the FA should create a kind of England 'club', which uses mostly English players and enter it into the English league system starting at League two. It should have an elite academy to develop and bring through it's own players, which should be solely English, and could sell some of it's young players to other clubs to make money. Bigger clubs could loan young English players to the club also, for example any players eligible for the England u21 team could spend half a season loaned to the FA 'club' playing together. Eventually the 'club' could get promotion to the championship and then even premier league, with hopefully lots of players eligible for the senior national team training and playing together every week, so when they play together in the main national side, they would know each other much better.
No. The young English talent is already in the lower leagues and maybe Roy Hodgson recognises that. The change needs to be in stopping selections constantly from Premier League clubs that continue to steal our young talent (money talks). Just look at the discussions around Terry/Ferdinand situation, people think these Premier league players have some divine right to be in the team.
No because if you look at teams in League 2 most of them have English players, at Gillingham we mainly have English players and also we have quite a few young ones, also if you look at teams like Crewe who have a great academy, they also have a lot of English players.
Maybe the FA could begin by recognising the fact that Football exists outside the Premier League. That would be a start.
No. Brooking has already begun implementing the changes to our youth systems and the way they train, which should see us produce a better quality player for international level. But it'll be a while before we see much benefit from this work. We're stuck with being mediocre for at least 5-10 years. The other thing which needs to change is the need for a winter break. We are paggered when we get to the summer, we need to get with the times in terms of how we prepare our bodies for a summer tournament.
Yeah spot on that is their problem, with that new rule on youth players being taken from the small clubs and going to the big clubs for small amounts of cash, that is totally wrong, it is like what the government do, taking from the poor to give to the rich. I think for young talented players top clubs should have to pay a premium price.
I think it's too 'romantic' an idea. In county cricket there is a team called the Unicorns in the Clydesdale Bank 40 competition. The Unicorns are made up of 'free agents'; young players without a contract with any of the First Class counties. Unfortunately It simply isn't conducive to have such an entity in the league. Maybe a 'rag-tag' band of out of contract players could create a squad to enter the qualifying rounds of the FA Cup, but not in the league. Where would they be based? What support do you think they would get in the league? > Who do you support then? < Chelsea. How about you? > Oh I support Unicorns FC. We were at home to Wycombe last week. We played at Gigg Lane. Our next home game is against Bradford, at Vale Park. I think the word 'Administration' would arrive quicker than a lard-arse at a chip shop's closing down sale
I think you have got that one spot on, that has put the nail in the coffin of that plan, but I think they would never consider anything like this anyway.
Perhaps younger players should be encouraged to go and play outside England or the premier league, in Germany Spain or anywhere to get a different perspective. It would benefit them and their country, but I suppose everything is about fast cars, faster women and me! me! me! these days.
In the future i think there will be 100 players picked from 17 years olds, then narrowed down to 23 squad players over 3 years, and none of the players will play for any league club, just England. They will train, live and work with each other, and every possible combination of players can be used, and play in the under 21 competitions etc.