SheffieldSaddler wrote:It makes you laugh when you consider the Premier League is totally to blame for Englands dismal showing in the World Cup, that is what people are saying and of course its utter tosh.
As the Premier League did not exist until 1992 I believe.
So then between 1966 and 1992, what was to blame?
Basically apart from 1990, England have performed no worse in the World Cup since the Premier League began then before it. FACT!
One of the main core problems we have is that kids in this country would rather play 3 hours on a play station or on facebook then play football. Thats were the talent loss starts and thats were it needs to be addressed.
Got to disagree sheff.
The Premier League clubs do have networks of scouts and academies that spot and hone some real talent and the potential that sits within that talent has a far better chance of being realised given the expertise thrown at them. Unfortunately, the opportunity the Premier League has created with one hand, it snatches away with the culture it has created with the other. So lads get to their first professional contract and part of them thinks they have made it, they have more money than anyone they know. Then their agent gets in their ear about how much they could be earning, what other lads earn and the need to be business savvy. Their new found wealth creates a sycophantic environment around them, they are kings of their world at 18/19.
Meanwhile a Dutch kid, a Brazilian kid, a French kid or a kid from the Ivory Coast (I believe Drogba didn't get his first contract until he was 21, 3 or 4 years after his English counterparts had began competing over the best car,watch, house and girlfriend)get their first professional contract at the same time. Sure, it is good to be earning money for playing a game and they now have the means to sustain themselves for now, but they aren't rich. To go on to make themselves really wealthy and join a top European Club, maybe Chelsea, they know they have to keep working, keep developing, keep listening and above all else keep hungry. An extra three or four years of vital development that means that many will ultimately come to England as more rounded footballers and human beings to replace the English prospect who looked a player at 18 but now has to find solace in settling for only £30k a week at a Blackburn or West Ham.
So the Premier League is the cruelest of mistresses in that its wealth creates the opportunity for excellence. But then it is that very wealth that means that footballers don't realise their potential either as players or as men. Greenwood, Robson and to an extent Taylor had men who simply didn't have the talent to compete (Carlton Palmer was the bedrock of Taylors midfield!). Erikson and Cappello have had talent and ability to compete but with a group of men-children who can't take the responsibilities and accountability expected of most adults because the Premier League takes gifted kids with potential, gives them the trappings of success and they thus remain gifted kids with potential, often right up to retirement. And the really sad thing is that far from not having the depth of talent what we have is a depth of wasted talent. Jermaine Pennant and Joey Barton, please take a bow on behalf of a score or so like you, who could actually have been playing in a World Cup semi-final tonight.