- Oct 31, 2013
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So are British kids just deteriorating as a group or is it our dominant academy set up that's the issue? Personally the lack of futsal on the British isles is partially to blame as many competitive footballing nations have had it deeply engrained into their youth set up for some time. We're about 20 years behind some countries...
I don't think we're deteriorating as a group, the coaching and youth selection process has been wrong for decades. We prioritised the wrong things. I played in a few youth teams (no-one of note) and the stronger, faster lads were always picked ahead of the ones who were considerably better technically. The problem being that the bigger, faster lads do dominate and win at that level but it doesn't then transfer to proper adult football. I knew quite a few players who were amazing technically as young teens, but were slow/late developers physically and had been pushed aside so often they just stopped trying. I imagine this was probably the way across the country.
Essentially I'm saying I was the future and got bored of watching oafs getting picked ahead of me because they could do the 100m faster than me at 15. I would have had this WC in the bag. Pity.