The Production Line: Coaches and Players in the English Game

(Image: Birmingham Football Association)

Forty-eight years without a major tournament win. A large part of the footballing community blames a lack of success for England’s national team on the quality of coaching from grassroots upwards. 

Many ex-players and coaches have commented that the gulf in class between kids and young adults in this country compared to those on the continent and even in South and Central America is getting ever wider.

 

Our top leagues benefit from the talents of foreign players plying their trade here, whereas very few have gone the other way. Jonathan Woodgate and Michael Owen were qualified flops when giving Real Madrid a try - the former fairing worse than the latter, of course.

 

But as an overall assessment, it took pretty dire circumstances for the FA to finally put into action a programme of improvement. Failure after failure from our national side has been both baffling and concerning - each generation of players is heralded as ‘golden’ but never manages anything more than shortfall.

 

Strength in Numbers?

 

The FA’s Developing World-Class Coaches and Players report in 2008 made a point of highlighting the sad fact that English football is falling behind the rest of the major competing nations in tournaments.

 

An immediately obvious problem when compared to most - but not all - footballing nations, is the way coaching is both viewed and how it is executed, particularly at UEFA B, A and Pro license levels.

 

“In comparison to our European counterparts, we do not place the same degree of importance on the status of coaching in this country. This must change if we are going to progress.”

This was the opening gambit of John Peacock, the Head of Senior Elite Coach Development at the FA. As the current England under-17s manager, he also sees first-hand how coaching reaps the desired rewards.

He successfully guided his Young Lions to two UEFA European Under-17 Championship victories in 2010 and 2014.

"It's not just a numbers game - it's not about producing mediocre or above average players - it's very much about producing top players and more of them."

 

This was Peacock’s comment on player production following the unceremonious exit from the 2010 World Cup of the England senior team; it’s not just about having a huge pool to choose from, but a pool good enough to pick truly outstanding talent from.

 

What has been done?

 

The grand opening of St George’s Park in October 2012 was meant to mark the culmination of the efforts made in the above report to genuinely improve both coaches and players, not only in volume but also in ability.

 

The 330-acre, £105million facility in Burton-on-Trent was met with a lukewarm reception because of the stop/start nature of its completion and purpose. The project was halted in 2004 whilst Wembley Stadium was being built and was only restarted in 2008 with the insistence of Sir Trevor Brooking that it be done with by 2010 - another deadline it was destined to miss.

 

It was John Peacock's Under-17 squad, or his "Burton Guinea Pigs", that got to use the facility first in August of 2012. "From a development point of view it's fantastic and the facilities are second to none” he told the BBC.

 

“In terms of the quality of the pitches and the environment it is conducive to learning and education. From a coach education perspective it is the same.”

 

So, it passed the standard set by the top dogs on appearance. But the real acid test will be in delivering the substance. The elite game has moved on so dramatically since 1966 that any solutions being employed now will only bear fruit in another decade or so.

 

The victories enjoyed by England’s teenagers are a good sign that youth players are competing with their Spanish, French and German opponents.

 

The proposed solution appears to be two-fold: placing coaches in a higher category of professional recognition, and; putting enjoyment before competition in coaching youth players.

 

Under the cloak of damaging expectation, our players are burdened by the fear of failure. Maybe encouraging pleasure over pressure from a young age will give them the freedom they require to win.