root and branch change it will not. When i asked a skills Coach what he thought were the top ten basic football skills were and he got 2. He clearly did not understsnd ball mastery or basic skill development. So sad, but, he was getting paid well to teach skills!!!! What i thought was interesting was the female side, which seem to have good foundation of inteligent female Coaches who had a good understanding & perspective on the game of soccer and the ladies played well !!!!
In Australia they've implemented 4 vs 4 for U5s-U7s, 7 vs 7 for U8s, U9s, and 9 vs 9 for U10s-U12s. 11 a side starts at U13.
@@wassim9763US implemented something similar in 2017, but it is not consistently followed. We don’t have the overall sophistication at the youth level to understand the benefits of small sided games, and the USSF can’t police a country our size.
In Uk 11aside comes in at u13… so the same age. Has been that way for a very long time now… 5v5 u7-u10, 9v9 u11-u12, 11v11 u13 up wards…
Great interview but so frustrating shows exactly what is missing from our academy system not giving intelligent kids a chance because of their physical attributes and date of birth, these kids are 7/8/9/10/11 that just ridiculous it just shows it’s all about money which I get because it is a business, this is the reason we don’t win world cups euros, football intelligence is the most important thing in my view you start from there and build your team with physical attributes around that players you see it with most club teams in Spain they all have central players that control the game, I see this every week in grassroots football scouts just pick big quick technical kids, I can see they’ve are limited in football intelligence straight away forget the wow moments be more worried about good decisions
this is so true. Take my son for example. Now I am not saying he’s remotely good enough to make it pro, but he’s the 2nd youngest in his year at school. when playing footie, you can see the other players are stronger and more confident than him. Some have almost a year on him! I really think this has stunted his development somewhat, as he’s not had an opportunity to play other kids his relative age. If he was born a few days later, then he’d be one of the older kids and probably dominating the football pitch, instead of being the grey player. perhaps.
Completely agree mate very similar to my boy, not saying he’s as good as some of the academy boys but the fact that he wouldn’t even get looked at seems harsh, attitude and intelligence goes a long way football and in life, where the boys with the physical attributes find it so easy at a young age I think it goes against them in teenage years, because they become frustrated as other boys catch them up they start to show a poor attitude, where as the smaller kid who has had to work so hard to compete at even at the high level grassroots team, then excels but maybe to late to break into the professional game we loose so many players because of this it’s crazy
I’ve been saying it for a long time, the UK’s academy system is a failure. There’s a reason why all the best players are not from England in its own league, although being the apparent best league in the world we can’t replicate Spain or La liga, whether it be club level or international. Our best academies would rather scout kids abroad rather than look locally. Which makes no sense as these academy players still fail to break into the 1st teams for the most part. And the ones that do happen to get into our academies are usually only there because their parents wanted them to be there so took them there at 8-10 years old which is again stupid because even one of the greatest of all time Messi wasn’t scouted till 14. There’s no reason why the uk doesn’t have its own version of clairefontaine like France does to capture all the talent that are not at professional clubs or implement a system similar to americas where the education system and sports work hand in hand like in basketball, American football etc. It’s frustrating because we have so much talent in the UK but it’s like they don’t want to find the best footballers, there’s a lot of nepotism and closed mindedness which is why our country is limited in some many ways. Just imagine if we had a competitive school league system around each borough, imagine we had an academy centre for talented footballers that are not in the academy system. I believe we’ve probably had the next neymar here but he probably gave up due to the environment he’s grown up in or lack of opportunities. Hopefully they can change it for the next generation
@@beezy_1413 mate absolutely spot on I’ve heard Sean on this podcast literally right kids off at the age of 8/9 because they not in the system what a joke, they keep saying all the players in the most recent England team were at academy’s at 9 well maybe that’s why we can’t win anything and just play in moments if needs a change, it’s all geared for big kids at 9 years and if your not that there’s no point, the school league is the best idea I’ve heard, my boys go to a secondary school that don’t even play competitive football after year seven it’s pathetic, our education system is working against us, part of the problem is the PE teachers are rubbish and don’t have a clue about football and just want to tick boxes they make excuses for even doing a sports day saying it’s got to be inclusive and then call it off when it rains for 10 minutes, like you said how good would it be to have a proper school league, mind you I don’t think they want boys to be boys these days 🙄
@@beezy_1413 one inaccuracy in your post. Messi was scouted at around six, playing for Newwell Old boys. That’s a pro club in Argentina. so he was in the football system very young. He went to Barca at 13.
