Championship PodJockey

There have been claims that English players lack the technique of their European counterparts so this week I ask, has the time come for English teams to set up their academies in warmer climates? This week on the Championship FanCast we interviewed Bristol City legend Brian Tinnion who currently runs football academies in Spain on the Costa Del Sol, and he has noticed the difference between the ways that youngsters are developed.

‘In England, you take the kids out in gale force winds, its belting it down with rain and you end up just playing a half hour game because they (the players) are frozen.

He continued ‘The Spanish spend more time on the training ground because the weather is so nice and they can take the time to learn the technical skills because they are not frozen.'

It has also been said that the pitches in England are so bad that they don't allow football to be played on them and therefore long ball is the only option, and that has been a major criticism of the national team and their style of football.

There are various actions that could be taken to rectify this problem, not all of them will please some.

For instance, why not take the academies out to the continent where the weather is warm? Tennis has done this successfully with Andy Murray. He spent years training out in the warmer climate of Barcelona and is now the British number one and is battling for a top ten spot in the world rankings, and is the only shining light in British tennis.

I know that this is not practical for the smaller teams in English football, but surely the big teams can take their academies out to Europe and develop their technical abilities. There is a rule at the moment that teams cannot sign up youngsters who have to travel more than an hour and a half away from the training ground so the training will not affect their schooling. The problem of schooling could be overcome if the teams were willing to invest in setting up special schools for the youngsters at the academies - the youngsters surely would also benefit from the smaller classes that they would find themselves in and the increased attention that they would receive. Tinnion has said that the time spent on the training ground is a major factor as to why there is a big difference between Spanish youngsters and English players.

Another option however is to set up indoor academies, some clubs already have indoor arenas but do not use them to their full potential. Artificial pitches are now so good that they can recreate the conditions of a real pitch; we even saw the England national team play on one in Russia.

This solution would allow the players to get the ball down and play football instead of hoofing the ball up the football pitch. These ideas would be expensive but the benefits would far outweigh the costs. Teams would be able to produce better quality players and our national team would undoubtedly benefit in the long-run.

It is clear that there are a lot of other reasons that need to be addressed if the national team is to start winning honours, and win them on a regular basis, but this would be a start. Instead of setting up the national football centre in Burton, why not set it up in Barcelona where the weather is good and the players can actually spend some time on the training ground. 

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