The Manchester United youth side of the 90’s that consisted of the Neville brothers, Paul Scholes, David Beckham and Ryan Giggs didn’t make their way to the Cliff (Manchester United’s training home before Carrington) in a sports car. And they certainly didn’t jet off to a luxury Mediterranean island for a three-week training camp. Instead they were running around the local forest for fitness training and cleaning the likes of Brian McClair and Steve Bruce’s boots. And we all know how far those names have made it in the game.
At Birmingham City in 2008 Olivier Kapo gave his boot boy James McPike a $45,000 Mercedes. Needless to say McPike now plays at Kettering Town of the Evo-Stick Southern League.
I am not saying that this example alone should be enough of a reason to say that none of the youth players at the top level clubs will not go on to fame and glory. Wayne Rooney has done it at Everton to and Lionel Messi at Barcelona to name but a few.
But more often than not, the better youth players in England come from the lower league clubs, where they are not fed off a silver spoon but made to work for everything they get and for the amounts of hours they spend cleaning boots, training and running around doing things for the first team players and coaches, are on less than minimum wage.
Crewe Alexandra and Tranmere Rovers are two lower league clubs that have managed to make millions from their youth systems. Credit has to go to Dario Gradi and Warwick Rimmer in overseeing the youth programs, but the way these two clubs nurture these players is what sets up England’s youth with the right recipe to want to play for the shirt they are wearing.
Every England fan would give their left arm to play for the three lions. Now it appears that the players do not care. If you watch lower league football you will know that the players in the bottom divisions play with more passion than someone at the top. There is always more hunger to make it to the top when you’re at the bottom.
If the Premiership clubs used the old school methods of pre-season training that the lower league clubs do, then maybe we would see more passion, desire and heart from the English youngsters and make the national team a team that all the players would give everything for every time they stepped onto the pitch.
Who was the last England player you could say played with his heart on his sleeve?
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