Some info on some of Europe's top teams
- Thread starter Zapsta
- Start date
karennina
ciffirt
- Nov 24, 2004
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That lot. Montolivio and Rosina especially.
karennina
ciffirt
- Nov 24, 2004
- 2,820
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Sorry, it doesn't really have any bearing on the thread, I was just chuckling to myself. On subject, Brazil prove you don't need a top league in terms of quality or money to have a good national team, but you do need a place for youngsters to play against the best opposition they are capable of competing with.
Whether we have that in England I don't know, but exchange rates and our wealth relative to other nations mean that there is less financial incentive for young English players to go abroad than for youngsters from almost any other country. I think the 'danger' does exist of 'foreign labour' filling up the lower leagues as far as the law allows, and this combining with the financial disincentives of moving abroad to force young English players out of the game. Whether the strongest would get through or not, weakening the pool of English talent as a whole does weaken every talent within it.
Basically I agree with you - the Premiership doesn't matter as much as what's happening at youth level, which by all accounts is disastrous in this country. We could have a Premiership full of foreigners so long as good English players were playing somewhere else.
Whether we have that in England I don't know, but exchange rates and our wealth relative to other nations mean that there is less financial incentive for young English players to go abroad than for youngsters from almost any other country. I think the 'danger' does exist of 'foreign labour' filling up the lower leagues as far as the law allows, and this combining with the financial disincentives of moving abroad to force young English players out of the game. Whether the strongest would get through or not, weakening the pool of English talent as a whole does weaken every talent within it.
Basically I agree with you - the Premiership doesn't matter as much as what's happening at youth level, which by all accounts is disastrous in this country. We could have a Premiership full of foreigners so long as good English players were playing somewhere else.
- Feb 1, 2005
- 19,120
- 6,003
- Staff
- #26
Good point, Zap. And joey's point above couldn't be more correct. John Barnes was saying much the same thing when we met a few months back (i.e. no amount of overseas players are going to stop Gerrard, Owen, Rooney, etc coming through).
The way I see it, everyone is keen to invest in youth, as everyone (especially Levy) knows that its the smartest way to make money and build for long-term success. However, these players - who I think it fair to call "the future of the national team" are only going to succeed if they are given the right support, coaching and most importantly games. Is Ben Alnwick getting the same quality of education currently as David Seaman or Peter Shilton at his age? What about Michael Dawson compared to a young Tony Adams?
The only solution that I think would work - but would require a huge shift in ideology amongst fans, clubs and players - is either to allow Premier League sides to enter their ressies into the league, as they do in Spain. Assuming this is not possible, I would recommend Premier League sides 'buying up' one or two lower league sides and farming in their youngsters amongst the older, journeymen pros, to learn whats its like to get booted up in the air and the pressures of genuine competitive football, rather than dicking around playing 'keep-ball' and practicising tricks amongst other 17 year olds.
If Levy decided to buy Leyton Orient and we knew that we could share training with some of their guys and there would be a regular home for e.g. Huddlestone, Kaboul, Boateng, Dervitte, etc in English football, I think within 6-12 months, they'd be infinitely better equipped to make the grade for the 1st team.
The way I see it, everyone is keen to invest in youth, as everyone (especially Levy) knows that its the smartest way to make money and build for long-term success. However, these players - who I think it fair to call "the future of the national team" are only going to succeed if they are given the right support, coaching and most importantly games. Is Ben Alnwick getting the same quality of education currently as David Seaman or Peter Shilton at his age? What about Michael Dawson compared to a young Tony Adams?
The only solution that I think would work - but would require a huge shift in ideology amongst fans, clubs and players - is either to allow Premier League sides to enter their ressies into the league, as they do in Spain. Assuming this is not possible, I would recommend Premier League sides 'buying up' one or two lower league sides and farming in their youngsters amongst the older, journeymen pros, to learn whats its like to get booted up in the air and the pressures of genuine competitive football, rather than dicking around playing 'keep-ball' and practicising tricks amongst other 17 year olds.
If Levy decided to buy Leyton Orient and we knew that we could share training with some of their guys and there would be a regular home for e.g. Huddlestone, Kaboul, Boateng, Dervitte, etc in English football, I think within 6-12 months, they'd be infinitely better equipped to make the grade for the 1st team.
Real_madyidd
The best username, unless you are a fucking idiot.
- Oct 25, 2004
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No they don't! They look total shit when they get to the finals. Do you mean you look at the names and think "they could win" or that they actually play well? Because they really don't play well as a team. Hopefully they will get it together for the Euros, because they should be better.
Real_madyidd
The best username, unless you are a fucking idiot.
- Oct 25, 2004
- 18,796
- 12,449
- Thread starter
- #29
They gave the second best performance of the World Cup against whoever it was against.
Because they can't/don't import lots of players?
- Thread starter
- #30
And looked one of the best teams overall in the group stages. And completely dominated when they played us. And like I said, generally play great football and look capable of winning tournaments. I'm not saying they don't collapse once it gets to the business end of tournaments - everyone knows they do. It's common knowledge. If they didn't, I'd probably be able to say they'd won something and use that as evidence instead. You're just arguing for the sake of arguing.
