England are CRAP
FA BIGWIG RECKONS THREE LIONS LACK SKILL TO TAKE ON EUROPE’S BEST
ENGLAND are a bunch of secondrate long ball merchants – says the man in charge of nurturing our footballing talent.
Dan Ashworth, the FA’s director of elite development, reckons Roy Hodgson’s Three Lions are lagging behind the rest of Europe when it comes to talent.
And he says we need our youngsters to copy players like Paul Gascoigne if we are to have any hope of ending our long wait for international silverware.
“Without being disrespectful to our current players, we are now further behind some other nations,” blasted Ashworth.
“We have to make sure that gap decreases, and to do that we have to have a more technically- based game with players who are much more comfortable on the ball.
“When you look back at the likes of Chris Waddle and Paul Gascoigne, we always had match- winners in our teams, technical players.”
And Ashworth reckons the answer is a complete culture change.
“My vision, my dream, is that there is a philosophy on how we play the game from the cradle to the grave,” he added.
“We have to change years and years and years of ingrained habits of encouraging children to smash the ball up the pitch, applauding when they smash it further and longer.
“We have to avoid criticising when children try skills.”