English football youth system is not the best but by far it’s not the worst. many players have opportunity to get into academies, and many do. the problem is most don’t make it. If you’re good enough most times you’ll make it. The problem is really for those on the fringes who may or may not become good enough. If Harry Kane was born outside London for example, and Spurs didn’t take a chance, then he’d probably not have made it
44:30 pay attention to easy how it is to end a players career. This guy Richard is a free thinker and understands football.
I seen a kid play last month at a youth competition I went to Belfast for. I watched him the whole tournament and he was the standout by miles. I spoke to his parents who where really nice people apart from his local boys club he is unsigned but very young, so probably because of his age. Just starting secondary school Ithey said the boys model in Belfast which has a great soccer history and reputation.
Honestly touch skill speed kid was the full package.
Kyle Higginson. His name was. I won't forget it and will be looking out for him. I've never seen a kid that good.
Fantastic insight! And great guest to have on.
This resonates with me having spent time trialling at Chelsea, Fulham (twice), Watford, Colchester, Northampton, Scunthorpe, Barnet and Leyton Orient (professional level) and considering the different styles of play. I am building a professional football franchise and so interviews like this, and drawing on my experiences (good, bad and ugly) will hold me in good stead heading into the next stage of my journey.
Thanks again.
I smell bullsh%t
I felt like they are trying to tell him about players like Pirlo or Jorginho where they are not fast, tall or strong yet they brain is so far ahead of other players and he is talking about Mount and De Bruyne which is different type of player. Last English player i would mention would be Carrick. Did so well at United yet didn't play enough for England.
I felt like they were getting frustrated with trying to tell him that but they didn't want to come out too rude.
Carrick didn't play because the media, pundits and FA were obsessed with having Gerrard and Lampard in midfield. It should have been Carrick and Hargreaves with one of Scholes, Lamps or Gerrard
Mount 😂😂😂😂
get your kids playing futsal. Thats all i have to say
Great way to learn skills in a faster format more touches aswell.
We need more community mini pitches everywhere too, I see these about in other countries with good football culture but then we need to somehow change our entire culture to not ruin it also
@@dextersfootball I agree and would have made the video much shorter.
Excellent listen. As a coach the MDT approach is better nowadays to retain and release 👍
SENSATIONAL insight! Great great content 👏🏽
I like the fact that he said “players needs to have the ability to dominate 1v1’s “ this technical aspect gets trained out of players in the academy system. Most of the young kids continue to develop the technical ability with coaches like Mateo Esposito and others by having 121 sessions only to go back at their club and be told to play quick fast football 1-2touches
Dominating 1v1 isn't necessarily technical. Strength and acceleration helps hugely.
Playing fast 1-2 touches however requires technical ability and is a focus in countries like Spain where Rondos dominate training drills. The FA's new development programme for girls highlights the FA's focus on 1v1 requirement instead of 1-2 touch passing. My daughter's grassroots team dominates their high level league and regularly competes with superleague teams using training focussed on ball retention. None of these girls are deemed good enough to even get in to ETC's let alone the new academy style teams yet they regularly play 'teams' stuffed with ex/future academy players and beat them.
It seems England's future is having lots of Buyako Saka/Jeremy Doku style players without a Rodri/Busquets to actually get them the ball.
@Geokinkladze Yes ball retention, or the lack of it, is the problem.
Another great episode
Very interesting conversation. He’s a smart bloke, but when you asked him about the difference between Spanish and English youth systems, he said the characteristics and things they’re asking for are probably really similar. I have experience watching Spanish youth football and either this just isn’t true or the way these players are produced before they get to academies is totally different. The youngsters are fed with so much information and pushed to become technicians. It’s much more collectivist in its approach. They really play as units rather than individual 7yr olds running around like a pack of bees. Some are now even complaining it’s too much info. They’re so technically and mentally ahead of English players it’s a joke. Also no small matter that English players are largely uneducated working class kids. The Spanish team is much more mixed
Are you suggesting that working class kids have not the intelligence to play football?
