Rebuilding the empire: 5 ways to rejuvenate England's football future

More disappointments to come if something isn't done now

It is clear that the English national team has fallen by the wayside for the last several years. Not since 1990 has the national team reached at least the semi final of the World Cup. There have been few positives coming out of major tournaments (World Cup 2002 and Euro 1996) and there have been several negatives over the last 20 years, most notably the failures of not qualifying for the 1994 World Cup and Euro 2008, but also the absolutely dismal World Cup 2010 campaign which shed light to a lot of hidden flaws in the national team and forced governing bodies to pluck up their ideas.

Here are 5 changes I believe need to be made to will improve the English national team for the future, and give us a team we can be proud of. I do not claim that they're are guaranteed to work, or that they are completely foolproof. I understand it's a very debatable topic and these are solely my opinion but I am open to any other suggestions. 

1. Improve childhood level and grassroots standards

Let me tell you a story. When I was a little boy in primary school, I didn't really like football. It wasn't until Year 5 when I started watching the FA Cup on TV and playing Fifa 2004 did I begin to like it, and so I played (badly) with my friends at lunchtimes. Our football "coach" would come in every Thursday and offered Year 3s and above football "training" for £1 a week. When we actually got down to "training", he offered us no instructions about how to play, how to pass, how to shoot, how to try and find a teammate in space, no nothing.  When it was game time, it would be 11 vs 11 on half a football pitch where we went out and did whatever we wanted (too more creative freedom I think)

Now I don't know if it was just my school or this coach, but I fear for the same thing happening elsewhere in other schools. Children aren't taught enough on basic skills and principles such as passing and ball possession. It seems like football is taught to children at a win at all costs mentality, with a lot of reliance on physicality than technical ability. If children like me aren't taught how to play the game, then what chance is there for us to take the next step in football?

There needs to be an overhaul and change in mentality at the most basic level of football: childhood level. Once this is addressed, then we can move our focus towards the next stage of the pipeline

2. A rethink in youth development

In the 1998 World Cup, Germany suffered a humiliating 3-0 quarter final defeat to Croatia. In Euro 2000, they did even worse than England as they lost twice and drew once in their 3 group matches. This called for a major overhaul in the development of young German players.  They forced all 36 teams in the Bundesliga divisions to operate centrally regulated academies as a requirement to participate in the divisions. A new DFB talent development programme was introduced in 2003 with the recruitment of new 1000 DFB part time coaches. These coaches aim to teach children basic technical skills and give them tactical knowledge at a young age (what I was sorely lacking). All of these coaches are  UEFA B license holders and are expected to scout for players as well as train them.  This has resulted in great young players with big potentials such as Mesut Ozil, Mario Gotze and Toni Kroos being noticed by coaches. Professional clubs scouts can then attend weekly DFB sessions to spot players and invite them along to train at their club.

This begs the question on how this would work in practice in England. I believe the FA can act as the DFB in this case, where they would increase investment for improve coaching standards and hiring more part time coaches to train children at school. These coaches would teach the children the basic skills required to develop their all round game (as it's too early to decide on a position). They could then advise these children to attend more focused weekend training sessions with other talented children, where football clubs can invite them to train at their own clubs. This should result in a larger pool of talented youngsters being available for clubs to train themselves.

Clubs should hopefully be more inclined to field their more talented English youngsters in the first team as not only would it financially make sense to use what you already have. This could solve the problem of lack of English players playing in the Premier League without having to install quotas. As Gianfranco Zola says, if the homegrown player is good enough he will get his chance in the first team (like Tommie Hoban for Watford). At the moment, only foreign players with the right skills can play his desired style of fluid football hence why the Watford team is mostly made up of foreign players. If homegrown players can learn the basic skills early on and improve on them at the age of 16-20, even foreign managers will pick them for their first teams.

3. Call up players who deserve it

Now I'm going to focus more on the professional side of the game. I believe the thinking behind the call ups for England matches is most of the time absolutely terrible.

I'm going to be using Ashley Young as my example. As much as I love him after being brought up through the Watford ranks, his recent England call ups have been completely unjustified. In 2010/11, he scored 9 goals and 15 assists, and in 2011/12 he scored 12 goals and made 13 assists. Following both of these seasons, I would have agreed with Young's England call ups completely. However, for the 2012/13 season, he only scored 3 goals and made 6 assists, a big drop compared to his previous 2 seasons. However, in spite of this he is still called up to almost every England match of the season.

I feel as though the England squad is decided on the status quo rather than any justification for every single player. England always seems to pick the best English players from the top 6 clubs and never have a look at other players from the remaining 14 clubs. If a player's spot in the national team is secured, there is no reason to impress week in week out to earn the place. Each player should have to work their socks off in order to represent their country on the world stage, and a shake up in the call up process would result in only the most deserving players (like Rickie Lambert) getting their chance.

4. A Winter break

Almost every other domestic division across Europe including the Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1 has one. A month off from football during December and January in order for players to recharge their batteries both physically and mentally, for managers to regroup and reconsider their methods and for fans to go on holiday without any worry of missing the football.  Every country has one except England. 

According to Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore, the problem that prevents a winter break from happening is a conflict of interest. There are 3 main stakeholders in the English game: The Premier League, the Football League and the FA. In order for a winter break to be implemented, some fixtures will have to go from either the Premier League, The FA Cup or the League Cup. The Premier League doesn't want to decrease the number of teams in the league, the Football League doesn't want to lose the League cup and the FA Cup doesn't want to get rid of the FA Cup replays. It's a standoff that is going nowhere at the moment.

Something has got to give, and I think all parties must make some sort of compromise. The Premier League could start a week earlier and end a week later, the Football League should attempt to delay the second legs of the League cup semi finals and the FA Cup should say goodbye to the replays before the 5th round. I haven't thought these proposed changes in full detail, but hopefully if all 3 stakeholders could make their own sacrifices, a 2 or 3 week break could happen during the winter. 

This should stop players from becoming completely burnt out by the time the summer tournament rolls along, and this self imposed disadvantage England already has would be eliminated.

5. A new identity

I hardly ever watch England matches anymore because I get depressed about their dismal playing style 10 minutes in. When I think of Spanish football team I think of slick, strikerless, possession football where they pass the opposition to death (vs Uruguay this year), when I think of the Brazilian football team I think fast and fluid with lots of tricks in between. When I think of the English national team, I think of loose short passes and the fast right winger (Walcott, Lennon, Young take your pick) running into the left back or putting in a useless cross.  Like Rio Ferdinand said a month ago, England need to establish their own identity. This is not only so all the players can read off the same script and they could slot quickly into the national team tactics, but also to give every England fan something to be proud of in their team.

If it were down to me, I'd want my England team to be based around relentless pressing and hard work, chasing the ball tirelessly and not giving the opposition any time to think. They'd be comfortable on the ball and always looking to use the blistering pace of the wingers on either flank and a striker who will get onto the end of every cross. England would also be lethal at set pieces, with us threatening to score at every corner and free kick. This is just my personal preference but either way England must ditch the boring and predictable pump it into the box approach and do something that will surprise the opposition.


Like I said, these ideas aren't foolproof and are only my personal opinion. It's clear that if any of these changes were to be made, there aren't going to cause earthquakes over night. However, using Germany as an example again, they performed horrendly as Euro 2004, but in 2008, 6 years after they made action, Germany reached the Euro 2008 final. A big improvement in team performance after a relatively short period of time. If all of these proposed changes are started now, who knows? We could be lifting the World Cup in the 2022 Winter World Cup!