England’s Redemption Can Be Found At Arsenal’s London Colney
ByEver since the game between Ingerland and Slovenia mid-week when the 3 Lions scraped through to the knock out stages by the skin of their teeth, I’ve been a bit hesitant to follow the media coverage through the English media.
I suppose one reason is that I’ve reached saturation point with the sycophancy and vanity that impales the coverage of the fortunes of the England team by the media here in the UK.
By the very nature of the beast that is the World cup (emphasis being on the ’World’), I and many other football lovers around the world want to follow the fortunes of the many teams still in the competition, and would highly appreciate a balanced, objective and impartial media to tell us about the other great teams and the other great players also in the world cup.
But Hey!, I also want my council tax bill reduced but that ain’t gonna happen soon.
There was only one way out from the fever pitch madness and media coverage that led to, let’s face it, the mother of all bitch slaps and humiliations that England has ever faced on the international stage. The only way out for England to justify the hyperbole and narcissism that the media and establishment fuelled before yesterday’s game against the Germans was that England win and that they win comprehensively.
Not even the clutching of the Frank-Lampard’s-goal-was-disallowed-shame-on-FIFA-for-not-introducing-goal-line-technology straw can hide away from the fact that England has had a woeful World cup campaign and the players, management and the FA should hang their heads in shame.
A Dejected And Beaten England Team Leave The Field Following a German Master Class in International Football
I’ve covered most of my reasons why I suggest that England will never win the World cup until they come out of the Stone Age, so I’m not going to go over that ground and suggest that if you haven’t yet, you should read that article to get a sense of where I’m coming from.
It’s not about the disappointment and anti-climax of the so called Golden Generation. It’s not that Fabio Capello is a dictator who has added no value to the fortunes of the national team at a major competition. It’s not that the solution is to get an English manager like Roy Hodgson or Harry Redknapp who can understand the ‘English’ game in a way that a foreign manager cannot.
It’s not that (this one was a funny excuse by Graham Taylor) international competitions take place in the summer after a long hard season and it’s during a period when England players don’t normally play their games and in hot climates – shame on you Mr. Taylor for even uttering those words. It’s not that the team failed to show ’pluck and spirit’ and that good old fashioned English graft, grit and steel that is the cornerstone of the brand of English football that we’re told drives the best league in the world.
The issue here and something that I’ve preached on several times is that the underlying culture and philosophy of English football is rotten and stuck in the Neolithic age. When even Stand Collymore on his radio call in is asking Arsenal fans how England can learn from Arséne Wenger and the way he nurtures talent who are technically gifted and can cope with the way the rest of the world plays, then you know there’s a problem.
I submit to you that until England starts from the grassroots by changing the culture and moving away from the ’kick and rush’ brand of football that Franz Beckenbauer rightfully mentioned and was harangued by the English media for – Team ‘Ingerland’ have the mother of all mountains to climb.
It’s not enough to be a celebrity footballer, or believe the hyperbole about what ability you actually have. There’s a very big difference between being talented on paper as is suggested by all and sundry, and actually producing on grass.
And can we now draw a line under this nonsense of calling certain players world class. Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard, Terry and Ashley Cole are good and above average players, but let’s not push the envelope. I even agree with Robbie Savage’s (when was it I last agreed with Savage) that a player should only be considered as ’world class’ when they can sit on the same table as Pele, Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane, Johan Cruyff, George Best and players of that ilk. Leo Messi is the only player currently warranting that badge of world class.
I was having a discussion with some friends yesterday evening as we explored what it is that ails English football (well, aside from the vanity of the media about the perceived capability of the team).
One of the analogies used to describe England in comparison to say Spain, Brazil, Argentina or Germany was that these 4 teams were like a gourmet restaurant that serves the best food and wine you’ll ever get anywhere on this planet, while England were proving yet again that despite the hype, they were just a kebab shop down the high street.
So many times, Arséne Wenger has been vilified by the English media for not having a team that was ‘English’ enough. This naturally came with the accusation that the Arsenal manager is one of the protagonists responsible for harming English football – as if Wenger is responsible for the cultural and philosophical deficiency of an entire footballing establishment.
Wenger famously stated that he won’t pay over the odds for English players whose price tags are inflated for no justifiable reason, yet they can’t deliver. His alternative was to set on a path that would allow Arsenal to develop their own crop of English players who played the Arsenal way.
The problem for Wenger is that visionaries are rarely lauded, let alone acknowledged and appreciated for many people don’t see the virtues of the said vision until long after the seeds are planted and the rewards are being enjoyed.
Take a look at the results of Wenger and Arsenal’s vision within the youth and reserve team setup at London Colney. Arsenal has the best crop of young talented players who are mostly English coming through the ranks. The youth team that won the double of the youth FA cup and the youth league in 2008-2009 had 9 English players in that squad of 15.
They‘re not just young and English, they’ve been brought together in a way of life since the young age of 11 and they have grown up in a culture that promotes the virtues of total football.
These young players are technically gifted and they can work with the ball with both skill and gusto. It’s also plain obvious to see that the issue is not whether all these players eventually make it to the Arsenal’s first team.
