Every week Kevin publishes his very own “Kev’s Column” online. This week he takes a look at the state of English Football after England’s exit from the World Cup:
30th July 1966 is seen as the crowning moment of a golden era for English Football.
That day the Three Lions, led by the now legendary Bobby Moore, won the World Cup at Wembley against a strong West German side. Sir Geoff Hurst achieved what no other footballer had done before, or since, by scoring a Hat Trick in a World Cup Final.
Four years later Moore and Pele, perhaps the greatest players ever to play, faced each other and produced not just an iconic game, but a sign of respect that went round the world.
Yet since then it has seemed fairly lean pickings, mixed with a helping of bad luck. Mardonna’s “Hand of God”, David Beckham’s sending off in 1998 and Gareth Southgate’s penalty miss all etched in the memories of England fans. 30 years of hurt has now become 50.
Yet England is the home of what has become the greatest domestic league on Earth, the Premiership. The resources that are now available to our top clubs are a world away from what Bobby Moore and his team mates had to support them. The amount paid to our top players is mind boggling and our club teams regularly top the European Champions League. So why with all these resources available has our national team got no further than the quarter finals of a major tournament since 1996?
The first reaction of some to our exit from the World Cup is to question whether Roy Hodgson should keep his job. Let’s be honest, before the tournament expectations for England were pretty low and after the Italy game most, including me, felt we had played better than expected and few offered much of an alternative selection.
My own view is Roy did what he could with a team that was sadly not a competitive one for this tournament, sacking him will not change much ahead of Euro 2016. In fact searching for a new Manager would just be a distraction the FA could do without.
In contemplating where next for English football it is worth remembering that other sports have seen similar runs of poor performance turn round dramatically. At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta Team GB only won 1 gold medal. In London 2012 the tally was 29, with sports such as Cycling now dominated by British teams who not only win medals, but shatter World Records on a regular basis.
Football is perhaps unique amongst sports in that it is the big clubs that ultimately hold the most resources for development of the game rather than the national governing body. The players are paid by them and the majority of the financial incentives are there to encourage a player to do well for their club, rather than the national team. For the Football League challenging owners, who have very deep pockets allowing them to fund legal challenges, is not any easy thing to contemplate.
A major difference to 1966 is the huge gulf that now exists between the resources available at the top of the domestic game and those for clubs in other leagues that could help identify, as well as develop, local talent across the country. In many cases it can be far more lucrative to be a Premier League reserve player than playing competitive football every week in the Championship.
For a footballer winning the World Cup will deliver a legendary status and a massive sense of pride. I have no doubt that every player still dreams of playing on the ultimate stage, a World Cup Final. Yet their employer will be looking to ensure the focus is week in, week out on ensuring the club that pays their wages is in the Premier League next season, with others viewing Champions League qualification as the key priority each year.
It is easy for wealthy club owners to ship in the best of the world to play in the Premier League for the next season, rather than look ahead to how they could develop England’s star players for Russia 2018 or (If it happens) Qatar 2022. Yet this is not just a feature of the English game as others such as Germany and Italy face the same situation and their national teams have fared much better in recent years.
Some say that many of the issues we face would be solved if we played as Great Britain, rather than as England. I am a committed Unionist and it was wonderful to see a Team GB playing in the Olympic Football, yet this does not address the core issues. Whilst we can think of great talents that might have played for a team GB such as Ryan Giggs, the overwhelming majority of team sheets would be exactly the same as those that were drawn up for England. It also ignores the fact that England is one of the larger footballing nations anyway so pure numbers is not the issue.
My own view is English Football should look to learn from other sports, as much as from other countries, as to what can be done to turn things round for the national team. Ensuring resources are spread to develop new talent, particularly at a youth level, and potentially altering the domestic season to ensure the best opportunity to train for forthcoming tournaments seem like points to start with.
I am not an experienced pundit so will not even attempt to analyse exactly which formations we should play or what particular players Roy should use to form the backbone of our Euro 2016 squad. What I can see is that like with the Olympic sports it takes years of investment and training to get someone to the absolute top of their game. It also means ensuring more are inspired to take part in sport and are able to do so, hence why I will be helping support an FA scheme aiming to do just that next week.
Our current system has had great success in producing the clubs and league that can literally take on the rest of Europe. What we need now is to think of how it can be tweeked to produce an England team that can take on the world.
On Tuesday night I will still be joining other fans to sing for England in the hope we can leave Brazil with some pride. Let’s just hope that by the time Russia 2018 comes around we can look forward to having some great results to sign about.