Scapegoats

The long run-up to England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008 gave pundits and fans plenty of chances to opine on why the Three Lions will be at home next summer. Manager Steve McClaren gets the blame from most. Highly paid Premiership stars caught a lot of stick, too. And, just to balance out the self-flagellation, some have criticised the number of foreign players in the Premiership and the Football League. West Ham manager Alan Curbishley was among those who suggested that Premiership teams should be required to field a minimum number of English players. Meanwhile, the Sports Minister in the British government called for an investigation into the effects of foreign players on the national team.

Martin Samuel of The Times (see below, too), however, said the most important issue is the state of youth football in England. The mistake, as Samuel sees it, is forcing young players to play 11-a-side on a full-sized pitch too early in their development. The mismatch between their size, speed and strength and the size of the pitch leads to a game that is solely about the handful of fast-growing players who have enough strength to kick a clearance. Samuel nicely details how this set-up hurts player development. Well before Samuel's column or the fall qualifiers, the magazine FourFourTwo dedicated a three-part series to youth training in other countries and how England could benefit from those examples. One article in the series specifically addressed the issue of younger kids (around the age of 10 or 11) playing on full-sized pitches and how that stunts their skills development.

I think England would be crazy to require a minimum number of English players on Premiership sides, even if it were legal under European Union law. The league has become the most popular in the world, and messing with that seems ill-advised. Moreover, I don't see how watering down the top domestic league is going to help the England side. Better to ensure that English players get better training and develop into better players. That would be the most direct way to improve the England national team, wouldn't it?