@@Hiprich actually I’m not. There are very intelligent working class kids. And we all know that those kids often have more guile and trickery about them. But, and I think Bellingham is a good example of this, kids from other classes and backgrounds, who are perhaps a bit more academic and polished, can often handle more information and deal with more situations on the pitch. Many of the Spanish players are well spoken and clearly think quite deeply about the game. In fact, not just Spanish, we see it with French, German and Italian players. The English game is so working class dominant, which isn’t good from a just cultural diversity perspective either. You’d think any team would thrive with a greater mix of characters and backgrounds
@@HM-mw7cg you have raised some thoughtful points. I am wondering, though, what you make of the Brazilians my friend. Would be interesting to hear your thoughts on that 😊
@@Hiprich funnily enough I lived in Brazil for three years and worked with young footballers…albeit in a deprived neighbourhood of São Paulo. The thing that shocked me was just what great team players they were. I saw 7-10 yr olds pass and move in ways I didn’t in London and Essex. This was mainly street court football. Most of them learnt how to time nutmegs perfectly at a young age, because taking the piss was more valuable than scoring goals. The best of them had street smarts too, always looking to fool you with a look or hesitation. They’d play every night in the courts, something English kids can’t do much of anymore because most courts are now pay to play and the motivation isn’t even there when half your would-be teammates are inside playing video games. There’s a myth of the dirt poor Brazilian player, but the truth is that most of the kids who make it have either a decent family structure or one strong and stable parent/sibling around. Most of the best kids I saw had way too much madness going on in their personal lives to ever make it. Parental drug use, open sex at home, needing to work at a young age…unimaginable stuff for us in Europe. While amazingly talented, those were the sorts of kids who just could not be disciplined for long. Some of them even got taken across the country to some club or another, but they couldn’t turn up to training on time or quickly got hooked on girls, drugs, gangs etc. It’s really hard to add the structure required to make it in modern football to a kid’s life when he’s had zero structure since birth. But in terms of talent pool, Brazil is ridiculous. It’s not like every single person can play, but the ones who can all have a baseline of technical ability that’s above what you see anywhere else bar maybe Spain. The under 10s I saw were all way ahead of their English age mates in touch, passing, skills, agility with the ball at their feet… And they’re practising new and genuinely wacky skills all day long. One thing catches on in the neighbourhood and before long they’re all doing it. Fascinating place for football fans. Football culture and training, and style for that matter, is quite different from region to region though
With all due respect I don't think an academic education makes a better player it's a combination of skill, hard work, attitude, and ability to take information.
Angel Gomes could be that player but gets overlooked because of his size. Was often played as a #10 or out wide throughout his academy years when he should have been playing central midfield.
Pirlo was played as a 10 early on i remember seeing him play as a 10 behind the striker in Italy's under 21.
Wow I thought Andros only made it cause of his dad but that determination is ridiculous. Kudos
54:04
Thats the biggest mistake 1v1 and stay on the ball.
Thats why we dont develop game controllers
what nonsense - at the younger age groups developing ability on the ball is paramount rather than just treating it like a hot potato. I'm guessing this guy knows a bit more than you given his background, Mr Armchair....
Do you think Messi was told to just pass it when he was a kid?
@@itsinthetreesitscoming7431 Okay calm down no 1 am not mr amrchair am actually involved in football.
no2 many guests on this channel have echoed the exact same concerns about early training methods.
no need to name call pal.
be civil
we can all agree to disagree and we all can voice our opinion
Right on, came to comment this too. You want a deep lying playmaker type guy, don't coach the kids to not pass...
One of the questions i have, are the players (not in A teams) playing a decent lvl of competition ie Barcelona B (Barcelona athletic ) are playing La Liga 2 with professionals. This lvl of competition in Catalonia (Barcelona) goes right down to Under 10s(even though they do not start F11 until Under 13s…In Spain Under 13s to U18s play regionally, and best leagues are in National leagues before entering Pro leagues!!!!
Barcelona Athletic play in the third-tier Primera Federación, which isn't considered professional football. Still, it’s a quality league with historic clubs trying to make their way back to elite football, like Real Zaragoza or Deportivo de la Coruña, who were recently promoted to LaLiga 2 (Hypermotion).
