GRASSROOTS NEGLECT

are clubs like ours that are struggling to make ends meet.

“We’re trying to secure funding to rebuild our changing rooms that belong to the council.

“We need £250,000 and, yes, we are starting to try and fundraise, but, realistically speaking, that is really going to be an enormous challenge for us.

“There is a danger of us becoming blase because of what we’ve achieved in the World Cup this summer. It’s clear just how important the work is that people in grassroots football do in this country, but they’re doing it against increasingly large odds.

“It’s a massive struggle to keep the club going and we’re constantly going to parents and they’ve always got their hand in their pocket for us. “It’s a very difficult situation.” Trying to find a solution to it is one of the biggest questions facing English football as we prepare to bid farewell to a golden 2018. Bricknell, though, isn’t lacking in ideas as to how to tackle the shortfall and strengthen the foundations that future English success needs to be built on.

“Over the last five years, we’ve lost 50-odd boys who have gone on to academies,” added Bricknell, who now works at Ryan FC, alongside doing scouting for Spurs.

“We’ve had kids go to Arsenal, Tottenham, Dagenham, Orient, Colchester. Out of those 50, the club has got nothing.

“Ridgeway have had David Beckham, captain of England, Harry Kane, captain of England, but the club has got nothing.

“The club has got no money. “Some players, not many, have it written into their contract that, if they move, then a small percentage – maybe half a per cent – goes to their grassroots club.

“Imagine what that money c could do.

“If a boy leaves Ridgeway, s signs for a Premier club then g gets sold for some of the transfer f fees we’re seeing today, then t that’s an incredible amount of m money.

“It also means that the money a at the top level starts filtering down to where it’s needed most.”

Whether that will ever happen remains to be seen.

But, until something is done, clubs that are the lifeblood of the English game face an uncertain future.