WHY THE ENGLAND TEAM NEEDS AN ENGLISH MANAGER BUT WHY IT’S THE WRONG QUESTION.
By Gareth Long

Will Harry Redknapp replace Fabio Capello as England Manager? Does it matter if the next manager is English? Republic of Ireland fans seem happy that their Italian manager secured qualification to the European Championships but the majority seemed to want a Welshman to continue the legacy left by Gary Speed. If England go on to overachieve and win Euro 2012 arguments for the need for an English manager may be less convincing but whatever happens the job may as well go to Harry. The role of National Manager means that the man in charge needs to pick the best team from the players available to him, he needs to put those players into a structure and formation that will win games, and he needs to motivate and inspire. Can Harry Redknapp do all three? Yes. More importantly he would convince the players that he can do all three and that’s why he will do just as good a job (and perhaps a bit better) than anyone else. Will he turn England into world champions? No. He has not got good enough players to win a World Cup, and that’s why the question of nationality should be asked elsewhere in football coaching.

The English academy system has often come under the spotlight for apparently not producing the talented players needed to progress England from a top ten FIFA ranked team to a team consistently challenging in major tournaments. However, if an academy’s role is to produce talented young players then England’s improved successes over the last decade at U17, U19 and U21 level would point to the system working. Generally the academies are run by intelligent, open-minded and forward thinking coaches who understand football (e.g. Alan Irvine at Everton FC and Huw Jennings at Fulham FC) and the development of our players look safe in British hands. So if the national team manager should be from England and the development of our players is progressing with expert coaches from within the UK where does our game need foreign input?

The FA oversee coach education in the country and over the last few years have updated and improved the coaching qualifications on offer for coaches wishing to develop their own skill and knowledge. Surely England would produce more innovative and creative players if they produced more innovative and creative coaches? Well perhaps the more controversial question is ‘would this be more likely to happen if experts from another country (e.g. Spain or Holland) were in charge of designing and leading our coach education courses/philosophy?’ If we are to change the way young players play the game in this country we need to influence as many coaches and parents as possible at all levels of the game. Perhaps those who have always been in charge of coach education in this country will be able to turn it around, but why not turn to those who have already been successful at developing quality coaches in other countries?

 
It is too important a question not to ask it, and until we can educate an increased number of quality coaches to produce the players for our academies to develop, the question about who should be National Manager is largely irrelevant.

www.soccer-iq.co.uk

Why diving is not the worst thing in football

by Neil Casey

Ethics in sport seem to be so clear, don’t they? Some things are ethically wrong, or bad. Diving is bad, isn’t it? Or is it...

With dreary predictability football is periodically pockmarked with the British media sounding off about the phenomenon of “diving”. We are told that the ‘beautiful game’ is trying to cope with the ‘ugly problem of cheating’, and that diving is undermining the morality of football’ in what the Daily Mail calmly called the ‘the cancer of diving’.

Strangely the media seem less exercised by other crimes in football. Players kick the ball away, growl at referees, grapple with each other at corners and even ‘take a booking’ for the team with a professional foul, without attracting the same vitriol. So, why the moral panic around ‘diving’?

Well diving isn’t ‘British’. It’s labelled as foreign (imported into the pure realms of the Premiership), somehow ‘devious’, feminine (it’s a man’s game...), and even gay (because ‘real men’ wouldn’t do it). But in reality forwards cleverly luring tackles and drawing attention to opponents’ fouls is a challenge to British football culture with its neanderthal focus on strength, aggression and traditional masculinity. In other countries these skills are rightly lauded as those of the toreador making a fool of the lumbering bull. But in Britain, there’s nothing worse.

Diving is massively over exaggerated and an attack on skilful forwards articulated by the British media, coaches and, sadly, fans. There are so many worse things going on in football.

Why Young Footballers Need to Play More Than Just ‘Football’
By Gareth Long

Imagine this scenario, there are two 8 year olds both wanting to become a professional footballer. Player A plays football every possible second of the day and enjoys coaching from his local club. Player B plays less football but also plays other sports; which one is most likely to achieve their dream? Player A right? Well perhaps not...

