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If I Had A Nickel for Every Idiot Ex-Player/Pundit…

By mac14 on September 10, 2009

…well, I’d be one rich <shut yo mouth>.

This international break has been so void of news that I have taken to airing my grievances with the British football media on more than one occasion. Perhaps it’s my Arsenallessness…

Why, oh why, does The Mirror and British media in general continue to give idiots like Stan Collymore print space? Collymore hasn’t had anything interesting to say since he denied beating his wife. But now, the one-man media empire that is Stan Collymore is having his say on the youth scandal and what he wants to know is “where are all the kids?”

Stan starts off his ramblings by saying, “I struggle to name one player who has come through at my old club Liverpool in recent years.” That’s because there are none, Stan. Although, if he wants to see what kids Liverpool have in the pipeline, all he has to do is take a look at their bench in recent matches and made necessary by an appalling lack of depth, especially for a big 4 club, in the Liverpool squad.

Then we get this gem:

And even Manchester United who are famous for developing their own players, seem to have a lack of young British talent. […] Manchester United have been the biggest draw for youngsters for years but even they appear to be struggling.

What league has he been watching? United have not brought through more than an occasional youngster since the mid-90s generation, which is still clinging on. Collymore’s natural anti-Arsenal bias, discussed on Young Guns, keeps him from even mentioning Arsenal, who have clearly been the biggest draw for youngsters in recent years, both in terms of youngsters wanting to come to the club and also fans wanting to see them play. Arsenal practically sold out the Emirates last season for two early round Carling Cup matches with attendances of 56,632 and 59,665. What other team can boast anything even approaching that?

Back to Stan:

The talent is out there but there is this trend of bringing in kids from South America or Europe when they are just 16 or 17.

First of all, “the talent is out there” is not an assumption that can be easily made. English clubs are limited geographically in the domestic youngsters they can sign. These ridiculous restrictions allow Arsenal to sign Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona but not a bright young English kid from the Midlands. The location restrictions also keep promising youngsters from developing at clubs with better youth systems because they don’t happen to live within the minimum distance from the ground of the club.

Don't worry, this man is on the case.

This is just one symptom of the larger problems regarding youth development caused by the FA. Years and years of talking have gone by and still there is no continental-style national youth training academy. Sir Trevor Brooking detailed most of the problems a few years a back and there’s no reason for me to rehash them but also consider that kids in England also do not play football like they used due to so many other available diversions, i.e. video games, internet, etc…. As well, investment has just not been there by the FA. Just yesterday, Brooking also criticized a “vacuum of leadership” at the youth level as a principle cause in England’s failure to develop world-class players.

It is this failure that has brought about the “trend” of signing youngsters from abroad, not the other way around as Collymore would like to believe. Also, just like their senior counterparts, foreign youngsters cost less than English youngsters. It’s just another part of the domino effect of inflated values being put on English players.

It dismays me and I think there should not be one foreign player born outside of Great Britain in any academy.

That’s all well and good, Stan, but it makes no sense. English kids with real potential would not improve by playing against mediocre English kids. The problem at the club level, at least, is not about numbers. The solution does not lie in bringing in more English kids. That is just like trying to buy more tickets in the blind hope of maybe winning the lottery. The problems with English youth development are systemic and will never be solved by anything other than an overhaul of the way English kids are trained from the ages of 8-14. Arsene Wenger has often spoken of how critical this period is in a young player’s development and that it can never be gotten back by a kid once he is 16 or 17.

Also, let’s be honest… a young kid from an economically disadvantaged area of South America or Africa or even Eastern Europe has much more incentive to practice as a youngster and also has far less distractions. These kids are hungrier to be great footballers than most suburban English kids with iPods and X-boxes.

How many times must we suffer the idiotic ramblings of former players who seem shockingly clueless considering that they actually played the game. Ian Wright comes to mind, but, even though I may disagree with almost everything he says concerning Arsenal, at least his “columns” are cogent opinions seemingly formed after more than a second’s thought.

Collymore, on the other hand, turns out 5 or 6 sentences, which looks like more only because they are each treated as a paragraph and spaced accordingly. I am just so tired of these idiot ex-player/pundits talking out of their ass and pontificating in either ghost-written columns or self-penned columns which would be lucky to earn a third-grader a grade of C-.

