Barwick to blame....

[Webbo]

<Burton stuff>

I could be wrong but I think I read somewhere that the reason it was scrapped was more political than financial. The big clubs didn't want it because they wanted to train their own kids.

[davieG]

I could be wrong but I think I read somewhere that the reason it was scrapped was more political than financial. The big clubs didn't want it because they wanted to train their own kids.

It was definitely financial reasons everything else was just a smoke screen! Besides not every club in the land has a football academy.

[Manwell Pablo]

It was Craig Johnston, wasn't it? I only saw a bit of it, but what I saw was pretty good - he talked sense.

He was going on about the cultural problems in the lower levels of football which a lot of people have commented on before. Kids in the UK play too many competitive games with their parents screaming at them from the touchline, and don't spend enough time on technique, unlike our European cousins.

I think he's right. You only have to look at players like our Elvis - I don't know how long he'd been at Fulham for, but you've got a young player signed from a PREMIER LEAGUE team's reserves, and the main problem I can see with his game is that he cannot control a ball to save his life. You'd have thought that at some stage this basic requirement of being a footballer of any standard would have been identified as an area that he was a bit deficient in, and he would have had to work on it until he was bloody brilliant at it, and this would have happened by the time he was about 11. The hours have clearly never been put in though, have they?

I don't think the influx of foreign players is inhibiting the England team...English players don't get into Premier League sides because they're not good enough. I doubt if the foreigners disappeared our players would suddenly become brilliant. The standard in the Premier League would drop and the England team would be as crap as ever. The FA MIGHT then start investing a bit more in the grass roots, but how long would that take to bear fruit? Ages

To be honest I think all this techincal guff, it's bull shit, it's been around for as long as I've followed football, it was bought up in 92, 94 and then mysteriously vanished until 2000 when we next performed poorly. Under Erikson, three consecutive quarter final apperances (robbed on pens in two) and 5-1 win in Munich, I didn't hear any questioning the techincal abilty of English players after any of that. Then all of a sudden this happens, BANG we lack techincal abilty again.

We've always seemed to do alright in most major tournaments, I'd see the Englishes inabilty to take penalties has held them back when it's come to the cruch, more so than the apparent lack of techincal abilty. The Premier League is made up 41% and that for an English league may not sound like much but lets remember it's arguable the best league in the world and the nationality that has the highest number of players playing in it is England.

We have some of the worlds best footballers in our national team. Some fantastic youth level players coming through, our U21 have shown they can play and get results against the best. But, whenever we go out of a manager tournament early it the fault of the parents shouting at there kids from the touchline and "No ball games" signs, please. Our grass root problems, these things are totally irrelevent. I'll admit the FA needs to look at the way they run things, but it's nothing to do with top level football, it not stopping emerging talent, theres loads of it.

As said in the previous article I think the lack of players making moves to other countries is more worrying, the numbers of British exports seems to have plumeted in recent years leaving our football very one dimentional and our footballers very narrow minded and in certain ways unexperinced.

I don't think there were that many poor touches on Wednesday, we gave the ball away through missed place passes more than mis controlled balls or not being assured in possesion. Our players were nervious performed poorly under a man who had failed to motivate them, failed to organise them, and failed them tactically. I also have to give Croatia credit they look like a good side and deserve their spot as one of the worlds top 10 nations.

[Raj]

I was at home this morning and watched Craig J.

He was fuming and had a right go at the FA and David Davies(the old Chief ex of FA!)

Craigy was saying Davies will say all sorts of things the FA should do but why didnt they do it when he was in charge etc....

Then guess who they had on next....

David Davies!!!

He looked red and was obviously embaressed but got away lightly as the interviewer was very kind to him!

[Simi]

Here is the interview...

Well worth a read. It's from Sky Sports.

Former Liverpool midfielder Craig Johnston has launched a scathing attack on the FA, insisting they are "conning" the English public.

Australian Johnston, who is heavily involved in coaching young players at grass-roots level, is furious that the FA are conducting their own inquiry into the national game after their failures at the 2006 World Cup and in Euro 2008 qualifying.

Johnston insists an independent body should conduct the inquiry and claims officials and players are taking too much money out of the game.

