Qwiss! wrote:
Englands problems go beyond quality, the so called golden generation did nothing either and they had loads of individual quality.
I think so too. The (lack of) success of the national team and the talent development in Premier League are somewhat separate issues in my opinion. England have a tendency to appoint the wrong people for the job.
The bigger picture is about which type of players that are being encouraged at youth level. If you look at the academies in Premier League there isn't a great deal of variety to the talent they are pushing through, and that is true regardless of whether the talents in question were born in England or abroad. The conclusion, then, has to be that clubs are looking for specific attributes when they are doing their scouting.
Ricky is probably right that athleticism is favoured more than in any other country. Even at Arsenal it's a dominant factor. An intelligent and cultivated manager like Wenger has spent way too much time and effort on trash like Sanogo and Bendtner, just because they're big blokes, or on Walcott just because he's fast. I've seen people cite the wind as one contributing reason. It's a lot more windy in England than on the continent, and it makes it harder to control the ball, which means on an average you either need to run a lot harder or manipulate the ball better. And there are a lot more James Milners than Jack Wilsheres in the world.
Whatever the reason, Spain, Germany and Italy all produce a healthy amount of players who possess a range of attributes. It's easier to develop in Serie A or Bundesliga if you're not a hardworking runner. It has resulted in two things: top talents either pick those leagues ahead of Premier League, or they go to Premier League for the money and then their development stall.
It's pretty amazing how a talent like Pogba could start for a title-winning Juventus literally a few months after Alex Ferguson deemed him as not good enough to even get into United's first team squad. Kevin De Bruyne turned into a £50 million player once he left Chelsea. Mohamed Salah has been similarly incredible for Roma. I think there's an issue here that is worth looking very closely at, even if you should be careful with the generalisations. There seems to be a reason we don't push through these talents in Premier League as much as they do in other leagues. We still want the finished product; we just don't create a good environment for players who aren't there yet.