@@dionyulloa8298 thanks for the correction. A friend obviously mis-told me.. but as you say, still a competitive league for up and coming young pros..
Wharton is that exact type of midfielder. He's very much a Carrick mould player and really needs the national midfield built around him.
Fantastic and interesting episode. A great question to benchmark were England should strive, “why are Spain and Portugal players/Coaching ahead? More small sided games and leagues, more tournaments, more plsy and different levels of Competition & Coaches on the grass…Each player must have a decent lvl of ability and a “Superskill” or “WoW Skill”. But football IQ is so difficult to spot
UK elite system completely unable to produce a Jorginho or Rodri because they release and jog those players on. Way before they ever got near first team.
Even when we had a player like that in Scholes we played them at LM and he retired early in disgust.
I have a grass roots Football Club and the scouts come to us when the players are really young.
Parents will bring the kids to us around 4 years old to develop them. But if you are around 12 Years old the only way you will get into an academy is if your grass roots Club plays in a really good youth league or if you play for the district or the County FA Team.
At County level most of the players already play for Professional academy and that’s where the scouts will be. When you get to 15 & 16 the academy players are at the stage where they will be moving up to the U18 Team, you have to be better than the players who have been there since they were 7 or 8. You will also have an additional problem, the parents of the established players will not take to you if your there to dislodge their kid.
Your next step will be to go to a Non-League academy and work your way up. Good luck😢
What is LM?
@@scriptkiddy1492 Left Midfield
@@scriptkiddy1492 Left Midfield.
The issue being his natural position was the controller in centre midfield, but he could never play there as the manager had to lump Gerrard and Lampard in the same team. Two players who never played well together for england ever.
@@richard_M7116 basically are you saying only chance a kid has is to start at 4 to have proper chance at making it pro, the each year that goes by the harder it gets
Brilliant episode 👏🏼
54:15 Rodri is not a dribbler.
Lets just be honest and say it how it is.
We dont pay importance to developing a 6 who is a controller the only 6 we want if any is a distroyer and we dont even have many of them.
We want 8 box to box.
Untill our methods change we will keep getting same results.
Spot on
Well, someone developed Kalvon Philips and Jonjo
@@joachimschmidt7662 calvin phillips and jonjo shelvey.... really?
your comparing them to rodri xavo busquets pirlo jorjinho
they are not even game controllers to begin with if anything they are game destroyers
have u seen peps recent comments on calvin?
@@joachimschmidt7662 if englands claim to fame for game controllers is jonjo shelvey and calvin phillips we are doomed
calvin phillips at 28 no one even wants to touch him right now.
sorry but this was a weird comment from urself
@@LOOKING-FOR-GLAZE-GALAXY you say hes not a dribbler, but his body, ball and movement “DECEPTION/DISGUISE is masterful. If you Watch him carefully he is a HYBRID of the perfect English /Spanish player. He has the skill of the spanish and strength of an English bulldog. The ball sticks to his feet like glue (Bribbler) and if you fall for his trickery, he goes past you with ease… i would say, hes got the skills of a static dribbler with excepcional awareness and passing skill. But what makes him and all world class midfielders, is his football IQ & Skill
Thank you! so fascinating.
Football IQ definitely gets missed, because the irony is you have to have said IQ to notice it in others. That's why physicality is always rewarded in age group football, because it's easy for any pleb to observe and quantify it. Unfortunately physically and physical feats are just proxies of talent, not actual talent.
Yes. A big problem was the big 14/15 year olds were bigger, stronger, faster and fitter than the rest and it made them look significantly better until maybe 18 when the rest caught up. The problem is the "rest" got dropped way before then so there was nobody left but the big players left with one or two exceptions.
Brilliantly noted
Brian clough said it very well would you learn to drive from some one that can’t drive
My point being many of scouts or coaches have never played at an elite level
I am not saying that all of it but there should be a lot less emphasis on winning and learning to play developing fundamentals
Football is a simple game of passing and receiving the ball !
This will be interesting
Most his work at Spurs has been undone. They've reverted back to scouting athletes first, and technicians second. How do you engrain a new philosophy into a clubs DNA - that'd be worth exploring?
