- Jan 11, 2013
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- #3,461
There's a lot to unpack there so I'll do my best.
1) just for clarity the views I was representing were Terry's not my own. Now it may be that he's seen something in the academy system that we haven't and it may be that he's comparing the old "clean my boots" philosophy with the idea of academy players driving around in flash cars and buying mansions before even being first team regulars. Yes, most will be hard working I'm sure but having experience of a top level academy (albeit a good 20 years ago) there is definitely a sense of entitlement amongst some players. Some do think it's a given that they will make it and rely on natural talent rather than really believing they have to buckle down and use every moment to stay focused. The irony is one of our coaches who I won't name was at a top academy and had the same mentality about natural talent and didn't buckle down when he needed to and ended up with a lower league career when he could have had so much more.
2) I don't believe English players are lazy by comparison but they are the highest paid.i think the money goes to their heads far too quickly and they lose perspective very quickly. You talk about managers in this league having the wrong approach but almost all the managers you talk about have come from foreign leagues where they having better youth systems (not players, systems). I'm not prepared to blame a manager for doing what he's supposed to be doing. I do however, blame the system within which he operates. You can look to the loan system, the U23s league, the high stakes involved in first team football and ask where is the incentive to play youth players? There isn't. These clubs abroad, the Bayern's, Reals, Barca even Valencia and Atletico Madrid produce so many academy players that go on to have successful football careers and what's more is they all have B teams that play in in senior football. In fact, Real sell a lot of talent with buy back provisions where they can bring them back after 2 years of senior football if they do well. I don't propose we do this but they can afford to do this because the players are brainwashed in the club's ways and philosophy so that it becomes a dream of the player to play for them. However, the football purists would never allow B teams and they would never allow changes to the loan system where you could loan 4 or 5 players to one affiliated club with similar style of play, there's far too much that is precious about the English league structure. For me, it's not the managers that are at fault, most of the time, I believe it's the system which they operate in.
3) so what do I mean by tearing it up? It's simply showing himself to be a highly competitive member of the squad, doing things that other players don't do. You can tell me that Parrott isn't going to show himself to be better than Kane but he may show some attribute that Llorente doesn't have. Football is about using what you have to be effective. If Parrott does that then yes he'd get a chance. Let's not forget it's not just ability, it's also form. Kane got a chance in the EL to show his ability because our seniors weren't doing what the manager asked or wanted, Kane did and did it better, now he's here. But it all has to start in training. So for KWP, Onomah and Edwards there are reasons why they are not there yet. Otherwise what would be the reason for Skipp, TOB and Marsh to get ahead. KWP I think needs to improve his physicality, he's like a very young Marcelo who was getting pushed around in the early days. When he finally filled out he became one of the world's best left backs.
4) I didn't say there was a conspiracy I said some people talk as if there is one. Which of course there isn't. But I do come back to this point, Bayern have a B team that play in the senior League and their players get that exposure much more than players in the English league.
With your first two points there is a lot I agree with and some I disagree, due to my stance on the subject but it's not worth dragging out because it's all opinion at the end of the day.
Re: point 3, I know it's a sore point, and I know ti causes controversy, and I get the well it didn't happen that way so how would you know. BUT all my point is that Kane had the EL to prove himself, something the current crop do not have. It was having the opportunity (which is what I always blab on about)in the first team that allowed Kane to prove himself to continue getting chances. It wasn't him out performing people in training, which is why I don't really buy the do it in training argument. If Kane was in the academy now, training as hard as he does not, like in the preseason of 2014 he would not be starting ahead of Llorente or Son in the PL or the CL. Similarly if we didn't qualify for the CL or EL, I do not think Kane, would have been given opportunity ahead of the experienced under performing strikers as there would have been no pressure to play him, as there would be no evidence to support his case that eh could do better. It goes back to if he was training so well during that preseason why was he not starting or being used more in the PL until he bagged all those goals. Opportunity was key not how well he trained. And I don't believe great performance in training in this country leads to opportunity unfortunately. Fortunate circumstances do.
I see your point about Bayern but I don't think they would pay 40m for a B team player. Like Sancho had to go into the u19s initially there will be an acclimatisation phase, but he would have been bought for their first team. Despite this, he'd be lucky to see daylight at Chelsea again. And the blame will be placed squarely at his door for not working hard enough.