i do coach kids 4-10 and have alot of contact with local academies as they have community officers working with local leagues, my own lad was at City when he was 8(now 10) but never gained a contract. There has been a sort of revolution at the top academies concentrating more on technique and fun rather than tactical. Alot of coaching games based around keeping the ball and passing between players. Our kids are comparable if not better than most europeans until teenage years then tend to lose interest or find beer and girls. our game is still based too much on the physical side and therefore techincal players are squeezed out by stronger players and by late teens are few and far between.
last night sums British football up - Spain's pass and move controlled the game through possession yet failed to gain that extra goal, mainly due to lacking a cutting edge. Pearce said after the game 'if we had that much possesion then would have scored 3/4 goals' which is a neanderthal response to being hammered and sort of missed the point really, all the spanish kids will develop that extra 'cutting edge' whereas alot of the english boys will drop into the wilderness because their technique is inferior. we cannot continue to rely on spirit and physical attributes. it is no coincidence that the quality in our club play mostly comes from abroad. I would you all try and watch the academy when you can, whilst we are not always winning the quality of play is vastly supperior to most of the others, the future(5-10yrs)is really bright if standards are both maintained and contnue to improve.
