FanchesterCity said:
I'm curious, where's this long history of producing talent?
Southampton have in recent years produced:
Theo Walcott
Gareth Bale
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Adam Lallana
Wayne Bridge
Luke Shaw
Now, that's not a bad list, but it's not earth shattering either. Every now and then a club has a spate of great talent - just like United did with their golden generation, and at THAT time, everybody harped on about how good United's youth system was... then it dried up. We had the same for a while, a batch of great lads coming through like David White and Paul Lake and even before that, we were considered a decent producer of young lads, but it dried up too (not completely, but in comparison with our youth hey day).
With Crewe, the picture is definitely clearer - they did have a quite impressive record of young lads who went through them, but still, quite a few of them were actually taken up by other bigger clubs first, then dropped and sent off or transferred to Crewe. It wasn't like Crewe 'found' them.
I take your point that our super academy isn't going to ruin football and other academies will still exist, but surely if ours is to work, it's going to be capturing more talent from somewhere - we aren't going to develop players from magic dust. Those players we'll grab would have been going elsewhere until we diverted them to us. But say 40 years ago, the facilities difference (for young lads) between Man City and Oldham Athletic would be fairly minimal, the gap now is huge - since PL youth are getting all the trappings and facilities of PL stars (which might be part of our national youth problem!).
That list may not be earth shattering, but it's not shit either considering it contains the most expensive player in the world. I don't think there's one magic bullet that can transform an academy overnight, I believe that a holistic ethos needs to be created that runs like a river throughout the club in question and that ethos needs to be based on skill and tactics from the very earliest ages.
During this World Cup, its been sobering to see how comfortable many of the players are from footballing countries considered below England in the FIFA rankings. I agree wholeheartedly with Vieira's assertions that in England winning at youth level seems to be more important than skill and tactics and there's a lot to be said for that.
The thing that has stood out for most during this World Cup is that teams are trying to win to progress rather than not to lose which is great to see. Seeing the ball being played out from the back and defenders being comfortable enough to bring it forward and develop play from there has also been another stand out element of this World Cup.
In youth football a ruling was recently brought in that when a goal keeper has the ball, the opposition team has to stay in their own half as a way of encouraging teams in possession to play from the back instead of hoofing it up the pitch to the big kid playing up front. I've seen some brilliant matches at the youngest level, but it leaves me wondering what happens to them from such a tender age up until when they become young adults.
Children are children and just because a child is born in Rio, it doesn't automatically transpire that they will be blessed with more skill than a kid born in Rusholme. The skill mindset created by kids who've played Futsal and progressed on to become outstanding professional players also cannot be understated, but rather than something akin to Futsal being the norm in the UK, parents have to pay through the nose for specialist classes where its taught. Even then its mostly shit! I taken my son to two Futsal schools previously and despaired at the disorganised way both were run. I've ended up training him myself and got better results and saved money in the process.
In this country there still seems to be a preoccupation pace and power as opposed to skill and tactical awareness. With the riches on offer for a place in the Premier League, are teams ever going to put performances and an ethos before a win? Some how I think we'll have a very long wait indeed before we see that happening. Until then all I can see is further international disappointment just like this summer.