The problem is the volume of football the youngsters have to play in academies they need to be physically capable
Big strong players shame messi would of been overlooked by many
14:06 - 200 right foot, 200 left foot finishes - AFTER training 😮
1:17:18
Political answer, My son is at a cat 1 academy the younger ages dont have any drills for awareness decision making scanning etc.
They would only see tht from the kids in small sided games.
@@LOOKING-FOR-GLAZE-GALAXY it depends on his age and his lvl of development. But, no doubt SSGs, futsal and regular challenging competition is required so these skills can be tested and learnt. Of course you should be getting the best Coaching at that lvl, so hopefully he is getting it
Isn't it worrying that very young kids are being treated like commodities ? Under 9s ???? For god's sake
Am sorry the germans asking us about set pieces is that success?
Interesting, because Euro 24 was not a success in terms of this tournament compared to past tournemounts under Mr Southgate. Even though we have world clsss passers/crossers of the ball, it makes me think crosses above the knee lvl are dead…
Harry Kane’s example emphasis the importance of playing and personal attitude. To improve you must have a development growth & development attitude, a resilient mindset and understand the importance of hard work & practice. Finally, you will only become a Brilliant footballer with practice. You need to play otherwise you will not improve and never reach peak potential…
He's also an example of how we've come along way with our development of kids but still a long way to go. If we're considering dropping a player because of the month he's born in there's something seriously wrong with the system. The whole point is to make international footballers but if you're still gonna drop a kid at 11 because he's born in July what chance are you giving yourself.... Makes no sense.
Its interesting that Top Academies do not produce world class 6, they are not as vsluable as a 7,8,9,10 or 11, its all about the financial outcomes, maybe thats why many Coaches do not understand what a 6 does and therefore they fall under the radar…
I feel like so much footballing talent is never found because of the way things are setup in England. Most kids play football for fun, they don't even think about making it as a professional footballer as they aren't told of that being a possibility - there is no opening. You are only going to make it by the luck of a scout appearing at a boys match and you playing well in that single match. I played boy's football and who knows if a scout ever came to watch our team - it's probably unlikely anyone did. Why don't we have setups in every town / city where, for example, in the town of Crawley you have ~4 teams in each age group which are all interlinked. You have an A, B, C and D team. The aim is to get the best players in the A or B teams. Then scouts from Premier League clubs come and watch the A and maybe the B team. The whole point in this system would be for local areas to get their best players into 2 specific teams. The system would also motivate young kids to aim to get into that A team and be the best 11+ players in that town at their specific age group. Kids would improve with this motivation of knowing they could become a professional footballer.
The harsh reality is if you're not in a football team by 7/8 you're even less likely to surpass the insurmountable odds. Kids playing in the academy at 8 will be so far ahead of kids only just starting to play football at 10 that's it's almost impossible for them to catch up. The academy kids will be training 3x a week compared to once or maybe twice at most to the other kids and their training will be far superior. I didn't start playing football until 10, played against an academy for pre season and soon realised how far ahead these kids were compared to me. If you're not in the academy you literally need to be practising every day to give yourself even a small chance of getting there as their training and coaching will be 10x better and more efficient than your Saturday league coach is gonna give you.
I've seen many boys come through to academy level at 12, 13 and still Gon on and thrive. It all depends on his up bringing, size and technical ability. The majority of the academies are average at best (my boy was at an academy from 6 - 14 yes old).
where can you access the educational modules for coaches/players
If your children want to play football just let them have fun, 5 a side or in the playground or the street is what its all about. Dont put them in any structured organised system. The whole grassroots system introduces success and failure too early into a child's life. Fun fun fun. Not winner or loser
Did he just say you suddenly can’t become a dribbler past age 13? I don’t see why not
it’s harder for sure.
I think he means, you’re not going to become a too class ball carrier, like Neymar, Hazard, Sane. You can certainly learn to dribble but it’s not going to be what you’re known for
Great video but the rediculous background sound is too loud and drives me insane.
I am a player who is in a situation where the chance of me being scouted is very low because I am an American who playes for a smallish school, I probably wont get onto my club team due to a weird situation and I am a dm who has very little flair. What would you suggest to someone like me so that I could get on a scouts radar.
If you're good enough there are so many opportunities to show your abilities, even through data, video and AI examples so where you are and who you play should never limit you anymore.