Stan closes his “column” by saying, “What is happening now should not be allowed anymore.” Well, first Stan, you really should try to figure exactly WHAT IS happening before you go off spouting some half-crocked nonsense. I mean, they can’t possibly pay him for “writing” that crap, can they? [digg=http://digg.com/soccer/If_I_Had_A_Nickel_for_Every_Idiot_Ex_Player_Pundit]

Here is Dennis Bergkamp replicating his classic chip in a match with Ajax seniors:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ7AN_RK3tc]

7 Comments

dave

September 10, 2009 at 4:47 am

i think he’s talking about british talent coming through at top level clubs, so of course he wouldnt mention arsenal

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kel

September 10, 2009 at 6:02 am

dave the idiot 🙂 so i suppose ashley cloe, bentley, sidwell, hoyte, gibbs, wilshere.. dont count then?? not to mention how the likes of upson, walcott, pennent probably improved considerably while training/playing with the likes of bergkamp, henry, pires, vieira, fabregas..etc ?? who did that benefit dave? i think your just another english man dave who finds it hard to except that english players just arn’t good enough?? well dave time to wake up!! and stop being a muppet. son….haha now do-one….:)

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- ArsenalStation
  
  September 10, 2009 at 8:03 am
  
  Exactly, kel. I didn’t want to go down the list because the article wasn’t necessarily about Arsenal’s youth program but that is what I was thinking when I wrote that. Arsenal may not have had many come through to their first team but they have provided other English clubs with English players. Also, the other thing to consider is, if Arsene Wenger couldn’t turn these youngsters into players of enough quality to start for Arsenal then what does that say? It says two things… the level required to get into Arsenal’s first team is exceptionally high and there were some kinds of deficiencies in the average English kid at Arsenal in years past whether it be technically or mentally. But there’s the problem… England needs to produce kids who aren’t just good enough to start for Middlesbrough or West Ham but for the other big 4 clubs. Then again let’s not forget that Pennant also played for Liverpool, Sidwell for Chelsea, etc…
  
  Reply
  - Brett
    
    September 10, 2009 at 1:48 pm
    
    One point to be made however, is the WAY in which English players are trained. Take, for example, two young Arsenal players, Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere. I think it is fair to say that on pure physical ability (pace, agility, etc.), Theo is superior. However, Theo spent his formative years in the Southampton youth system, which did not so vehemently stress technical skills, passing, dribbling, etc. Theo was able to get by with his far superior pace at every level without having to develop these facets of his game.
    
    Jack, on the other hand, was raised up in the Arsenal youth academy. As insisted by Arsene Wenger, Jack and the other youngsters have been trained to fit the Arsenal system, with quick passing and movement on and off the ball, training being more focused on smaller games in line with the “futsal” style, which stresses the strengthening of technique versus the unholy English trinity of Pace, Strength, and Toughness, which are most highly valued when training on a full pitch.
    
    Jack is a few years younger than Theo, obviously, but is quite further along in his development as well. Theo, since coming over to Arsenal in January 2006, has had to play catch-up, while playing at a level where pure physical ability is not enough to get by. Arsenal tend to have more foreign players in their first team because in many other countries (most notably Brazil), there is a lack of open space in which to play on a full 100 yard pitch, which forces young people to play in smaller spaces, which develops skill on the ball at a younger age, when it is most crucial to learn. Jack will likely grow physically stronger, even faster, but Theo, while a very gifted player in his own right, will be less likely to ever match many of the Arsenal Academy’s best players on technical skill.
    
    Reply
    - ArsenalStation
      
      September 10, 2009 at 2:12 pm
      
      Well said, Brett. That was exactly the point I was making when I wrote that “location restrictions also keep promising youngsters from developing at clubs with better youth systems because they don’t happen to live within the minimum distance from the ground of the club.”
      
      There is no one or two quick things to be done that will all of a sudden start producing better English players. The problems are so deeply embedded in the system that it needs a complete overhaul.
      
      Stan is wrong when he says “surely the talent is out there.” The potential is surely out there but the kids are not receiving the right kind of training at the ages of 8-12 to have that potential turn into talent. And all of that has nothing to do with the clubs’ roles in youth development.
      
      To make a ridiculous statement like there should be no kids from outside of Great Britain in the youth academies is just absolute utter nonsense. Clubs are businesses that operate not only on a domestic level but on an international level. You can’t hamper the clubs’ abilities to be successful businesses because of the failure of the FA. That would only drag down English football even faster than the new tax laws will, which will be fast enough anyway.
      
      Reply
Casicky

September 10, 2009 at 8:19 am

please dave take heed of the advice,i mean its people like you that make Stan Collymore look intelligent hahaha so please think about your comments before you write them maybe take a couple of days to think it over and when you think you ready to write take a fornight to think it all over again and then maybe post ur comment maybe then you could start making sense…to my five yr old hahaha

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kel

September 11, 2009 at 7:19 am

as wenger has said before producing english players for the national team is not his responsibility!! he is employed by arsenal to produce young players of high quality regardless of where they are from. also dave if you check out arsenals youth team you will see a lot of young excellent english lads learning there trade and guess what dave there learning with some of the best young talent in the world.?? so i ask you yet again dave who does this benefit?? ps. please dont have me to put you in your place again boy!!

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