There is a potentially worrying trend in English football for solid, young English talent to be sold for what appears to be extortionate transfer fees, the fact they are English seems to add millions onto their value. I like to call this the English ‘premium’. Two examples from this very summer’s transfer window are Phil Jones’ £16.5 million move from Blackburn Rovers to Manchester United and 20 year old Jordan Henderson’s switch from Sunderland to Liverpool in a deal that has been reported to be as high at £20 million. Now Stewart Downing has made his move to Liverpool with another huge price-tag hanging over his head. It is undeniable that both players have shown that they have the potential to be quality players but thrusting them into the limelight at such a young age may not be the best way to develop them into the fantastic players they could be.
One explanation for this trend is the constant failure of the national team at the higher levels of international football. This leads to media criticism of the top-flight teams for turning to foreign players and not promoting the growth of young English talent. Thus, when an English prospect that has genuine quality appears, we often see constant speculation regarding which top team will be the player’s destination, causing the youngster’s price to rocket. This is exactly what we saw with Jones and Henderson and further examples from this summer are the speculation regarding the futures of players such as Jack Rodwell, Connor Wickham and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
In the cases of Jones and Henderson, their former clubs Blackburn and Sunderland (with all due respect) aren’t of the same stature as their current clubs Manchester United and Liverpool. On this account it wouldn’t be fair to blame the players involved for being ambitious and wishing to further their careers. However, the media must be very careful not to criticise these youngsters too early on when playing at these higher levels they aren’t fully accustomed to.
For instance, if we look at Jordan Henderson’s form last season it is a case of a season of two halves. In the first half of the season he was dynamic and imaginative, linking up well with Darren Bent in partnership that fired Sunderland to a lofty league position around Christmas. However, when Darren Bent was sold to Aston Villa in January and Henderson became more of a key figure in the Sunderland set-up his form didn’t quite match what it was before Christmas. Could it be that the pressure of got him?
In my opinion, slapping the pressure of a big price tag on such young shoulders will not suit every player. Of course, some will point to Wayne Rooney who has matured into one of the finest players in the world after a £25 million move at the age of 18. However, this is the exception and not the rule; we can look to Jermaine Pennant, Francis Jeffers and Kevin Davies for examples of the opposite nature.
The English youth set-up doesn’t have the depth that is seen in Brazil or Spain, so there isn’t a queue on 5 or 6 quality players to replace a talented youngster who can’t quite live up to the pressure of such a big money move at a young age. Putting 20 million pound price tag on such young shoulders means that media criticism of a bad performance has much more legitimacy. Bad form for half a season could completely derail a youngster’s career as they would lose confidence and fall down the pecking order in clubs that they’ve not felt at home in yet. Therefore, if England are to become truly competitive on the international stage we need to harness this young talent and let them progress at their own pace with the managers and coaches who have known them since they were schoolboys. That is the problem of the English ‘premium’.
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its good to see some english talent coming through