If that's your opinion then that's your opinion, but it represents a complete u-turn in what we've been saying here for years about the problem with England's selection policies. An athletic advantage at youth level does not necessarily translate to one at senior level, we know this, we made that mistake for decades. The fact that Kante has a physical advantage today does not validate the notion that we should be prioritizing a facet of his game that we know probably won't count for anything like as much at senior level. Hell, we don't even know if he could run like that as a kid, he played zero youth football for France after all. Well maybe I underestimated people's new found open mindedness, but the last time we had this discussion there were people claiming that the only reason black lads are over-represented was because of the cities and economic backgrounds they're more likely to come from, and that dissent from this stance was tantamount to racism. Their ethnicity is not the issue of course, it's what that disparity says about our selection policy. Athleticism over technical qualities seems to be the only explanation, because I can assure you that there is not a city in the country where working class black lads overwhemingly outnumber working class white or Asian lads.
The only potential problem I see is the top clubs hoovering up talent that will just end up sat on the bench all season. The quota should dictate that x number of HG should be in the starting XI in my opinion.
Well obviously there are a range of opinions here, but here are some of the comments from the last time you asked if "even asking the question is considered racist these days": So there you go. I don't know why you're so keen to misrepresent the discussion but, to be charitable, let's put it down to bad memory.
Re: the Sarmiento news, the 2002 poaching continues (wanted to do this here rather than be lost in an age-group thread as they move up the years). Matthew Bondswell - Nottm Forest to RB Leipzig Rafael Garcia - Fulham to Everton Sam Greenwood - Sunderland to Arsenal Ben Knight - Ipswich to Man City Noni Madueke - Tottenham to PSV Louie Moulden - Liverpool to Man city Charlie McCann - Coventry to Man Utd Armstrong Okoflex - Arsenal to Celtic Jeremy Sarmiento - Charlton to Benfica At least half a dozen more have been linked with bigger moves, and it also excludes the likes of Smales-Braithwaite and Jinadu, who changed clubs after being released.
This isn't relevant to any particular thread but I would love to see a top 10 of the English players from the under 21 age group downwards (in order of how highly you rate them). I know this is tough, considering different age groups and positions etc but I'd still be interested to hear your personal opinions. Thanks!
Not sure if it has been mentioned on here as yet, and is a very small step but there is a new rule this season that requires EFL clubs to include their academy products (players that have been with them since 17 or younger) in the squad. Starting with 1 this season, but talks have been going on to raise this to 3 in future seasons. "Each club have to nominate at least one player who has been registered with them for a minimum of 12 months before the end of his under-19 season on the match-day team sheet in all EFL league competitions. If a club do not name such a player, they can name only six as opposed to seven substitutes” I don't know how much effect it is having as yet - but Steve Evans has really taken it in the spirit intended: This is... quite funny?! Mark Tyler was a Posh youth graduate in the early 90s, and therefore still counts as a 'home-grown' player, one of which each team must name in their squad on a matchday. https://t.co/kWIp6EIR4T— Not The Top 20 Pod (@NTT20Pod) September 11, 2018
Here's my top 10 for anyone who may be interested: 1. Phil Foden 2. Jadon Sancho 3. Emile Smith Rowe 4. Callum Hudson Odoi 5. Mason Mount 6. Oliver Skipp 7. Curtis Jones 8. Alexander-Arnold 9. Ryan Sessegnon 10. Jimmy Garner Honourable mentions to Mason Greenwood, James Maddison, Xavier Amaechi, Angel Gomes and Tommy Doyle. Feel free to critique my choices as I really respect the members on this forum and value their feedback. Thanks!
These are mine with heavy recency and club bias 1. Sancho 2. Hudson Odoi 3. Gomez 4. Gomes 5. James 6. Greenwood 7. Garner 8. Maddison 9. Sessegnon 10. Big Trev Chalobah
I agree with Jenks on this one. If we want to emulate the way countries such as Spain and Croatia play then we need to stop discarding small, technical players. A shift away from trying to dominate teams by picking athletes and early developers would also also give us more diverse youth teams ethnically.
People need to name actual players when they make this argument. Who is missing out because they aren’t athletic enough? Who is being ignored because they are merely small and technical? Who is getting into squads because of mere athletic prowess? There isn't even any context to the argument.
If you’re asking me to produce a list of 9 year old kids that have fallen by the wayside then you’re asking too much. I can give you the example of Luka Modric who was rejected when he was 10 years old for being ‘too small’ and ‘not fast or strong enough.’ He’s now one of the best players in the world. If a country like Croatia (with a proud history of producing technical midfielders) is rejecting ‘unathletic’ kids then it’s probably happening in the UK too and that’s a shame.
yeah, it's a complete strawman. What these players have to do to break into senior football is another question though.
We aren’t talking about 9 year olds though. People are saying things about England’s selection policies. They aren’t picking small technical options from the player pool available because of all these ‘athletes’. It was an issue in the past but I’m struggling to think of players recently missing out or being including because of these supposed issues.
Also, it's not like Croatia weren't a team stacked with great athletes. Busquets for me is the outlier in world football, but I don't think Barcelona even know how to replicate him. We can't point to the outliers as the examples to follow.
Just out of interest, who do people rate as a) our best number 9 style striker and b) our best central defender across all the younger age groups? It seems that we're finally on our way to producing creative players but a bit lacking in other areas. Any decent prospects worth looking out for?
We don't, not unless people are willing to posit that black players are naturally more technical than white players are. If you're not - and I would hope not - then another explanation for the disparity needs to be put forward. As far as I can see the only rational explanation is athleticism, which would be symptomatic of somewhat backward selection policies. I should however be fair to the FA, it could well be the clubs that have issues with their selection policies which skews the talent pool, not them.
The context to the 'football Brexit' talks is that all sides (not least FA and PL) actually agree the decline of the English player in the Premier League is a bad thing. That decline in numbers here pic.twitter.com/nQjsNLIWX7— Nick Harris (@sportingintel) September 9, 2018 Would like to see the 2018/19 figures again in about another 6 weeks time to reassess as it’s only been 3 games into the new season. I still suspect it will be down but with a bit more time might be a better gauge.
I always thought he was a Gerrard style player but apparently he's a winger. Scores some cracking goals.
I bet we see an increase in players getting British passports. For example - Schmeichel at Leicester can certainly qualify for one. Would bump us up to 12 British players and increase the minutes played thing
Yeah, I hope the FA might re-think this idea and come up with something else while they are in a position to negotiate and really think of ways to help the English National side and not be laughed at by the Premier League and Clubs who will find ways to cut corners. Personally can only think of having a quota of a certain number of English qualified players starting games or something.
Man City 3-0 up after 47 minutes today but no Foden run-out. Guardiola says he's ready for England, though: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/09/14/phil-foden-ready-england-says-pep-guardiola/
Yeah, kind of disappointed by that tbh. What’s more of a concern though is that 3 teams today failed to start a single English player, Huddersfield, Chelsea and Arsenal which is quite depressing.