St. George's Park

[Stuboo]

St. Georges Park officially opened yesterday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19872455

Personally, I'm hugely impressed. I think it's a giant step forward and it seems like the FA finally has a defined strategy and is using joined up thinking.

But what do you reckon? Is it worth it? Will it work? What other improvements do we need to make, to ensure the success of our national side?

[Jackson Corner]

Waste of money. Roman has spent 500 million on Chelsea's acadamey in 11 years. And how many have made it through to the Chelsea first team? It will be the same with the Man City project. Young players will not be given a chance as these clubs will always look for a short term fix and buy in some over priced foriegner.

[Franchise FC]

Waste of money. Roman has spent 500 million on Chelsea's acadamey in 11 years. And how many have made it through to the Chelsea first team? It will be the same with the Man City project. Young players will not be given a chance as these clubs will always look for a short term fix and buy in some over priced foriegner.

Nail On Head

The big clubs will not let the most talented youngsters go off somewhere where they don't have control. The same big clubs will insist on the same youngsters being indoctrinated with the clubs own philosophy, not the FA's.

[soggy biscuit]

28% of players in the PL are English.
74% of players in La Liga are Spanish

[Green]

28% of players in the PL are English.
74% of players in La Liga are Spanish

Which shows that English players aren't good enough.

The question is how do we get them good enough, and more specifically will this academy address that?

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Got a leaked version of the St George's Park curriculum here :

SGP- Curriculum.jpg (137.41 KiB) Viewed 2633 times

[Green]

ALOL

[Barry the bird boggler]

Can't see the sessions on "80% of goals are scored from moves of 5 passes or less" and "why lofted passes are not long balls when foreigners do them"

[Royalclapper]

It's not until the national side plays someone half decent that we see our deficiencies.

The F.A. is just so frustratingly antiquated it's unreal. Other nations have developed their techniques and players and moved with the times. Our coaching appears to be stuck in the 1950's or 60's. Foreign players have moved the flair and excitement to light years ahead of what it once was in our leagues. I feel sorry for the English coaches who are trying to pioneer new methods etc, it must be like banging your head against a brick wall. Unfortunately, they are the ones we need in order for our young players to become winners.

[creative_username_1]

28% of players in the PL are English.
74% of players in La Liga are Spanish

Which shows that English players aren't good enough.

The question is how do we get them good enough, and more specifically will this academy address that?

Greed! My theory on this is that there is a lot of randomness in why certain countries do well. Primarily in the
talent that comes through.

Talent = Work done+ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Top Coaching+ >>Randomness

[Royalist]

What i don't understand is how much time young players will get there away from their own clubs training. Wouldn't mind all talented players under the age of 18 having to be contracted to the FA in the same way England cricketers are contracted to the ECB so that the FA coaches them whilst they are owned by their clubs. Would allow focused training with a view to how the fa want the players to play.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

That's the clincher - no-one has really laid out how this will dovetail/interact with the new EPPP Academies.

[Barry the bird boggler]

2 words - Charles Hughes.

His influence and insistence and the FA's acceptance of the long ball game in the England set us back 30 years and still we can't get out of its shadow. Long ball is a valid option as part of the game but not the be and end all of it.

Personally, unless the FA make it a requirement of EPPP status, I can't see players being released into this camp from those clubs.

[Hoop Blah]

Waste of money. Roman has spent 500 million on Chelsea's acadamey in 11 years. And how many have made it through to the Chelsea first team? It will be the same with the Man City project. Young players will not be given a chance as these clubs will always look for a short term fix and buy in some over priced foriegner.

Nail On Head

The big clubs will not let the most talented youngsters go off somewhere where they don't have control. The same big clubs will insist on the same youngsters being indoctrinated with the clubs own philosophy, not the FA's.

It's not 'Nail On Head' at all as it massively misses the point of St Georges. It isn't there as a Lilleshall for the 2010's, it's there as a centre for the development of football and the structures within it.

Developing players will still largely be the duty of their clubs and the coaches that work for those clubs. What St Georges will look to do is build a structure for the better qualification and leadership of those coaches and the way the clubs use them. It's about addressing all the things you lot keep moaning about on here about the FA being so out of touch, that the big kids get selected at youth football (which is rubbish if you ask me) and that we don't have enough coaches and the ones we do have aren't modern enough in their thinking and good enough in their work to bring through and nurture the talent.

The facilities will provide a base for all the elite players to train and maximise their talents for the England teams yes, and I think that will help to create a club mentality amongst our national teams, but it isn't just about making player X, Y and Z better.

Will it work? I think it will certainly help improve the things that will help nurture future generations.

Will it make the national team more successful? In the short term I think it will have a minor positive boost, but I really think the impact of Clairefontaine etc (the French model that St Georges was first designed to mimick) on their respective national teams is massively overstated. France were good because they had a good batch of players who were taken to another level by a football genius in Zindane. The majority of that team had nothing to do with Clairefontaine until later in the France careers and so I put it down to a freak of the cyclical nature of football.

I'm quite impressed and positive about St Georges.

[Hoop Blah]

28% of players in the PL are English.
74% of players in La Liga are Spanish

Which shows that English players aren't good enough.

The question is how do we get them good enough, and more specifically will this academy address that?

It does show a bit of a problem for the English game. But is it just that the players aren't good enough or that we are just a more cosmopolitan League with more money available to select from the bigger talent pool?

I think it was Rooney or Gerrard who was saying how tough it is for English players to come through at the moment because they're competing with the some of the best in the world for their club places.

In Spain the technical ability is higher yes, but do they have the money to attract the quantity of foreign players outside of their top two? I genuinely don't know the answer but it always feels to me that they don't.

[gazzer, loyal royal]

http://www.talksport.co.uk/radio/listen ... sode/93107

Key and Gray from there yesterday. Sheepshanks, Brooking, Chairman of the LMA plus others on there. Good insight

[Jackson Corner]

You can have all the hydro pools, dietitions, Physios, medical science you want. It means jack shit when we can't produce players can keep the ball.

[Hoop Blah]

You can have all the hydro pools, dietitions, Physios, medical science you want. It means jack shit when we can't produce players can keep the ball.

And how do you address that last point? Invest in a way of improving standards perhaps?

[Jackson Corner]

28% of players in the PL are English.
74% of players in La Liga are Spanish

90% of the old first division in the 1970's where English. We failed to qaulify for every major championship. We were shit then we are shit now. Lets just accept we are SHIT.

[Green]

Where were you when we were shit?