Picking young stars not as easy as it looks

TAMMY ABRAhAM is a good case study. If it had been my decision, I would not have allowed the 20-year-old striker to leave chelsea to join Swansea on loan. he looks ready for chelsea to me.

he gained enough experience at Bristol city last season, where he scored 23 goals in 41 championship games.

watching Abraham (below) this season, his movement and his development, he seems ready to compete for a senior place at Stamford Bridge — and may even be a contender for the full england squad very soon. If clubs are going to give young players a chance, he would have been a good one to start with.

I don’t want to put a dampener on the success of the england junior teams, at U20 as well as U17 level, but it’s not easy for these players to take the next step.

At almost all premier League clubs, the developing players have to fight their way past internationals. Not just internationals in the first XI, but internationals in the squad who are next in line. It can be a long queue.

There are a number of choices a manager must make when a talented young player emerges.

First, is it enough for him to upgrade to train with the first-team group, when working daily with the best players will always take him up a level? Or should you send him out on loan?

If he goes on loan, he is out of your control but he will get game time and more experience. will he learn good habits, or bad ones? Obviously you have to trust the club and the manager where you are sending him.

On the positive side, he can gain character and discover about the fight of a senior game, which is different from age-group football. It’s more physical, more demanding — points and pressure, livelihoods are at stake. Does he need that to develop further before he is gameready for you?

You might adopt a different approach for an attacking player compared to a defensive player. I wouldn’t worry about phil Foden, for instance. Nor someone older, like harry winks of Spurs.

They are players who are better developing within your club. A defensive player will almost certainly need the muscle of lowerleague experience. A hindrance to this is the changing of the loan rule. Managers are aggrieved about it.

You now have to commit to sending a player out for six months — transfer window to window, when you might want to give a young man a short burst, a month, away to prepare him or give him some game time. That is a poor rule change.

what we are seeing is progress and success at tournament football, which is something the FA have been pushing for. Brazil send a team to every tournament for that reason.

It gives a player experience of hotel life, in a camp, training and living together, playing matches every three or four days — and winning. You can discover if they are good tourists as well as good players. I know, for instance, that there are a lot of those good qualities in the U20 team that also won their age-group world cup.

Teams with less technical ability but great team camaraderie can progress and win tournaments, as we have seen with Denmark and Greece. It is what Gareth Southgate will be seeking with his senior team.

when I watch young Foden, I see a player with all the technical gifts. he doesn’t look as if he has been over- disciplined. Others might call it over- coached. This is a balance for youth- team coaches, between teaching a player to understand the game and to play with individuality.

wilfried Zaha is a good example. There are still times when his game management is poor, but he can produce a match-saving moment of joy, as he did against west ham.

when I first came to palace, I watched footage of a previous game when Zaha and Yannick Bolasie spent 80 per cent of the game defending, as if they were full backs. So you have to get the balance between a structured performance for the team and letting them go free to find a pocket of space and a chance to hurt the opposition.

If you over-discipline in the culture of the team they can lose that magic when you want to retain the street footballer, the individuality. I’m sure Foden will not suffer that problem at city.