It seems to produce more technically gifted footballers in other countries. Being comfortable on with the ball is a good starting point before things become too competitive.

Kids upto under 11 play 7 aside football with very small goals, and have now for about 10 years.

There are no kids playing aged 9-10 on a full sized pitch anywhere.

But if you really believe kids at that age dont play to win and are gutted if they lose then I give up, and can only assume you dont have kids.

Just to add about training methods when I was on holiday in NY my uncle lives opposite a school me and 5 of my cousins went on the field for a kick about and there was a training session on from the school.

These where ages from about 13-16, mixed with boys and girls. I was watching them and for the first hour and a half they only did two touch and give and go's in a boxed area, focusing on control and trapping the ball. They then for about half an hour split and had a 5 a side match in a tiny box pitch so they couldnt hit it long or whack it up the pitch and chase after it, the drill was all about close control. Only after all this did they have a full match and this was only ten minutes each half.

OK I dont disagree with this, but answer my earlier point.

Do you think you could take football coaching for kids, after having paid quite a bit of money to get qualified, 3 times a week, and keep them inetersted with no competitive game at the end of the week?

And if you think you could, I would love you to try.

And how long do you think it would be ebfore the kids either

a. get bored

or

b. The better players leave and go to a team that DO play games.

You see, I belong in the real world, and have been there with two kids over the years.

The prents bawling on the sidelines spoil it for the kids. I seen many a kid tell his Dad (or even his Mum ) to do one .. The best thing some of these could do is to take their advice. All parents should be told to keep their traps shut .. Fair enough celebrate goals etc but screaming at the ref cards offsides etc is not on ..save that for pools if you must do it

PS I used to train my U8's and U9's 3 times a week and play on a Sunday and guess what they won their leagues!

If you don't believe me about what Gerrard said google it and read the article- he said Suarez was the best he played with and I've given you the quote. It is a fact that he said something that completely contradicts what you said. Maybe he said both in which case his opinion isn't worth a lot.


You saying that you think the press unsettle England is just your opinion, it certainly isn't a fact, but you are entitled to think what you like. I'm entitled to disagree- I think it is an excuse that the England squad hide behind when they do badly and I'd rather they looked for some real reasons.

The abuse about journalists being arseholes and ruining lives is a bit embarrassing to read. I'm assuming you're an adult so you should be able to argue or discuss football without going on about people's jobs like that. I told you what I do for a living because you asked and I suppose it is relevant- it explains why I get sick of hearing lazy cliches from people who don't know the first thing about the job.

Presumably you've resorted to abuse because you can't face backing down on your claim that the press 'made out' Walker inhaled nitrous oxide later than June when all the articles clearly say he did it in June.

On the points about coaching that Dibble makes: I said we should be looking at coaching as a possible explanation for England being a bit shit at football, not appointing more bad coaches to do more bad coaching. The idea of looking into it would be to improve it. Probably won't happen with Dyke in charge though- as Madjohn suggests he won't be looking to upset the premier league clubs.

.

I'm not suggesting kids not playing or trying to win I saying some parents/coaches are a problem who see it as the be all and end all.

An 8 year old for example shouldn't be restricted to playing in one position because if he does his team will have more chance of winning.

I am a parent but as one of less than 8 months he is yet to make his full debut. He needs to release that if you keeps picking up the ball and trying eat it his career will plagued by disciplinary issues.

i have similar problems with my 1 year old pj, he's terrible for picking the ball up, his balance is poor, constantly diving, cant use booth feet and his heading is suspect.

He's as good as finished already.

it sounds like his ideal place would be just in front of the teddy bear holding position, allowing him to make forays into the toy box

I know exactly how competitive kids are, and its long before they are 14. My eldest lad was at Pools for 4 years (in the same team as Jordan Richards).
My point is, would the kid, if he knew the scout was interested in him, have taken the chance to play up front.
I dunno the situation, but the scout might have turned up just to watch him but the lad might not have been on the ball much playing centre half.

They do it here by younger kids playing and training at their club but not having regular league matches. Instead they have tournaments made up of lots of short matches over a day or weekend. You could probably find one every two or three weeks if you wanted to enter a lot but most clubs seem to enter one a month. Gives the kids something to work towards and a taste of competition but the coaches don't have to gear every session to a match in the next few days. Once they're 11 or 12 most clubs put them into a more regular league.

I'm not sure its a perfect answer but it seems to let kids develop skills and learn to be comfortable on the ball without pressure but still get the benefit of competitive games on a reasonably regular basis.

So, we ran a team, me and another bloke, whose sons both played, as did a lot of their friends. We were top of the league, and were playing the team in third.

We didnt run the team to get one kid an opportunity to impress a watching scout. All of our lads knew they could win the league, and wanted to do so.

On what planet would you have to inhabit where you though none of that mattered, compared to doing what this scout wanted?

If we had done that, and conceded the other lads would have thought we had gone retarded.

This goes back to what I was saying at the start. Parents dont run teams on behalf of pro clubs. They run them for their own kids who generally want to play in a competitive league and try to win.

Usually the parents kids are the better players too.

Oh, and on behalf of the other lads, it wasnt in their interest for us to lose a vital player half way through the season to an academy either. Another point completely lost on those unable to stay in the real world.

I cant bear these puns.

Takes after his dad then...

Surely having more UEFA qualified coaches does help though? Germany and Spain have loads and produce a lot of top quality footballers. Comparatively speaking England has hardly any and we produce far less.

I wholeheartedly agree that it's not down to just one factor but I can't agree with the sentiment that having better qualified coaches doesn't help.