Football Association’s talent pathway must prove its worth

Bold youngsters moving abroad could help the national team, writes Sam Wallace in Moscow

At some point over the next month or so, Gareth Southgate will take his place in the coaches’ meeting at St George’s Park and talk through what he learnt in Russia to those who are in charge of England’s junior teams from Under-15s to Under-21s.

Southgate has always mucked in with the rest of the coaches – indeed, he appointed some of them in his previous role at the Football Association – and the sharing of information has been one of the major advantages of the FA’S football centre.

The new FA is only really five years old, which will not be some compensation as the English World Cup euphoria recedes to leave a sea of discarded plastic beer beakers and a distant Three Lions ringtone.

England’s World Cup 2018 is over, a glorious chance to seize a place in the final in Moscow lost against Croatia, and now the work goes back to the more prosaic business of building England teams up game by game and tournament by tournament.

This month a new group of Under-19s will defend the European crown that England won last summer in that great sweep that included World Cups at Under-17s and Under-20s level. Paul Simpson, who won the latter of those two competitions, will lead the squad to Finland for the eight-team tournament. The best at that level – Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Mason Mount and Callum Hudson-odoi (both Chelsea) – have been retained by their clubs for pre-season tours.

There have been about 20 withdrawals from the squad, which is generally uncommon given the FA’S new bond with the clubs. There is greater frustration directed at Uefa’s scheduling, with July more suited to the Under-17s. It is just the next challenge for a newlyorganised FA.

St George’s Park will be six years old in October. Dan Ashworth, its technical director, has been in charge just five years and the real shift of power from Wembley 130 miles north did not come until after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. That was when the process of change accelerated, much of it with Southgate as a key figure – first as head of coaching, then Under-21s manager and now in charge of the seniors.

He has learnt from hearing the experiences of his fellow coaches at junior tournaments and from his own at the disappointing Under-21s 2015 European Championship. He was part of a decision to abolish 73 years of Under-16s’ participation against the home nations in the Victory Shield. It cast the English FA as the arrogant party but it needed to seek out the top-level opposition its players would likely face at a tournament. Instead that year the Under-15s played Brazil, Portugal and the United States in Florida.

Next week the Under-16s will go to Croatia to play twice against that national team in Zagreb, and if there is a bit of spice to it then the FA believes the experience will be more authentic. The Under-17s have games in October against Brazil, the United States and Russia. The plan is to give the boys experience of travelling long distances

to play, of

different opposition, of different referees – even different pitches. If one day they find themselves at a senior World Cup, the hope is that they know a little of what to expect.

Will it work? Southgate will point out that he selects from just 33 per cent of the Premier League’s players. This summer two more young Englishmen have struck out beyond their own domestic league in search of opportunity.

Noni Madueke, 16, turned down a scholarship at Tottenham Hotspur to sign for PSV Eindhoven, a club with a rich record of talent development. “I just sat down with my family and thought coming from England to the Netherlands was the best choice for my development,” he said.

The biggest coup was the former Chelsea technical director, Michael Emenalo, now at Monaco, signing the outstanding young defender, Jonathan Panzo, 17, from Stamford Bridge. Keanan Bennetts, 19, another Spurs academy boy, has left for Borussia Monchengladbach. The path trodden by the likes of Sancho and loanees Mount (Vitesse Arnhem) and Ademola Lookman (RB Leipzig) has worked for them. Liverpool saw off interest from Monchengladbach in Rhian Brewster. Dietmar Hamann’s brother, Matthias, is now one of the many German scouts assessing English development football.

As for the FA, the Elite Player Performance Plan is seven years

old and the hope is that it will produce a higher level of footballer. The senior team’s achievements at Russia 2018 have offered inspiration to a new generation who may be able to choose from different international allegiances. It is a start but when the FA looks at France, for example, there is so much ground to make up.

The process never stops. As long as the Under-19s finish in the semifinal of their Euros, they will be assured of a place at the Under-20s World Cup in Poland next year. A few bad years and the effect will be felt further down the line by the senior team. Should England seniors fail at a World Cup or Euros, then all that hard work put in at St George’s Park can be swept away by a tide of public opinion.