It’s time to give English kids a shot at the top… the homegrown talent in the Premier League is at an alarming low
If we are scrabbling around for a team good enough to beat Scotland, how are we ever going to win a trophy?
TOMORROW’S Wembley clash will help determine the short-term future of the England team and interim manager Gareth Southgate.
But what about making sure the Three Lions do not always have to scrabble around for a team good enough to beat Scotland, let alone win a trophy?
What progress has been made since the Premier League-led Elite Player Performance Plan was started in 2012 to develop better youth players.
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Are more players available to Southgate than to Roy Hodgson?
One table of statistics compiled for SunSport suggests not.
Just a third of players used in the Prem this season have been able to play for England.
It is only November but that is lower than the 35 per cent in 2012-13, the first year of the EPPP.
When you look at clubs giving more English players chances, it is lower-half sides Bournemouth, Burnley, Crystal Palace and Hull — who also have the only English managers in the top flight. Yet it is a foreign manager, Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino — formerly at Southampton — who has given more English kids a chance than any of his peers.
Ged Roddy, director of youth at the Premier League, sees signs the EPPP is bearing fruit.
Roddy said: “The old narrative was ‘English players aren’t good enough’. I had managers look at me in the face and say that to me. It was sort of heartbreaking.
“Now what I hear is, ‘We’ve got lots of talent in the system, they just haven’t got the opportunities’.
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“That’s a seismic shift. We are seeing encouraging signs, like the number of debuts increasing.”
In 2015-16, 67 homegrown kids made their Premier League bow.
“Homegrown”, of course, covers overseas players at academies but it was a significant increase from 54 the previous season. And it included new England stars Dele Alli and Marcus Rashford.
Yet Dele, 20, and Rashford, 19, still bucked a trend, with the average age of debutants at 22.6 years. That highlighted a lack of immediate chances for academy stars. Roddy added: “The league is better each year, so it’s self-evident our players must be among the best if they are going to play.
“An 18-year-old is usually up against a 25-year-old who has played 200 games and is a full international. It’s an uneven fight.
“We have to produce players that can go into that uneven fight, initially survive, and then thrive.”
England’s junior sides are doing fine but how many players will go on to star for the senior side?
The statistics suggest English Under-21 players are a match for their European counterparts.
If EPPP fails, it won’t be lack of funding. English clubs will invest at least £400m in youth development over the next three years.
Roddy said: “It’s not an easier task than three or four years ago. But we have a much better understanding of the problem.”