|
Capello’s just a start – England
must go Dutch to become world beaters
John Dickens
http://www.sportingo.com
Saturday, May 4 2008
It's all right having an Italian
coach but the FA must look further abroad and start
developing young players along the lines of France and
the Netherlands.
The debate over whether the FA were right to look abroad
and appoint another foreign coach is still fresh on
the lips of many England fans – but the answer
to England’s problems could lie in applying foreign
influences at a different level.
Fabio Capello cannot guarantee England future success
– but implementing the foreign approach into the
English youth development set-up can.
Last year UNICEF produced a league table of child well-being
in rich countries. Focusing on 21 industrialised countries,
UNICEF looked at 40 indicators including poverty, family
relationships and health. The UK was bottom. Sitting
at the top of the league was the Netherlands.
“In terms of what Holland does better than us
in developing their youngsters, it’s not just about
football,” said Paul Cooper, of the English based
DutchUK football school. “England’s problem
lies deeper than just football – it’s our
society and culture.”
Cooper set up the DutchUK football school alongside
colleague Bert-Jan Heijmans. Every year the pair take
around 30-40 English football coaches to witness the
different culture and structure of youth development
in the Netherlands.
Cooper added: “The child is always the centre
of their football – not the coaching. Their whole
attitude is based on a child and community-based culture.
“From travelling to Holland with the football
school, I visited a club and saw a boy playing in the
under-6 team. His dad played for the second team and
his granddad was in the 10th team. They have true community
clubs.”
In terms of coaching, England has also fallen behind
the rest of Europe. The Premier League only signed up
to UEFA's coaching rules in 2003, resulting in all the
major European footballing nations having more coaches
with the ‘A’ Licence and Pro Licence than
in England.
Sir Trevor Brooking, the Football Association’s
Director of Football Development, emphasises the need
for much better quality coaches working in the younger
age groups. He said: “At the moment anyone who’s
any good quickly goes through the system and is coaching
16-plus because that’s the only place he’s
going to get any money, whereas in other countries they
pay quality people to stay in the five to 11s and to
stay in the 11 to 16s.”
Brooking also views the proposed national football
centre in Burton as a key change in how England produces
its footballers.
The NFC was intended to be a training camp for all
England teams as well as act as a focal point for the
FA’s coaching and development work – similar
to French football’s Clairefontaine centre.
Helene Schrub, head of communications of the FC Metz
academy, said: “Would the English national team
benefit from a structure like Clairefontaine? I am not
too sure. The national school is important in France
because one fifth of our population is concentrated
in the Paris region – where there is only the single
professional club, Paris Saint Germain.
“A Clairefontaine in England would perhaps be
less effective because the English population is not
particularly concentrated in a single region. The training
centres of the professional clubs should answer for
the needs of the population.”
Metz, along with many of the French football academies,
has an impressive list of recent graduates, most notably
Emmanuel Adebayor, Robert Pires and Louis Saha.
The European Champions League provides strong evidence
of France’s dominating influence in producing quality
players. There are more French players in the Champions
League than any other European country – only Brazil
produces more footballers.
As Aime Jacquet testifies, the continued success of
France in churning out young stars is the result of
a long, painstaking, carefully planned process to organise
and teach football in an entirely new way.
Jacquet managed the France's World Cup winners of 1998
before moving into directing the national coaching and
development programme. The on-off Burton National Football
Centre is only a small step towards following the French
example.
Tottenham’s sporting director, Damien Comolli,
has told BBC Sport: “For me, the difference is
the quantity of training in England and France. Over
four years, between the ages of 12 and 16, a French
boy would receive 2,304 hours of training. That is twice
as much as in England – where you would be given
1,152 hours.
“Those four years are crucial – it is difficult
to catch up when you are 17 or 18.”
Watford are the first English club to re-work their
academy – geared towards the European way. The
school, based on a Dutch system, provides youngsters
with football training fitted around their education,
which results in the boys participating in three times
the amount of coaching of 12 to 16-year-olds that is
standard in most of the English academies.
Paul Cooper believes that although the English culture
and mentality to “win at all costs” is proving
detrimental to developing our youngsters, but with a
little foreign influence, it could give England the
edge on other countries.
“When I go to Holland, they say, ‘teach us
about your country’s passion and about your commitment’.
They don’t naturally have it in their make-up whereas
England does.
“Holland makes this up with their education and
development. If we could just say to ourselves, we’ve
got this passion for the game and will to win - we would
always start one up on virtually any other nation.
“The trouble is that’s all we ever concentrate
on
|
