HOW ARE ENGLAND’S KIDS GETTING ON ABROAD?
When he unveiled his first england squad after the euphoria of the World Cup, Gareth Southgate did so with a warning.
If england are to build on the journey to a semi-final in Russia, they must create a bigger pool of talent, encourage competition and raise standards.
Southgate stressed the numbers had slumped lower than ever and there should be no complacency. Only 30 per cent of starters in the Premier League this season have been eligible for england.
Millions of pounds have been poured into academies to produce better technical footballers and england are world champions at Under 17 and Under 20 levels but still the route is no clearer.
Many of Southgate’s squad broke through at clubs in the Football League. The problem has led to a steady increase in ambitious young england footballers venturing abroad in search of alternative development pathways.
Some are coping better than others. here, Sportsmail takes a closer look at the english foreign legion.
SPAIN
FOR players leaving england to speed their journey to top-flight, first-team football, 19-year- old Marcus McGuane at Barcelona and 21-year-old Patrick Roberts at Girona offer very different stories.
Roberts looks nicely set up for a season battling for a starting berth in a mid-table team in La Liga but McGuane, now down in the third tier, is proof that it can be a hard road wherever you go.
For midfielder McGuane, things have not taken their desired course since he moved from Arsenal in January, signing a three-year contract with a £21.9million buy-out clause. When he arrived, Barca B were in Spain’s second tier where there are always a sprinkling of big-name clubs and gates sometimes around the 15,000 mark.
They were relegated, however, and slipped into Spain’s third tier made up of four regional groups. On Saturday they played in front of 1,200 in their first home game.
They were beaten 1-0 by SD ejea. he was an unused substitute, as he had been the previous week when Barca B lost their first away game of the season.
On Saturday, captain Ferran Sarsanedas played in McGuane’s favoured central midfield berth alongside Riqui Puig, the team’s star, who is tipped to be the next Andres Iniesta. Alex Collado, who played in the UeFA Youth League final win over Chelsea last season, also seems to be ahead of him in the pecking order.
Barcelona clearly see McGuane as a long-term project and there is hope he will soon feature, especially as the team have fared so poorly without him. The club cannot afford to allow their B-team to languish at the bottom of the third division for too long.
even when he does get back in the team, it will be at a level that is hardly conducive to the development of young talents. There have been articles in the Catalan press about Puig needing protection after being ‘kicked up in the air’ during the opening two matches.
Spain’s third tier is somewhere between england’s League One and Two and there will be no licence given to Barcelona’s young team and their pretty football.
The prospects are much brighter in the short term for Roberts, who joined Girona on loan from Manchester City in the summer. After three seasons at Celtic he is playing against some of the best in europe.
The striker arrived too late to feature in Girona’s first two home games of the season but came on as a substitute against Villarreal and looked very much at home as Girona ran out 1-0 winners.
Last season Girona were close to european qualification so there will be competition for places but Roberts has impressed coach eusebio Sacristan, a former Barcelona youth team coach with a reputation for developing young players.
GERMANY
When Jadon Sancho came off the bench against Greuther Furth, his Borussia Dortmund team were trailing 1-0 and facing the embar- rassment of a German Cup exit against secondtier opposition.
Forty minutes later they were through to the next round. The 18-yearold englishman had changed the complexion of the game and set up Marco Reus’s winner in the last minute of extra time.
It wasn’t the first time Sancho had rescued his team from a sticky situation. his magnificent performance against Leverkusen in April ultimately secured Champions League qualification in a troubled season for Dortmund. Of the many english youngsters to have tried their luck in the Bundesliga, none have done as well as Sancho.
A year after leaving Manchester City, he is establishing himself as a superstar. ‘ Jadon is a very good player, I saw that immediately,’ said new Dortmund coach Lucien Favre in pre-season. ‘I like it when players take risks with the ball.’
Without a top- class striker, Dortmund are banking on their talented wingers and attacking midfielders. A left winger by trade, Sancho was one of several Favre tried at centre forward in pre-season.
he is yet to start under Favre, who has indicated he has to work on areas of his game.
‘Sometimes the coach says I should let go of the ball sooner,’ said Sancho and, for all his promise, there is also proof the Bundesliga is not a panacea for the troubles academy graduates face in the Premier League. ‘In england, it’s harder for young players to make the breakthrough,’ said Keanan Bennetts, the 19-year- old midfielder, after his move from Tottenham to Borussia Monchengladbach this summer.
Others have found it hard to break in. Former nottingham Forest winger Oliver Burke left RB Leipzig after one year, while Crystal Palace youth player Mandela egbo has not made it out of the reserve team in three years since he moved to Gladbach.
Striker Kaylen hinds endured a miserable first year at Wolfsburg and did not return from the UK for training this season, claiming to have lost his passport. Yesterday, the club’s patience ran out and the former Arsenal player was sacked for ‘unauthorised absence of several weeks’.
Apart from the language, the tactical shift is arguably the biggest challenge for players moving to Germany. Winger Ademola Lookman was given a two- day tactical crash-course upon arrival in Leipzig on loan from everton.
Lookman ultimately blossomed in six months at Leipzig, and his success will give hope to Reiss nelson, the 18-year- old Arsenal forward who joined hoffenheim on loan last week.
HOLLAND
DAn CROWLeY’S first strike for Willem II was worth the wait. Collecting the ball on halfway, he drove forward, jinked past an opponent on to his right foot and curled a shot from 25 yards over the goalkeeper and in off the bar.
It proved to be the only goal of the game at Groningen and secured Willem their first win in a promising start to their campaign under new boss Adrie Koster.
For Crowley, it was belated reward for his determination and bold career decisions since leaving Arsenal and a reminder of his exceptional technical quality. ‘It’s a great feeling,’ said the 21- year- old midfielder. ‘ The coaches have shown massive belief in me. That gives you confidence.’
Coventry-born Crowley, one of england’s most sought- after talents when he left Aston Villa at 16, moved to holland in January 2017, joining Go Ahead eagles on loan. he joined Willem II on a permanent basis at the end of the season but the team struggled, the coach was sacked and he found himself out of the side.
In January, Crowley agreed to take a wage cut to play on loan at SC Cambuur in the second tier of Dutch football, where he made an impact and helped them reach the play-offs.
Koster, a coach who has worked with the Ajax academy and holland’s Under 21s, studied Crowley’s progress, summoned him back to Willem and installed him in a 4-3-3 system that suits his style.
Things have fallen into place and scouts are checking his progress.
Those heading from Premier League clubs to the eredivisie are usually among the highest paid players in the league, which brings its own weight of expectation.
Players develop and injuries and managerial changes can disrupt progress. Patience will be tested.
Over the years, very few of Chelsea’s loan army have been a big success at Vitesse Arnhem, although Mason Mount, now on loan at Derby, was a notable exception last season.
england Under 21 international Jake Clarke- Salter opted for Vitesse on loan this year rather than a return to the Championship, where he suffered relegation with Sunderland last season.