Villa: good guys (again): Bryan Jones on young footballers/England & W.C.

[Chico Hamilton III]

My youngest son is still at school! They are just building a sports centre on the playing fields so they can hire it out to the community!

My 2 kids are at an inner city primary school ( famous alumni include Ian Wright, Shaun Wright Philips and Maxi Priest) and there is no playing field, just a small concrete playground. The local secodndary which they will go to is the same. It reminds me of the recreation yard at Alcatraz.

[Steve R]

My eldest will be attending a private school in the UK in September - not our first choice but missed the deadline for applyinmg for state schools. However, I 'nipped' back to the Uk last week for his induction day and the size of the playing field that they have was astonsihing. When I was at my comp we didn't even have one of our own. There really is a diminshing return on children's eductaion when it comes to sport. If you have the money the classrooms or smaller (i.e children to teacher ratio), they tend to be better equipped, and the playing fields available are also either shared, or non-existant.

Maybe not for the discussion forum but it's a valid point that our success at international level is of course going to be questioned when less children have exposure to playing the game with proper facilities.

I read something the other day regarding the London Olympians statng that 41% of our Olympic athletes in 2012 came from private schools, i.e. 7% of the school-going population.

I like the idea of a TV money levy to supplement spending on facilities/coaching provision in schools. It is what the PL would be doing anyway if there was any sense.

[DeKuip]

You should listen to Bryan's contribution here. It's controversial vis-a-vis England. The rest of it is interesting, too.
Thanks for posting this, 'cuss.

What does he say for those that cannot listen?

He doesn't make any reference to them!

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

My youngest son is still at school! They are just building a sports centre on the playing fields so they can hire it out to the community!

My 2 kids are at an inner city primary school ( famous alumni include Ian Wright, Shaun Wright Philips and Maxi Priest) and there is no playing field, just a small concrete playground. The local secodndary which they will go to is the same. It reminds me of the recreation yard at Alcatraz.

At least that means there's hope for a future generation of Tunnel Engineers and papier mache artists.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

My eldest will be attending a private school in the UK in September - not our first choice but missed the deadline for applyinmg for state schools. However, I 'nipped' back to the Uk last week for his induction day and the size of the playing field that they have was astonsihing. When I was at my comp we didn't even have one of our own. There really is a diminshing return on children's eductaion when it comes to sport. If you have the money the classrooms or smaller (i.e children to teacher ratio), they tend to be better equipped, and the playing fields available are also either shared, or non-existant.

Maybe not for the discussion forum but it's a valid point that our success at international level is of course going to be questioned when less children have exposure to playing the game with proper facilities.

I read something the other day regarding the London Olympians statng that 41% of our Olympic athletes in 2012 came from private schools, i.e. 7% of the school-going population.

I like the idea of a TV money levy to supplement spending on facilities/coaching provision in schools. It is what the PL would be doing anyway if there was any sense.

A lot of our success was in sports that a large portion of the world don't or can't really compete in.  There are barriers to entry in sports like rowing, equestrianism and cycling that aren't really there for football or track athletics.  These barriers are both for working class and poorer sections of our society as well as most of the less-developed world.

Football is truly the world game, and provided you can get hold of a ball or something resembling a ball, even the poorest countries can put out a team.

[john e]

My youngest son is still at school! They are just building a sports centre on the playing fields so they can hire it out to the community!

My 2 kids are at an inner city primary school ( famous alumni include Ian Wright, Shaun Wright Philips and Maxi Priest) and there is no playing field, just a small concrete playground. The local secodndary which they will go to is the same. It reminds me of the recreation yard at Alcatraz.

At least that means there's hope for a future generation of Tunnel Engineers and papier mache artists.

the actual Alcatraz escapees were never found,
 they either drowned and there bodies never washed up, or they made it and could still be around

[Simon Ward]

My youngest son is still at school! They are just building a sports centre on the playing fields so they can hire it out to the community!

My 2 kids are at an inner city primary school ( famous alumni include Ian Wright, Shaun Wright Philips and Maxi Priest) and there is no playing field, just a small concrete playground. The local secodndary which they will go to is the same. It reminds me of the recreation yard at Alcatraz.

At least that means there's hope for a future generation of Tunnel Engineers and papier mache artists.

Indeed! My son loves his football with a passion, but has chosen drama as his major after school activity as he has more chance of getting a game as the football pitches get built on!

[Pat McMahon]

My youngest son is still at school! They are just building a sports centre on the playing fields so they can hire it out to the community!

My 2 kids are at an inner city primary school ( famous alumni include Ian Wright, Shaun Wright Philips and Maxi Priest) and there is no playing field, just a small concrete playground. The local secodndary which they will go to is the same. It reminds me of the recreation yard at Alcatraz.

At one of my junior schools, St Chad's in Newtown (also attended by peter w I believe), we only had a yard, no field. Double decker buses used to ferry us off to the park on Thursday afternoon to run around like nutters. We were too crazed by the freedom to run around in open air to work on skills, we just wanted to let off steam.

Our school team was shit.

[tomd2103]

Having been there a couple of times, I'm still really not sure how a multi million pound facility down a country lane just outside Burton is helping the national game in any way.     

It opened at the end of 2012. I'm not sure what results you would expect to see from it at this point.

It's not going to suddenly mean that the current Danny Wellbeck or Jordan Henderson now play like Angel Di Maria and Toni Kroos, but it might mean that current eight year olds turn into better players than Danny Wellbeck and Jordan Henderson.

It could also turn into a giant, irrelevent white elephant - but I don't think the first 18 months of it's existence is the time to judge it.

Nobody's expecting instant results, but it was heralded as something that was going to change the game in this country.  I just can't see how it will.  It really is in the middle of nowhere and I just can't see how many of the eight year olds you mention are going to be able to access it.  There are already mutterings that some in the England set up think it is too far from Wembley.

