Greg Dyke outlines new reforms to protect English talent

Dozen Wicked Words

Trilla wrote: »

Pardon my ignorance here, can someone explain this to me?

To explain why they hired him?

He must interview really well, or have incriminating photos of someone very high up in the FA.

Cantona's Collars

Here's a an idea of the mentality still pervading the British game:

http://www.football365.com/la-liga/9775367/Spain-enquire-over-Real-Madrid-starlet-Jack-Harper-after-Scotland-snub

The antiquated thoughts that big & strong are better than technique.

Kirby

I think its very easy to take that out of context. The media was looking for a story and they got it. Perhaps the kid wasn't good enough to make the squad? Maybe his size had nothing to do with it and hes just lazy and wont track back/defend with the team?

Saying "I decided to go with a more physical team" is a lot more politically correct than saying "He's a lazy f*cker. By luxury player, I mean he does f*ck all when we don't have the ball."

Sometimes you have to read between the lines.

Billy86

That could also be the case here, as Ricky Sbragia was hugely important in Man Utd's development program in the early/mid 2000s that saw a glut of top flight players come through, often with their main strengths being technical as opposed to physical.

Kirby

Martin Odegaard's Real Madrid nightmare continues as paper refuses to give him a mark for latest performance

Martin Odegaard’s expected road to superstardom at Real Madrid has been a bumpy one so far.

The 16-year-old, reportedly on as much as £80,000-per-week, has been struggling to make an impression for Castilla, Real Madrid’s B-team, following his much-publicised move from Stromsgodset.

Last week, reports emerged from Spain that Odegaard had been dropped by manager Zinedine Zidane after failing to fit in with his new team-mates.

It was revealed that Odegaard’s contract allows him to train with the first team, but amid reported suggestions from unnamed team-mates that he “couldn’t be bothered” with Castilla, his presence in the B-team coincided with a marked dip in form for the side.

Castilla then won two games without him in the team but Odegaard was back in the starting XI on Sunday for a match against Tudelano, only to be removed after 65 minutes.

As reported by Spanish daily AS, Real Madrid were losing when Odegaard made way and battled back for a 1-1 draw. And the paper even claims, “Martin Odegaard has become a problem for Zinedine Zidane.”

AS then gave him a mark of 0 out of three – an indignity suffered by only one other player on the pitch.

As I said a few weeks ago, sometimes you have to read between the lines. Those of you who criticized Sbragia immediately now look a bit foolish. These lads clearly have an attitude problem.

Lukker-

Kirby wrote: »

As I said a few weeks ago, sometimes you have to read between the lines. Those of you who criticized Sbragia immediately now look a bit foolish. The lad clearly has an attitude problem.

What?

Jack Harper /= Martin Odegaard ??

AdamD

16 year old in having attitude problem shocker

Kirby

Lukker- wrote: »

What?

Jack Harper /= Martin Odegaard ??

You missed the point. When a manager drops a player, its very easy to have a go at the manager especially if the kid is young. But we don't see what they see in training and in matches. If a player has a bad attitude it effects the whole team. This is another example of a "wonderkid" being too big for their boots. If you don't put the effort in, you don't deserve to be in the team.

Too many are too quick to defend these kids and castigate the managers. I was using this latest 80k a week kid as an example. I've edited my the wording in my post to reflect this.

Just a little Samba

sky88 wrote: »

I think the problem in England and Ireland are the coaches are just not good enough at youth level overall.

It's not even that. there just aren't enough coaches.

If you look at the amount of certified coaches in Spain, Italy, Germany and Hollan and compare it percapita to the UK and Ireland it's embarassing.

Ireland kind of has an excuse in that there isn't a fully professional league here to support that kind of coaching system, but in the UK, especially England, with the level of professionalism down to the 5th tier of the league, there really should be a lot more properly trained and certified coaches working with young players.

Instead you have the dinosaurs who are more interested in winning the local league every year than actually developing talent and as a result you have a reliance on "big strong fast" over technical ability because at u14 level if you pump long balls to a 6foot tall kid, you will dominate games every single time.