Not all of them will, but Arsenal get’s to decide whether they keep the best of the crop. For the rest, they are sprinkled around the football leagues and they get an opportunity to make their careers elsewhere while still reaping the benefits of the Arsenal way.
Those who graduate to the ranks of the first team are already showing the signs that they will be staking their claim to the England shirt come the 2014 world Cup in Brazil and the 2016 Euros in France and beyond.
The Arsenal Young Guns Celebrate In Style
It’s players like Little Jack Willy who has lit up Bolton on his loan spell to the Trotters from Arsenal. It’s players like Jay Emmanuel Thomas who are so versatile and prolific while being technically gifted, you can see him becoming the England midfield general for the next 10 years.
It’s players like Craig Eastmond, a young prospect from Wandsworth in South West London who feels nothing at the prospect of being thrown into a high pressure game for Arsenal and holding his own as a defensive midfielder. It’s prospects like young Kieran Gibbs from Lambeth who is already on his way to becoming one of the world’s best left backs.
Have I mentioned Kyle Bartley and Sanchez Watt? Or Henry Lansbury, Mark Randall or Tom Cruise?
The talent at London Colney is ridiculous and only a fool can’t see that the future is bright in the sleepy village of Shenley that hosts the Arsenal Academy in the heart of the Hertfordshire countryside.
Tue 13th September 2011; 19:45, Dortmund
Never tead this blog before – but seriously wish I had.
Agree with 99% of what you say – in fact you’ve been too kind in your criticism of the media and ‘English-style’ football. Why do we pay £6m a year to an England manager and get Stoke City football in return?
The media, in turn, lazily play back the old chestnut of our game being the most popular and watched in the world when it’s not about quality and all about availability. More people eat at McDonalds than at The Ivy – but where do you go for the best meal of the week?
Re the crop of English youth at Arsenal – there will always be those who fall by the wayside either because they can’t deal with the level of dedication that it takes (Gilbert?) or haven’t got the patience to stick it out (Sidwell?). But I agree with you on Gibbs, JET, Jack W and Lansbury and I still have hopes that an injury free season (perhaps played on the left wing) for Theo might well see him fulfil his potential. And the generation below them could fill in even more gaps in the English team – but will the media be patient? I think not.
Just to bear out your comments, in an interview yesterday, Jamie O’Hara stated that despite having been at both Spurs and Portsmouth, the grounding of ball skill and passing and moving that he was taught at The Arsenal is what is standing him in good stead in his career.
“Have I mentioned Kyle Bartley and Sanchez Watt? Or Henry Lansbury, Mark Randall or Tom Cruise?”
…No. And for good reason. Aside from Bartley, they’re shite.
The set up at Shenley needs to be replicated for the national side…but and its a big but…can you see the English press allowing a fallow period of 5 to 10 years of development…Arsene continues to take a great deal of flak for his youth policy…much of it from our own fans.! The French Fontainbleu academy produced some of the best players on the world stage and continues to churn out highly gifted players with the “beautiful” skills and touch that English players do not have. Only when we teach these skills to the 10 year olds that play for the Sunday league junior teams will we start to see a generation of truly world class players .
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Its always a pleasure reading your blog mate, I particularly enjoyed this line,
‘The problem for Wenger is that visionaries are rarely lauded, let alone acknowledged and appreciated for many people don’t see the virtues of the said vision until long after the seeds are planted and the rewards are being enjoyed’.
As for england, the usual scapegoats may be herded yet again…, the manager, the referee to be hounded, etc etc, funnily never normally the very same players who have failed as an act of routine over the last few tournements?…, but ultimately the failure will be the inevitable conclusion until football development in this country is overhauled from top to bottom. From the kids starting out at 5 or 6, and how they play the game.
Despite earning 130k, despite being mega stars, despite this and more, when it comes to it, these players are not able to hold the ball as an extension of their foot, to feel comfort in that.
And when they are not allowed to prosper using the so called virtues of the english game, which is in a tournement away from home, administered by referee’s alien to such things, then it comes down to who keeps the ball better, and when that happens, england, they are no better than the likes of Algeria, and no disrespect is intended to Algeria when i say that.
I feel sorry for Fabio Capello, one of the most significant tacticians and manager’s the game will ever know. Having to work with a group that sums up the dreadful modern day premisership footballer so perfectly. Lacking in so much that they wouldn’t understand they were there to put in hard graft trying to win a tournement instead of having a good time. Spoilt little children, brats. Its they who deserve the majority of the scorn. They, and the system that produced who they are and also what they are.
My thoughts.
Im an Arsenal supporter and despite all ypur comments, most of these youngstars will not make it into the Arsenal 1st 11. They will be loaned out to the championship for a couple of seasons and will eventually be sold….There is a long list of “promising” young English players who have gone through this and where are they now. So i disagree with your view that ARsenal will save English football. Only one English player ( KieraN Gibbs) with potential to play for England in future has come out of Arsenal over the past 5 seasons. The rest , Wilshire & Walcott included are currently stars on paper. Walcott in particular has been a star on paper for a while and will mostly likely turn out to be another overhyped English youngstar, judging by what we have seen from him in the past seasons.
