My problem with English football

As i stated in my first post i have a passion for football. I was like many young boys dreaming of being a professional footballer and representing my country. So after the disappointment of the major tournaments for England i see many articles from journalists that blamed the passion of players or blamed the manager for the awful, dull performances. I agree to disagree with many of these articles about England first team and due to the vast coverage and debate on the First team i’d like to cover my own age group, England u19’s and my reason for this is i want to give people an insight into where i believe the problem begins for our national game.

A little bit of history on this age group…

This team is currently playing in the European championships in the same way our first team did in France this summer. They are playing in Germany in a tournament which includes only the 8 best teams in Europe, therefore the qualifying is far far tougher and this also means that you cant hide in a group with ‘easier’ opponents, you will end up with two of the top footballing nations in Europe in your group like Germany France or Spain. Now two years ago this group of players won the under17 tournament in Malta, beating Holland on penalties (something which is very unusual for us English football fans). This was a great achievement for this team, some who i have personally played against. This had only been achieved once before by an England u17 team in 2010.

The squad today…

The current squad has 9 members who won the under-17 tournament two years ago which could prove to be a good asset to have later on in the tournament. Now many of these players come from premier league club academies, and these academies are something i will discuss in another post. These players have been stuck in such a perfect environment at their clubs and on international duty where everything is done for them so they can solely focus on football something which this group of players are succeeding at right now at their respective age groups. The problem is the progression moving forward and looking to break into the first team, this is not being shown at club level let alone national team level.

The rise of Marcus Rashford…

Look at Marcus Rashford the Manchester United teenager who got his chance in the first team at his club and never looked back. His break through was incredible and Marcus ended the season by going to the European Championships with the England first team. Marcus Rashford’s rise was so fast that he actually skipped through the national age groups and i thinks this proves that we do have the young players in our academies up and down the country i just feel the opportunities are lacking for these players who do show so much promise at youth level.

I think there are many issues with football in England and i will discuss many points in the future but i think a good place to start is the talented players we already have, not just in this current England under-19 team but in many age groups within the national setup. Its important to give players the opportunities to compete at the highest level in the mens game as they have proven they can at youth level. If anyone else is interested in this topic i am happy to discuss further.