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Just read this piece on LFW, anyone with any connections in or club should forward this to the recruiters of our young players of the future and they parents.
Congrats to the original poster...
Chelsea have a great academy but never give their players an opportunity to play, Southampton do and that makes a huge difference. It also impacts upon England, consider where the recent & next generation of England players have/will have spent their time growing up:
Hart - Shrewsbury Town
Forster - Newcaste Utd
Foster - Racing Club Warwick, Stoke & a lot of lower league loans
Ruddy - Cambridge Utd
Johnson - West Ham
Walker - Sheffield Utd
Smalling - Maidstone Utd
Stones - Barnsley
Chambers - Southampton
Jagielka - Sheffield Utd
Cahill - Aston Villa
Jones - Blackburn
Baines - Wigan
Shaw - Southampton
Gibbs - Arsenal
Oxlade-Chamberlain - Southampton
Zaha - Crystal Palace
Sterling - QPR
Gerrard - Liverpool
Lampard - West Ham
Wilshere - Arsenal
Barkley - Everton
Delph - Leeds Utd
Milner - Leeds Utd
Lallana - Southampton (Bournemouth)
Shelvey - Charlton Ahletic
Henderson - Sunderland
Townsend - Spurs (& a lot of lower league loans)
Rooney - Everton
Sturridge - Man City (before they had rich owners)
Welbeck - Man Utd
Lambert - Released by Liverpool a 15 then over a decade in the lower leagues
Berahino - WBA
Wickham - Ipswich Town
I'm sure that list could grow significantly but the pattern probably wouldn't change, the big/rich clubs & even the upper prem lge do not produce many players for England, a lot of them stem from the football league although not many of the England U16's-U19's, even the U21's do not have many football league players in the squad. So does the England set-up exclude lower league players at a young age or do the most talented players of their age group not progress due to a lack of opportunities at their clubs. I believe it's the latter & a problem that the FA need to get on top of, although not with the ridiculous B league!!
Congrats to the original poster...
Chelsea have a great academy but never give their players an opportunity to play, Southampton do and that makes a huge difference. It also impacts upon England, consider where the recent & next generation of England players have/will have spent their time growing up:
Hart - Shrewsbury Town
Forster - Newcaste Utd
Foster - Racing Club Warwick, Stoke & a lot of lower league loans
Ruddy - Cambridge Utd
Johnson - West Ham
Walker - Sheffield Utd
Smalling - Maidstone Utd
Stones - Barnsley
Chambers - Southampton
Jagielka - Sheffield Utd
Cahill - Aston Villa
Jones - Blackburn
Baines - Wigan
Shaw - Southampton
Gibbs - Arsenal
Oxlade-Chamberlain - Southampton
Zaha - Crystal Palace
Sterling - QPR
Gerrard - Liverpool
Lampard - West Ham
Wilshere - Arsenal
Barkley - Everton
Delph - Leeds Utd
Milner - Leeds Utd
Lallana - Southampton (Bournemouth)
Shelvey - Charlton Ahletic
Henderson - Sunderland
Townsend - Spurs (& a lot of lower league loans)
Rooney - Everton
Sturridge - Man City (before they had rich owners)
Welbeck - Man Utd
Lambert - Released by Liverpool a 15 then over a decade in the lower leagues
Berahino - WBA
Wickham - Ipswich Town
I'm sure that list could grow significantly but the pattern probably wouldn't change, the big/rich clubs & even the upper prem lge do not produce many players for England, a lot of them stem from the football league although not many of the England U16's-U19's, even the U21's do not have many football league players in the squad. So does the England set-up exclude lower league players at a young age or do the most talented players of their age group not progress due to a lack of opportunities at their clubs. I believe it's the latter & a problem that the FA need to get on top of, although not with the ridiculous B league!!