Can you remember your first game of ‘proper’ football? I can. My first game was for Adur Athletic against Bevendean Barcelona, I was seven, it was raining, the coach made sure I knew what a right back did by telling me I wasn’t allowed past the half way line, it was 11 v 11, the goals were full size, we lost; and I loved it.

That was thirty years ago and the young players of today have a very different introduction to the game. In 2011;

Of course all of the above is progress and recognises that young footballers need more than adult versions of the game in order for them to develop as players and people, but is this enough and why have these changes not enabled England to produce better footballers?

This column is not long enough to fully consider this question but will look at one aspect of the debate – what should young players ‘do’ to become successful players?

Much of the rationale behind the controversial new Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) hinges on the desire of the professional clubs to have more contact hours with their young protégés; as Football League Chairman Greg Clarke puts it "higher quality coaching with more contact hours and better footballers”. The need for talented performers to ‘put the hours in’ is well documented and the often quoted 10,000 hours proposed by psychologist Anders Ericsson is often used as the yardstick for talent to become realized. Whether the 10,000 hours is true of developing footballers certainly elite sport is littered with examples of talent starting young. Think of Tiger Woods on the golf course at 3 and the Williams sisters’ early dedication to Tennis and you get an idea of the advantages of clocking up the hours on the road to sporting expertise – quantity is important. So the idea that the football academies have longer to develop future stars with quality coaching seems to make sense, more hours of quality football coaching equals better talent, seems simple. Therefore this supports the argument that if our Player A can get their 10,000 hours of football then they might have a chance to become an elite player. Then again, what about Player B?

Another compelling argument derived from studies of elite sporting performers is that in fact young players benefit from playing a variety of different sports and that the transfer of perception, creativity and decision-making which occurs across sports counteracts the potential ‘burnout’ and ‘one-dimension’ of single sport players. Therefore even if Player A maintains his motivation through 10,000 hours of football he may not possess the innovation of Player B who only begins to specialize in football from 12-14 years old. So, perhaps the premier league clubs do not need to get hold of players earlier but in fact would be better served waiting until their future players have played a wide range of sports (on their own, with their mates, in the street, down the park, for their school, for their club)? But of course in the reality of the Premier League this is not going to happen, there will be a fear of losing a future football star to another sport. But there is perhaps a compromise, the compromise of playing lots of different versions of football.

Mini soccer and 9v9 have certainly been a step in the right direction since youngsters only played 11v11, but it’s not enough. If professional clubs let kids play street soccer games, beach soccer, footvolley, speak takraw, Futsal, indoor 5 a side then perhaps football clubs can ‘keep’ their rising stars whilst providing them a broad all-round footballing education.

Perhaps quantity + quality + variety is the way forward…

Why Maradona Is Still The Greatest Player Ever...
By Neil Casey

It’s a question that is often asked and a question that generates a few compelling answers. “Who is the greatest football player ever?”. Pele? No. Zindane? Almost. Messi? Not yet. Maradona? Yes...still.

On a wall, just off the Spaccanapoli in Naples, is some graffiti, “Diego, facci sognare ancora”; Diego, make us dream again. Diego Armando Maradona was a sublime footballer with skills honed in the streets of a Buenos Aires barrio. Football’s myth factory remembers the tournament defining moments – the goals against Belgium and England in 1986, setting up Caniggia’s against Brazil in 1990 and the rocket against Greece in 1994. Italian football, with varying emotions, remembers the countless achievements for Napoli. But others recall the dribbles, the astute passes, and the glorious tricks. This man controlled a football like no other. He made the extraordinary look mundane.

If individually he was blessed, as the team’s leader he was miraculous; a strategist who made ordinary teams in his own image and led them to success. To Neapolitans, Maradona defeated the affluent northern Italians as he twice led Napoli to titles. To Argentineans, he was the victorious captain of a World Cup winning team that thumbed their noses to the globe.

But he wasn’t simply a footballer and a leader. He is a divine hero, a sacred icon. In England, the myopic sports media splutter at his ‘sins’ but Maradona proudly proclaimed that he, a simple pibe or street kid, with the Hand of God had ‘picked the pockets’ of the English and their stupid defenders. The religious imagery is neither far-fetched nor inappropriate for the best footballer the world has ever seen. Diego – el pibe de oro – took on everybody and won.