There is a general hype around Arsenal youngsters when they play in the carling cup, but most of it is really unwarranted. teams like Everton, MANu and Liverpool also have good youth development programs. ANd its gonna take a combined effort by the FA, EPL and the clubs to save the English national team.
Slightly over enthusiastic about the Arsenal kids, but there is no doubt that the Academy Systems at Arsenal and Utd point the way forward, and should provide a good core of solid english youth, particularly if what we read about the revolutionising of the reserve leagues is true. Out of the Arsenal Kids, our best English prospects are Wilshere, Gibbs, Lansbury, Bartley, afobe, Aneke, Eastmond, Emmanuel-Thomas and maybe Watt. I would expect 5 of those at least to become useful arsenal squad members, with 2 or 3 being first team regulars and internationals (Wilshere, Gibbs and Afobe seem the most likely to me). The likes of Randall, Cruise, Yennaris, Boateng will never ever be good enough, and will likely be sold for small amounts to be reinvested back into the academy.
Thanks,when an English player breaks a leg of a foreigner ,DUDU AND JET,OL the media houses jump at the defence of these ENGLISH and it creats the enviroment that they are home boys and they play wit moral only in England but w cup is the place 4 solution and England must test the pain of double standard and defeat….GO GHANA…GO AFRICA…VUVUZELLA EVER BLAZING
Getting into Arsenal’s team is the equivalent of international class. A full strength Arsenal team would beat most international sides. The Academy is fantastic- and even if it produces only?? 3 future England internationals- it is 3 more than most will manage. The problem is that Blackburn, Stoke, Birmingham etc never produce any- not that Arsenal’s fantastic academy will only produce a few. How can clubs who are only interested in parasitic football ( hitting on the break) closing-down and set pieces produce international players. The winners of all national competitions- and the only ones remembered- play intelligent, pass and move football. Until more academies and teams other than the big 5 start to play the beautiful game and coach players for it- England will never have a big enough skill pool to achieve success in Europe or World competitions. The Dinosaurs at Sky Sports are still clinging to the idea that english players (managed by a passionate englishman of course- Beckham was mentioned, I kid you not) playing traditional British style, can win the World Cup. Sky, more than anyone, are responsible for arresting the development of our game at the Jurassic level. Bigging up rubbish. Brazil’s style of football, by contrast, must have something going for it when Gilberto and Baptista can strolll through a game as if it’s practice. They are not good enough to get in Arsenal reserves!!! Dinosaurs- can you hear me- change or become extinct!!!
The double Irony is that Beckham would probably be the only player from the last 20 years who would try to drag English Football into the 21st Centrury given his continental experience, dead ball expertise and progressive approach. Indeed, though a taught footballer rather than a natural, Beckham was the prototypical modern English footballer as it should be, a good mix between the more positive traditional english values of work-rate, determination, fitness and teamwork, and ‘continental’ values of progressive play, attempting to retain possession, adventure and composure. At his peak he was the ultimate artisan, who despite a lack of pace and dribbling skills nearly always had an impact when fit, particularly at international level from 99-03. His key was the intelligence to recognise his strengths and weaknesses and in true Wenger style focus on his strengths, and ensure he could do 2 things better than any of his competitors and 2 others to a very high level. His crossing etc was so good that much like the italian set piece takers, he could create a chance at almost any time, and that performance against greece in 2002 was the best I;ve ever seen from an England player in 1 game.
We aren’t going to produce as many silky players as brazil etc as its not in our culture, population size or indeed genetic make-up to do so, but we need to encourage as many others as possible to go down the beckham route and make sure that they are high quality specialists that complement the more naturally gifted players, and make sure, like at arsenal that the more naturally gifted players are given the freedom to flourish by also developing their strengths.
England might turn out to be lucky recipients of our youth programme’s work – there could turn out to be 4 or 5 Arsenal products in the national side in the next 4 to 6 years. But if even only Jack Wilshere and JET make it then that will be enough to build a side around that could at least hold onto the ball.
And Shenley isn’t that sleepy by the way.
On a final note if anyone is to blame for this then it should be the FA for abandoning the development of the Burton centre which was supposed to replicate what the French started a couple of decades ago at Claire-Fontaine and the Germans copied ten years back. They’ve reaped the rewards of technically proficient, tactically aware footballers while we have to put up with “stars” with pitiful first touches whose education is abandoned as soon as they show any aptitude at football.
whilst realistically only a few of the youngsters may make it into the Arsenal first team, those that dont will still make good careers for themselves around the football leagues, and with the arsenal philospy brought up in them can only serve the future of the english game well, regardless of the ones that do make it at the arsenal. I have been making this same point for a while now, and am glad theres more sensible people out there that realise the truth in this article. Nice one, keep it up, and send a copy of it to the FA if u can!
The trouble with a lot of footballers (see England v Algeria, especially) is that they make one pass too many instead of going for goal. You’re doing that with the descriptive phrasing.
Hey Darius why not give your slant on the argument of Arsenal’s Promotions v Signings? Would love to hear what you think and then the debate that follows.