What age are you?
If you are a defensive type player and not already signed by the age of 12, then you have very little chance of making it.
When you see a lot of the players who make it very few signed as pure defensive type players. Scouts are looking for players who can do it all and will then adapt those players to specific positions.
@lukebignell7846 I am 16, but the way I play is that in Buildup, I play a little back to provide options to my other midfielders or CBs or anyone else but once we get to the attacking 3rd I usually push up to a little outside the box or up farther if I see space in the box for a easy pass and tap in.
In short, I play as a mix of a 6 and 8.
the american system is very different to the British or European system.
You just have to keep grinding it out. Go to the coaches and ask where you can improve and take responsibility of the factors you can control. I am not sure of the system there as I coached out their 20 years ago, but get some game tape on Hudl or equivalent. Write to MLS or A-League (if that still exists for trials). Work harder than anyone else and be super open to feedback and most importantly be honest with yourself - enjoying football as an amateur has its rewards and it is the reality for 99.99% of people.
Can someone explain why what month you were born is so important ? What makes a summer baby better than a early year baby ?
At younger ages had a bigger impact due to the extra months of growth in physical strength depending on when birthday is vs cut off.
Because at a young age even 6 months can make a difference in physical development. In Canadian ice hockey they switched to having two teams per age year
Freakonomics touches on this and so does Malcolm Gladwell. We aimed to have an older child for the year to take advantage of this, on the off chance
Another reason to consider; elitist attitude in English football in the sense that players are usually scouted in the working class area instead of all walks of life. Thus most players that enter English football academies come from a relatively less educated with working class background, rarely if ever they come from more educated families. As if they are allergic to the more privileged and/or educated people.
I don't disagree with what you've said. However, working class families have a different view and see football as one of the only ways out of poverty. They tend not to push their children into education leaving them with less options in the future. A kid brought up middle/upper class has education drilled into them from very early on. They'll be into numerous sports and other after school activities not just football. They will have 3/4 plans on what to do after school. They will have 10x the opportunities compared to a working class kid that it's not the be all and end all if they don't make it. Percentage wise education is still the smartest option as 99% of the working class academy players still won't make it and they just put their whole life into it compared to the other kid who's got lots of other talents and paths he can go down.
@@willnestor6422 gambling education for sport is the stupidest move one can ever do in life, considering chances to succeed is only less than 0.001 percent.
English clubs and scouts should pick players for their academies with no regards to their family nor education backgrounds; a baller means a baller. Family background should never be given priority nor compassion. Everything is based on merit. When accepted education should be number 1 priority. Fail exam once and get banished from the academy, forever. No second chance. That is what Ajax Amsterdam is doing and no one can dispute how good they are at producing talents as often as we change our underwear.
Those from working class and/or less educated backgrounds should never use sports as the way to get out of poverty. Can't make it in academic then trade jobs are always there; available, constantly in demand, and well paid.
@@wanr5701 I don't disagree with what you've said but these families are not necessarily gambling their kids life with football. They're not focusing on education in the first place regardless of whether they play football or not. I've got mates where their kids are in the bottom half of school at best but they're not bothered. They seem to think as long as their kid goes to school it's not their problem. Some kids will just be smart and good at school regardless but there's a large percentage that need the structure and support from their parents to put the effort in. In a lot of working class families this is simply not there. It's simply not a priority for them.
@@willnestor6422 either way, I really can't comprehend the need for English clubs and scouts to prefer working class areas over scouting all areas equally. They really didn't do themselves any favour by omitting youths with better education and supposedly the source of more intelligent players. Germany's World Cup 2014 winning squad, more than half of the players are graduates from Gymnasium which is as prestigious as elite boarding schools in England. Not forget to mention that Mario Gotze who scores the winning goal is a son of a university professor.
It is a pure hypocrisy that English football practiced elitism when they themselves claimed that football aren't elitist.
@@wanr5701 claiming that having a preference for working class players is ‘elitist’ is one of the most backwards and perverse things I’ve ever heard. The working class by definition are not ‘elite’.
Professional football in England has always been a working class game and this has been the case since Blackburn Olympic beat Old Etonians in the 1883 FA Cup Final.
Gymnasiums in Germany are the equivalent of the old grammar school system we had in this country, not the same as public/boarding schools.