[spartacuss]

Quote from: spartacuss on June 25, 2014, 02:41:14 PM
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b047wfym

 What he says about the current England team and future W.C. prospects is controversial to say the least... but needs to be said loud and long.

What does he say?

He says:

1.  "England will not win the World Cup  in the next 15 - 20 years."
2.  "I hate to say this, but I'm disappointed that they qualified for the World Cup because I think it needs a jolt; somewhere along the line, it needs a serious jolt for people to sit back and someone to say, 'Hang on, this isn't right!'
3.  "I would say that 50% of that side aren't world class and 50% are extremely average and they have come through the present academy system."

[paul_e]

Having been there a couple of times, I'm still really not sure how a multi million pound facility down a country lane just outside Burton is helping the national game in any way.     

It opened at the end of 2012. I'm not sure what results you would expect to see from it at this point.

It's not going to suddenly mean that the current Danny Wellbeck or Jordan Henderson now play like Angel Di Maria and Toni Kroos, but it might mean that current eight year olds turn into better players than Danny Wellbeck and Jordan Henderson.

It could also turn into a giant, irrelevent white elephant - but I don't think the first 18 months of it's existence is the time to judge it.

Nobody's expecting instant results, but it was heralded as something that was going to change the game in this country.  I just can't see how it will.  It really is in the middle of nowhere and I just can't see how many of the eight year olds you mention are going to be able to access it.  There are already mutterings that some in the England set up think it is too far from Wembley.

That's not it's purpose so how many 8 year olds can get there is neither here or there.  What's important is that the people coaching and teaching those 8 year olds have somewhere to learn modern coaching techniques giving them the ability to produce players with rounded technical skills.  As mentioned above, youre looking at 3-4 years from now before that coaching really becomes embedded and then wait for those 8-12 year olds to start breaking through.

[Duncan Shaw]

What is galling is that the FA Premiership was originally set up to do all these things and help the national team.  I'm going to try and find the original charter because it very quickly lost it's way, greedily stuffing it's snout into the Sky trough along with the players and agents.

[Dlp]

I'm probably going a bit off subject here but I feel the problems and lack of National success lies with:

1) the quality and mentality of coaching in this country,
2) the type of player we push,
3) as a country the ethos of how we play the game.
4) a lack of leadership and balls within the FA,
5) Who controls football in this country.

Football in this country has always been played at 100mph, high on energy, not to high on skill.

As a footballing nation we have this misguided, arrogant notion that the way we play the game is right, and we know better than everyone else, we never take on any alternative suggestions as to how we could improve the quality of players in this country, we just bury our heads in the sand and carry on in the same way. The result is that we have won nothing at international level for nearly 50 years and are unlikely to win anything in the next 50 years if we carry on the same way.

The players of today may be fitter but they are not better players. We have steadily declined since 1966, the last good national side we had was 1990. 
Some people will then argue "oh well our clubs have been successful in the Champions League". To a degree they have, but most are filled with foreign players and that's another topic on its own. Our top league has something like 60 to 65% foreign players, a figure that has steadily increased year on year. In the first season of the Premier League there were only 13, yes 13 foreign players start in the first games. I bet in the final PL games of last season there were probably not many more than 13 English players starting games.


The other problem in this country is the money grabbing FA Premier League. They have to much power and basically run football in this country. They pay lip service to the National team but in reality they don't give a shit. All they care about is their self promotion and financial greed. I prefer to call them the "Fuck All except us Premier League".

We need the controlling body namely The Football Association to merge with the Football League and then have the balls to say, "right this is what we are going to do to develop our English players and ultimately the National team. if you don't come on board then piss off and play somewhere else". However that's hardly likely to happen however much I would welcome it.
I think the Premier League has become boring, there's no competition anymore. For the majority of fans it's not a question of can my team win the league this season, it's can we hopefully get into the top 6, or like us Villa fans can we stay in the bloody league. What a fucking bore, whats the point.
And then you get these wanking Managers who have bust a gut to get into Europe then play a bloody reserve team in Europe and get knocked out. Aka Martin fucking O'neil. the twat. Or they moan about the number of games they have to play. And why, because they're shit scared of going out of the moneybags league.

The money teams sign players they have no intention of playing then loan them out  for someone else to develop. And when that player comes good they just take them back and gloat about how they signed them up and developed them. Lets fuck them off and let them go and play in some super league.

Apologies for the progressive rant but the more I thought and wrote the more pissed off and annoyed I got.

It's not ludicrous amounts of money that create good players and a successful National side.  If it was we'd be world champions.

[dave.woodhall]

Not wishing to quote a lengthy post when I only want to take issue with one part of it, but the FA and the Premier League are two separate entities. The FA is the game's governing body in England and ostensibly control all leagues in the same way. The Premier League is owned and controlled by its member clubs.

[Dlp]

Not wishing to quote a lengthy post when I only want to take issue with one part of it, but the FA and the Premier League are two separate entities. The FA is the game's governing body in England and ostensibly control all leagues in the same way. The Premier League is owned and controlled by its member clubs.

Apologies for the previous lengthy quote. Sometimes you cant say what you feel in a couple of short sentences.

Well the premier League gate crashed its way into power in 1992. All I'm saying is why can't the FA and FL as a joint force do the same. I may be wrong but it's the FA that FIFA and UEFA recognise as the controlling bodies in this country so I assume it would be the FA and any partner like the FL who would be recognised by the World and European bodies. hence teams playing in their league would gain entry to the European competitions.

The FA may have many critics but they do help and promote grass roots football. Perhaps with a bit more cash from sponsorship the money could be better distributed than it has been.

Instead of the major clubs dictating everything lets get the controlling power back to where it was pre 1992.