In a passionate interview on Sky Sports News, he said: "Why am I the only angry person? Everybody's talking, but nobody is putting in a process in place with checks and balances.

"The FA say they want a root and branch inquiry, but they are conducting it. Are you kidding? I haven't forgiven those guys for what they did in Germany with the 'golden generation'.

"They conned us then. They conned us the other night. And now they are going to inquire about themselves? Who is kidding who here?

"In what other industry in the world can you under-achieve so much, but still get paid so much? They are paying off Steve McClaren with a £2.5million bonus for not getting us there and then they will pay themselves for doing an inquiry. We are all being conned.

"I am really angry and somebody independent needs to tell these guys what they are doing. I'm not looking for a job and I don't need a job, but I will do it for nothing.

"Would any of the players ever play for nothing?"

Grass-roots problems

Johnston insists there are major problems at the top of the sport, but it is even worse at grass-roots level where English youngsters are not working hard enough and are being outnumbered in academies by foreign talent.

He added: "It's been going wrong for 30-40 years. When Kevin Keegan was the England manager he made an amazing statement, saying English kids are lazy.

"And the reason the clubs are buying so many foreigners is because they are technically proficient. Just like the Croats the other night. They played better football and that's why they are in the European Championships and England are not.

"They can change the pace of the play because they can hold onto the ball, but English kids give the ball away.

"There is a problem at national level and that is very clear for all to see in terms of touch and feel, but more importantly there is a heart issue.

"We know English teams are best when they come from behind. Look at the rugby players, look at the cricketers when they won the Ashes. But that fighting spirit wasn't there the other night - it was only there for 10 minutes just after David Beckham came on. That was disgraceful.

"I don't know why I'm upset by this because I'm not even English, but I've lived here for 25 years and the country has given me a marvellous living.

"I'm angry, so why aren't English people more angry about what is happening at the national level and at grass roots?

Suicide

"At grass roots there is a much, much bigger problem because the foreign kids are outnumbering the English kids in the academies. That is suicide. You may as well jump off a cliff now because that is wrong.

"Managers aren't stupid. They are bringing foreign players he because they are better than their English counterparts. The kids aren't good enough and that shows you how badly things have been mismanaged by the FA for many, many years.

"The solution is hard work. It's what the Italian kids do, what the Brazilian kids do and what the Argentinean kids do. These kids have no money, no toys and no future. They spend hours and hours with a football until the sun goes down and after.

"Do the English kids do that? No they don't. It hasn't happened since the days of Stanley Matthews. Bobby Charlton will tell kids to draw a cross on a brick wall and hit it with their left foot and with their right foot and keep going until their feet start to bleed."

[Bellend Sebastian]

To be honest I think all this techincal guff, it's bull shit, it's been around for as long as I've followed football, it was bought up in 92, 94 and then mysteriously vanished until 2000 when we next performed poorly. Under Erikson, three consecutive quarter final apperances (robbed on pens in two) and 5-1 win in Munich, I didn't hear any questioning the techincal abilty of English players after any of that. Then all of a sudden this happens, BANG we lack techincal abilty again.

Well, people are always going to be less inclined to criticise a winning team, however unconvincing it is. If we'd got through on Wednesday, people would be less focussed on the issue but it still applies.

We've always seemed to do alright in most major tournaments, I'd see the Englishes inabilty to take penalties has held them back when it's come to the cruch, more so than the apparent lack of techincal abilty. The Premier League is made up 41% and that for an English league may not sound like much but lets remember it's arguable the best league in the world and the nationality that has the highest number of players playing in it is England.

But the teams that win anything, either domestically or in Europe, have next to bugger all English players in them.

I'm not being argumentative - It's not really in my nature.

I'd agree that it is quite a complicated situation and you cannot blame any one thing

[Raj]

Roy Keane hammered the players too today...or was it Yday???

Basically saying they have too big an ego.

"I can name 8.We all could.In fact i could probably do 20"

[Chandler]

Wrong man. Tofik Bakhramov is to blame. His laser vision enabled him to conclude that Geoff's spooner banana'd in flight over the goal line for about 1/200th of a second in some low key fixture 40 years ago. That was when our delusion was born.

World Cup Hat Trick hero lays floral bung at Bakhramov memorial - do not attempt this manoeuvre without geriatric supervision.