As the keys
to St George’s Park were finally handed over to the FA last week it seems only
right to explore how this £100 million project is expected to turn around the
fortunes of English football, enabling us to compete with the very best in the
world and perhaps even emulate the iconic success of ’66.
St George’s Park will soon be the home of English football, a
‘centre of excellence’ for all of England’s representative teams. It will be
the base for the England’s men’s team but will also be home to England’s
disabled side, women’s side and the youth teams at every level. More
importantly though St George’s Park will be central to improving the quality of
English coaches and increasing the numbers of English coaches in the game. Coaching
is seen as the ‘golden thread’ leading to international success and when you
look at the number of English coaches in relation to that of Spain, Germany,
Italy and France, four of the most successful countries in Europe, it becomes
clear why we haven’t won an international tournament for 46 long years. In the
latest UEFA report England had 2,769 registered coaches holding the highest
available coaching qualifications (UEFA’s B, A and Pro badges) whilst Germany
had 34,970, Italy 29,420, Spain 23,995 and France 17,588. Is it really any
wonder that we are unable to compete with the very best nations when we only
have a fraction of the number of top class coaches they have? Without a large
network of top coaches how are we supposed to find, nurture and develop
youngsters into world class players? How are we supposed to create a philosophy
that dictates how all English players should play when we have a distinct lack
of qualified coaches to implement that philosophy? And how can we teach our
players the technical ability that is required to be successful at the very top
when we only have one UEFA qualified coach for every 812 people playing the
game in our country?
To be successful on the international stage you need to have
world class players that are capable of winning the games. Spain for example
have Xavi and Iniesta, two of the worlds very best players, with a support cast
of numerous extremely talented footballers, all of which possess extraordinary
technical ability and composure on the ball, willing to receive the ball and
pass it on anywhere on the field. England however lag far behind in this sense,
resting most of our hopes on our one truly world class player, Wayne Rooney.
The technical ability of our players is far below what it should be and this
was proven all too clearly at Euro 2012. Roy Hodgson knew it and as a result
opted to play a disciplined defensive game focused around conceding very few
goals and hoping that we could nick a goal or two at the other end. Nevertheless
whenever we were in possession of the ball we lacked composure and the
technical ability to create many chances. Against Italy in the Quarter-final we
misplaced almost one third of our passes, on top of the fact that we attempted
less than half the amount of passes Italy did. This was telling and ultimately
fatal as it led to a miserly total of just 4 chances created. Italy on the
other hand created 31 chances and although neither team were able to put their
chances away, Italy, guided by the majestic Andrea Pirlo demonstrated just how
large the gulf in class between the two sides was.
Herein lies the problem; we have a distinctly average crop of
players that struggle to maintain possession of the football, even against
weaker teams we seem to struggle to take hold of the game. In both of our
pre-tournament friendlies we ended up seeing less of the ball than the
opposition, Norway and Belgium, ranked 24 and 53 respectively, both of which
failed to qualify for Euro 2012. Seeing less of the ball means fewer chances
can be created and when you do get the ball the pressure is on to do something
with it. Technical ability again crops up as it is the cornerstone of flowing,
attacking football and without it, as England have proven, it is very hard to
achieve anything. Germany had a similar problem back in 2004 that culminated in
the sacking of Rudi Voller from his position as national coach and a complete
overhaul of German football. Jurgen Klinsmann was drafted to lead the ‘German
revolution’ deciding upon a new philosophy for the German national team and
leading them back in the right direction. The ‘German revolution’ is now
bearing fruit with Germany having made it to the final and two semi-finals of
the last three major international tournaments, not to mention the host of very
impressive youngsters that are playing at the very top level of European
football and the many that are closely following in their footsteps. A
German-esque revolution is something English football is in desperate need of, not
mimicking the German way but taking the idea of reform and implementing it into
the English game.
This is where St George’s Park comes into play. It is
England’s answer to Spain’s La Masia and France’s Clairefontaine, it is the
first step on the road to change and one that sets the foundations for the
future. St George’s Park should create a much larger and stronger base of
coaches across England with the FA hoping the number of coaches across England
will more than double by 2018 to almost 250,000 across all levels, thus
enabling us to better educate more youngsters that hold the potential to become
great players of the future. In conjunction with the opening of St George’s
Park the FA created a 275-page document, entitled ‘The Future Game’ which
includes guidelines and requirements for the future develop of players and the
new playing and coaching philosophy of the England national teams.
Now we must wait for the FA to officially open St George’s
Park and from there it will be a good few years before we see the true rewards
from the investment. By no means will it result in a sudden turnaround in
fortunes but it should greatly improve the foundations of English football,
creating a stepping stone for future investments and developments. Similarly St
George’s Park alone will not transform the state of English football; there are
many other areas which needed amending, chief among them the relationship
between the FA and Premier League. It is said that to have a successful
national league the national team will suffer and it couldn’t be truer than in
England. The Premier League is considered as the best league in world football
and that is largely a result of the vast numbers of foreign players that now
play in our league. It is easier, and usually cheaper to buy a good player from
the continent than it is to buy a young English player or to develop your own,
which has greatly affected the number of top youth players being developed in
England. This is just one of many difficulties that face English football but
at least now, with the arrival of St George’s Park it is clear we are making a
change for the better and a brighter future for English football lies on the
horizon. I am not saying we are going to win a World Cup or European
Championship within the next decade but I am more confident now than ever
before that we might just see an English victory at an international tournament
in our lifetime time.
cfreestone