At the end of the day you are asking why there is a preference for people who have low social mobility in one of the few outlets available for them to advance their status in society as compared to people who have far more opportunities available for lucrative careers other than football. Rugby Union and Cricket are also relatively more popular amongst the more privileged so the sportsmen amongst them are more likely to chose sports other than football.
That the people with more opportunities to do other things choose to do those things other than football shouldn’t be surprising.
They scout kids that are larger/more developed for their age group (aka earlier puberty). The other other kids will catch up later but hy then it's too late for their football careers
Lee Hayes was a baller!
the reason Spurs never chose players from Harringay and surrounding areas was their "color bias" it was well known that they didn't want a lot of black players at the club back then until he came along .
who came along
Rare insights on the sport of football from academy directors. This podcast is better than vegan UA-camr Earthling Ed.
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Hahaha I don’t know who eartling Ed is but I’m glad that you prefer our podcast 😂
We appreciate you and will keep working to release regular episodes.
Absolutely no surprise nobody rated Kane as a youngster, unremarkable ability on the ball, purely carried by ability to score. And I don’t agree with what he said about strikers, finding scorers is the easy part, it’s finding them who are skilled which is difficult. So many of them rely on service rather than being good ball carriers and also decision making, a lot of them are just shoot on sight.
I’ve been saying it for a long time, the UK’s academy system is a failure. There’s a reason why all the best players are not from England in its own league, although being the apparent best league in the world we can’t replicate Spain or La liga, whether it be club level or international. Our best academies would rather scout kids abroad rather than look locally. Which makes no sense as these academy players still fail to break into the 1st teams for the most part. And the ones that do happen to get into our academies are usually only there because their parents wanted them to be there so took them there at 8-10 years old which is again stupid because even one of the greatest of all time Messi wasn’t scouted till 14. There’s no reason why the uk doesn’t have its own version of clairefontaine like France does to capture all the talent that are not at professional clubs or implement a system similar to americas where the education system and sports work hand in hand like in basketball, American football etc. It’s frustrating because we have so much talent in the UK but it’s like they don’t want to find the best footballers, there’s a lot of nepotism and closed mindedness which is why our country is limited in some many ways. Just imagine if we had a competitive school league system around each borough, imagine we had an academy centre for talented footballers that are not in the academy system. I believe we’ve probably had the next neymar here but he probably gave up due to the environment he’s grown up in or lack of opportunities. Hopefully they can change it for the next generation
england litreally rebuilt there youth system with the elite player develpoment plan. They use st geroge park as their own version of clairefontaine. You're actually waffling while using points that are outdated. England have one of the best national teams in the world rn. I'm not even an England fan and I can see the vast improvements in their youth system.
Your example of Messi is misleading as he was playing for Newell's old boys youth teams before his family reached out to get him over to Spain for medical treatment. If he'd have been based in Europe he'd have been snapped up as an 8 year old,
@@tyrellking6332 you don’t know what clairefontaine is, clearly as nobody at St George’s park is a free agent, the youth system here is terrible, in comparison to where it should be. Stop being overly patriotic to realise that, the whole Spanish football as a whole improved, English football has not improved. Our top academies are not filled with local talent. And the scouting system is a failure
@@Geokinkladze and if my nan had wheels she’d be a bike, life doesn’t work out like that, no ifs and buts only absolutes. He wasn’t brought over at 8 but 14 which is a big reason as to why he developed to the player he did and are you really trying to compare the facilities of that team to a top club like Barcelona. Like be real my guy.
@@tyrellking6332 and England players benefit from the premier league being good but I wouldn’t say they are in top5 best teams in the world footballing wise, and they should be. England play timid football and struggle to beat teams that they are supposed to be 100s of ranks above, as we say in the lead up to the euros and in it, without 1 convincing win. Oh and I’m telling you this as an England fan that has lived in England their whole life,
Whats the name of the program or camera he is talking about at 1:24:51
I love all this talk about how the English always had these “big strong lads” on the national team. I went back and looked at the 1990 WC team that played in the semis, and only Butcher, Wright, Shilton in goal, and Waddle were 6 feet or over. Gazza was not tall, nor Platt, or Lineker or Beardsley. Paul Parker was a midget. And in terms of physique, none apart from maybe Stuart Pearce or Shilton were that imposing. So mainly, a bunch of 5’7 to 5’10” guys weighing between 10 to 12 stone.
