Soccer Trainer

After England departed these shores for South Africa a couple of weeks ago, there was much anticipation that finally, the football team might possibly bring the trophy home. Even so, that dream was destroyed in no uncertain terms by the old enemy Germany in Bloemfontein as England crashed out of the tournament losing 4-1. How could quite possibly such an experienced team who qualified so effortlessly fail to perform? Not surprisingly, the English media has put together no shortage of scape goats and explanations for what was England’s worst defeat at a World Cup. There has been ample talk about the Italian manager, formations and more but the troubles are a great deal more serious.

Since its formation in 1992, the Premiership has achieved fabulous success as an international brand. The cost of this success has been felt by English football. Increased television earnings has forced wages to rise. Consequently this has meant there has been an evergrowing split amongst club and country. Clubs pay their footballers an awful lot of money and are ever more hesitant to let their footballers appear for their national teams.

In return, players get hugely rewarded by Premier League clubs to the extent that success is categorized by getting valuable contracts in place of anything they do on the field. Regular footballers who rarely turn out for their teams are still millionaires and when these footballers put money ahead of playing matches at club level, there can be little doubt they do not have the mental strength or hunger to play international football.

Typically, there was always a regional reserve league which ensured young players from smaller clubs could be guaranteed playing versus decent reserve teams from bigger clubs like Arsenal, Tottenham and Man Utd. Having said that, in recent years, the Premiership has changed hence they will only play versus other Premiership reserve teams. This means that Championship reserve clubs no longer get to play versus EPL sides. For clubs like Ipswich Town, it means their reserve team now plays against Stevenage instead of Tottenham Hotspurs and this drop in standard in opposition without a doubt has a negative effect on the footballing education of young players.

With a great deal of money at stake, things are tailored for Premier League survival. Clubs spend fortunes recruiting supposedly top-quality foreign managers and footballers in a bid to preserve their EPL status. The ambition of promoted teams to the Premier League extends no further than finished 4th bottom. The Premier League cash bonanza means that EPL clubs can offer you £1-2m for young players at lower league teams. The players are keen to move and secure their financial futures but it could possibly also signal the end of their careers. The young Crystal Palace star signed for Tottenham Hotspurs but hardly played and was last heard of on loan at Brentford, a league lower than when he was at Palace. From a football view, Bostock would have been best served staying at Palace and learning the game. How many more young players careers are cut down like this seeking the money as opposed to playing the match?  Its difficult to blame the young players for taking the money.

There is also the regularly occurring accusation that teams play too many games in England and a growing number of managers want a winter break. Yet, players don’t seem to be tired the instant asked to fly off to the Usa or Far East on pre-season visits. Or how about England’s friendly match next June away in Thailand?

There are far too numerous ready made excuses for failure that footballers are ready to accept. They live a life well away from the real world with their mansions, luxury cars and trophy wives. To put it simply, there is not enough hunger or desire.

The match in Thailand also shows another problem. Not to mention the Premiership being an international brand, so are the England team. Supporters want to view the big Premiership stars play for England and in friendly matches like this, those stars will be expected, if not contracted, to turn out.  All the same, it is not the case that the leading 11 players make the finest team. Too the majority of footballers are in the team based on track record of rather than performances. Young players should be promoted into the senior squad sooner.

For the forthcoming Euro 2012 campaign, England should dispense with the services of all players aged 30 or over. None of them have played well in South Africa therefore why should we persevere with them. It would be more practical to promote younger footballers who may still be hungry for success. Of course, while the worshiping of the Premier League persists, things are probably not going to improve anytime soon.

The old Wembley Arena was first used in 1923 and had a good reputation for offering one of the very best playing surfaces in England. Its wide open spaces would drain the strength from the legs of even the fittest players. As soon as the Empire Stadium at long last sealed its doors in 2000, the impressive pitch was torn up along with the entire stadium.

England had to wait patiently 7 long years until eventually the new Wembley Stadium opened its doors. The new 90,000 seater stadium was classed by UEFA as a 5* Elite Arena and is the second largest in Europe after the Camp Nou in Barcelona. The first full international was against Brazil on 1st June 2007.

The building of the arena was overdue and well over budget but the difficulties did not end there. Operational issues such as faulty escalators on match days were experienced but there is an on-going situation that to date has not be adequately dealt with – the playing surface.

Pitches at brand new stadia regularly require some time to bed down but at Wembley the pitch is a predicament and is most certainly one of the worst around. It cuts up far too easily and players lose their footing too often. In a recent FA Cup semi final, at least one of the goals was because of a player slipping at a critical point as the playing surface gave way. By the close of the 2009/2010 season, the pitch had been relaid 10 times at an expense of £1m and the arena had not even been up and running for 3 years.

The truth is, relaying the pitch every 3 months isn’t the answer. The design of the stadium is the reason why the natural conditions of light and wind can’t get to the pitch to encourage the turf to grow. A few stadiums just like the one in Gelsenkirchen in Germany is on rollers so between games, the complete pitch is transferred outside the arena. Most other stadia have sufficient air flow in the stands to permit the wind to move around and it is possible to use artificial lights to help the grass to grow.

However, there are still problems and a fix must be worked out. In September 2010, England start off their qualification for Euro 2012 and they are definitely the best team in their group. The last thing England really don’t need, is the opposition aided by a low quality Wembley playing surface. The fixtures at Wembley are supposed to give England home advantage.

The UEFA Euro 2012 Championships  will be jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine. The event is the last one to be sixteen teams as the future one in 2016 will expand to twenty-four teams. Poland and Ukraine beat Italy and Croatia/Hungary for the right to hold the competition.

 

The matches will basically be split 50/50 between the two hosts. Polish towns to host games will be Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Poznan. The Ukrainian cities will be Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk.

 

The final will be held in Kiev which will also have a semi-final. This will be at the Olimpiysky National Sports Complex which after construction will be one of the leading stadiums and sporting complexes in the world. The new stadium in Warsaw is also being built and promises to be a state of the art venue.

 

The draw for the tournament has already been done and qualifying games will get going following the 2010 World Cup. Every one of the 9 group winners and the best runner-up will get direct entry into the finals. Following that the remaining eight runner-up will be drawn into two-legged playoffs.

 

From Group A you would consider Germany and Turkey would be too powerful with Austria and Belgium being the contenders.

Group B looks to be a 3 way race with Russia, Slovakia and Ireland.

 

In Group C it looks like it will be effortless for Italy and Serbia. France is the favorite from Group D with Romania looking at the one to take second.

 

There is a northern European feel to Group E where it should really be Netherlands and Sweden.

 

Croatia and Greece are the likely challengers in terms of Group F as are England and Switzerland for Group G.

 

From Group H it looks like Portugal and Denmark and lastly from Group I it would seem to be Spain and the Czech Republic.

 

Qualifying comes to an end in October 2011 by which time excitement and anticipation for the Euro 2012 Championships will be well and truly underway.