pele 10: leeman: Its very well saying english players wont win anything etc but when you look at the rules and regulations that surround english players at grass root level you will understand how hard it is to get gems like rooney,wilshere,scholes. At a young age you can be moulded in to any sort of player you want, the problem is coaches arnt allowed to spend alot of time with the youngsters as are coaches who work in spain etc. The english national side and the premier league would be far better off if the coaching rules in england were overhauled and many of the academy rules were also looked into.
I thought those rules were changed just recently. Within the last 2 or 3 years? It is a little early yet but I thought the effects were starting to show in the improvement of some of the younger groups. U17s to mention one where it has been noticed.
The main thing that's changed at grass roots is, kids are on smaller pitches now and a bigger emphasis is on technique and a lot of games now are playing not over head height, to keep the ball low and sharp movement, will be 6-10 years before we see the benefits of this though, in my eyes, it's still not enough, I'm trying to get signatures off all the parents of the kids I teach to allow more time to teach their kids, got a lot of bright kids in my batch and I feel I am not allowed enough time to help them. The rules here are obsurd.