They weren’t even that big for that era, Germany and Holland had much more imposing players.
I think English football has a lot of myths that just don’t stand up to scrutiny. England teams of the past were not only technically inferior, they weren’t as big and strong as people like to remember.
1990 is a long time ago. Probably the beginning of players starting to take their diet and fitness seriously. Look at the 2002 team and you have a couple 5"9 guys then Darius Vassell 5"7 as the smallest the rest are all bigger. I think it's more than just about height. The other nations looked at England as a big physical team because they didn't have much else going for them, not that they were all necessarily bigger than the other teams. The dutch have pretty much the highest average height on the planet but they're not known for having only tall players...
Did it have to do with race?? Being a black lad people automatically assume your bigger or more imposing than you actually are. Quite a few black lads on 02 squad.
Can you fix the audio on Spotify. I can barely hear Marcelo.
Oh sorry. I didn’t realise. I will talk to team
It’s been fixed now. Sorry about that
@@ProjectFootballer thank you!
So Tim Sherwood wanted to sell Harry Kane.....Funny cos he says it was the football club that wanted him sold.
Bro game intelligence is something can not be taught in football, it’s also part of board genetics scouting should take account into academy selection at younger ages, not just looking into physical and technical abilities, vision, anticipation and positioning those attributes can be seen at 7, 8 years old grassroots game …….intelligent players will turn into intelligent scouts/coaches/managers one day, they in turn have the ability to create/select more intelligent players for next generation.
i'd rather have a player who loves football like kane than a player who is just there for the money like Ozil
They made the right decision not paying attention to Kane at a young age, he’s just ordinary on the ball, their eye test didn’t let them down.
@@CodPatrol i think Kane deserves his Pro contract, he scores lots of goals. I just think from an Englsnd piont of view, why both Southgate and Kane think he should play No.6, No.8 , No. 10 position and everything apart from his No.9 position “Fox in and aroubd the box”. Its staggeribg to me that Southgate said he was struggling with fitness snd sharpnesz, yet he let him run aroubd the pitch like a headless chicken… The word football Stupidity cone to mind!!!! Esp when England were playing with 2 wingers 🤭
As Michael Owen said, you DON'T have to be a good footballer to play in the Premier League any longer. You just have to be an athlete who is robotic and learns a 'system'. Actual talent, skill and a footballing brain is a disadvantage in our ever decreasing league. England's senior team has had 3 tournaments on the bounce where they have had ridiculously easy draws against awful teams and yet they still managed to lose each time they faced a decent team. Our UK players get worse each season, and the majority of the best players in our league are foreign. Prime Michael Owen would be worth £200 million in this league.
Honestly, this is a pretty rubbish comment. The prem and the national team are at a much higher standard technically than when he was playing. Players like Bellingham, Foden, Palmer, Trent are very technically gifted. The problem isn’t ability, it management/tactics.
The players are now much more tactically agile, many prem clubs playing in different styles. Spurs, Liverpool, Arsenal, Brighton, Manchester City all playing truly top class football. England's failures are all on the FA and their safety first attitude to recruitment
Same old story.
English grass roots about winning.
Not developing.
Football is three things.
Pass
Shoot
Dribble
That's it.
Parents pick their son's or daughters.
Coaches pick their favourites
Managers pick their wing men.
Some of the best players never make it
And that is mostly because of the system
Who you know
Not what you know.
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I signed him, then him...
Can you take an average boy who is siting half game and rise him to the top? No..
Just bla bla bla
Isn't that part of being a coach. Improving a player.
All you guys do nowadays is creating robots not football players. The game is getting more and more boring due to the inability of a lot of players to dribble and improvise!!!
40:58
Are there diversity quotas in English youth scouting?
Clearly over quotas , but no one saying a ting blud
If England have terrible managers it’s wasted.
No World Cup-winning experience from ANYONE. Check out the children on Spain's wings. Need that 'doing it' experience. Anything else in the same old, same old from when I played back the 80's. NO CHANGE, NO TROPHIES LOTS OF CHITTER-CHATTER.
1:06:00