Yes i clearly know who the golden generation were. The fact that they were mostly slightly above average players and in no way world class makes the title a bit defunct.
It really doesn't, you know. I was using what is known as "scare quotes". They are used (very often) in the English language to denote
a certain sense of scorn, sarcasm or irony.
Well, well, well. At least one good thing has come out of a strong England u19 squad not making it to the Euro Finals in July (owing to an own goal in injury time) - manager of 7 years Noel Blake has been sacked.
I always wondered what qualified him to be the one to "nurture" our top talent. Let's hope they make a good choice this time.
Well, well, well. At least one good thing has come out of a strong England u19 squad not making it to the Euro Finals in July (owing to an own goal in injury time) - manager of 7 years Noel Blake has been sacked.
I always wondered what qualified him to be the one to "nurture" our top talent. Let's hope they make a good choice this time.
James Wilson not making the England u19 squad was a blow and may have contributed to them not getting through.
He scores a very high percentage of chances and put four goals away tonight against Man City u21s.
England u17s had a much needed 4-3 win this afternoon against Italy in their friendly tournament - after earlier in the week drawing 1-1 with the Czech Republic and losing 2-1 against Portugal.
From here on in the experimenting will be curtailed as they settle on their core group of players to defend their European title.
I've mentioned in this thread already the great work going on at the Spurs Academy and this can be evidenced again by results in the last month. The U16s won an important youth tournament in South Korea beating Japan's national U16s in the final. Last weekend the U15s won a tournament held in Copenhagen and the U18s won the Premier League Champions Cup beating Real Madrid in the Semis and Benfica in the Final. In an earlier round they beat Everton 5-1, who have a pretty decent Academy themselves.
My point is, the majority of the young players in these teams are English so proof again that the raw talent is there, it just needs to be developed in a way that will help some of those lads reach the top level of the game.
With Southgate not picking certain players seemingly for "attitude problems" and those promoted to the seniors it looks quite a weak u21 squad. However, they just beat Moldova away 3-0 - Berahino 2, Kane 1.
It will have pretty much gone under the media's radar and football public's but there have been some very impressive performances by some of the England youth teams over the past few days.
I've been particularly impressed with the u18s in their 3-2 and 4-1 wins in Poland. Great efforts in recent years have been made to improve the quality of football of the players coming through and that was very apparent in these games with the high levels of skill, control and thoughtful football played. Perhaps someone should tell the pundits.
For all The Special Needs One's claim the match against Sporting Lisbon would be "Chelsea's Academy Day", only Loftus Cheek was given a go - and that was only for the last 10 minutes.
But the lad certainly looked the part. Then again he always did.
Chelsea's classy 18 year old English midfield player Kasey Palmer is having a tremendous run of forum and racking up some cracking goals.
Also their England u18 players (it's an unusually strong year group for England) Tammy Abraham on 28 goals so far this season and Dominic Solanke on 25 goals so far are doing well.
The "small talent pool" idea doesn't really hold water. Some of the teams we struggled against in the World Cup have much smaller pools of talent to choose from. Also what good players they do have don't reguarly play together in the same league, but as ex-pats over the world.
When we had a large talent pool and the First Division had very few foreign players it's not as if we were very successful in tournaments either.
Certainly fewer English players regularly make the first team of PL clubs, but those that do are very talented indeed. I would contend that there are as many international standard English players around to choose from as there ever were. Most of the English players that made up the majority of the old First Division were nowhere near international standard.
The supposed shortage of English talent is one of those things managers, pundits and journalists trot out as a reason for our lack of success when the truth lays elsewhere. Lack of good coaches, poor FA guidance and short termism among PL club owners.
Comments
With the game against Holland ending 1-1 after 80 minutes, England won on pens.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/fulham-starlet-patrick-roberts-given-3601257
Got to be worth £15 of anyone's money.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2646116/Arsenal-chasing-West-Hams-young-defender-Reece-Oxford.html
It really doesn't, you know. I was using what is known as "scare quotes". They are used (very often) in the English language to denote
a certain sense of scorn, sarcasm or irony.
No. But I can see that it could come across that way.
While I'm on - The claim he is 6ft 3 might not be true as I think some just take a guess and claim as fact.
I always wondered what qualified him to be the one to "nurture" our top talent. Let's hope they make a good choice this time.
James Wilson not making the England u19 squad was a blow and may have contributed to them not getting through.
He scores a very high percentage of chances and put four goals away tonight against Man City u21s.
From here on in the experimenting will be curtailed as they settle on their core group of players to defend their European title.
Joe Gomez at the back, promoted a year up, impressed once again and will be a top player.
My point is, the majority of the young players in these teams are English so proof again that the raw talent is there, it just needs to be developed in a way that will help some of those lads reach the top level of the game.
I've been particularly impressed with the u18s in their 3-2 and 4-1 wins in Poland. Great efforts in recent years have been made to improve the quality of football of the players coming through and that was very apparent in these games with the high levels of skill, control and thoughtful football played. Perhaps someone should tell the pundits.
But the lad certainly looked the part. Then again he always did.
lol, keep um coming!
Let's hope Akpom gets a start for Arsenal.
Also their England u18 players (it's an unusually strong year group for England) Tammy Abraham on 28 goals so far this season and Dominic Solanke on 25 goals so far are doing well.
When we had a large talent pool and the First Division had very few foreign players it's not as if we were very successful in tournaments either.
Certainly fewer English players regularly make the first team of PL clubs, but those that do are very talented indeed. I would contend that there are as many international standard English players around to choose from as there ever were. Most of the English players that made up the majority of the old First Division were nowhere near international standard.
The supposed shortage of English talent is one of those things managers, pundits and journalists trot out as a reason for our lack of success when the truth lays elsewhere. Lack of good coaches, poor FA guidance and short termism among PL club owners.
Thanks for your contribution.