Football in my Blood
Add me on social media
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
  • Multimedia
  • Jumpers for Goalposts
  • Comment
  • Survey

Greg Dyke And The F.A. Commission

15/6/2014

0 Comments

 
Okay let us just accept that the F.A is indeed looking to get more Asian involvement in football with this new plan of theirs to be unveiled. 

Remember there has been a delay with the plan because they are seeking further advice and opinions from the Asian community. 

So let’s have a look at the members of the commission: 

Roger Burden, Greg Clarke, Rio Ferdinand, Dario Gradi, Glenn Hoddle, Roy Hodgson, Ritchie Humphreys, Danny Mills and Howard Wilkinson. 

Can anyone spot the Asian representation? Answers on a postcard please or send them to Greg Dyke! 

Can anyone spot someone involved at grassroots level? 

I do not question the plethora of wisdom and knowledge about football amongst those gentlemen but if you are trying to improve football from its roots then you need someone who is amongst those roots on a frequent basis. 

Heather Rabbatts who is with the F.A sent a letter to Greg Dyke asking why there was no ethnic or black representation on the commission. Soon after Rio Ferdinand found himself involved. So half the question has been acknowledged and answered. 

What about the other half? Where is the Asian representation? 

They will say that consultations take place with different organizations and bodies which represent grassroots football so I would like to know who was consulted from the Midlands region and what were the outcomes from these consultations. If you asked the average football fan he or she would not have a clue about what this commission actually does. 

The one thing we have been presented with from their meetings is the proposal for the ridiculous ‘B’ league. This is to have players who are not getting into the first teams of their respective clubs to have game time in order for the English game to progress. 

Complete madness again from the F.A in a desperate bid to unearth English talent. 

Years ago they had reserve teams, with reserve leagues. There was nothing wrong with that at all. 

If they don’t want that then keep to the current format of sending players out on loan. Imagine the likes of someone like Lukaku who can’t get into the Chelsea team, playing against lower league and Conference players. What is the point of that? Where is he going to improve? 

The whole concept of this is like I said to unearth English talent. If they had half a brain, they would realise that the age group to work on to get a player to be technically proficient is between 5 and 16. After that you can get a player as fit and strong as you like, you can get him to be mentally strong as you like but the years of developing the technique have well gone by. I’m not saying they cannot improve but the core of their technique will be missing. Let us take for example the ‘step over’ move. Anyone can learn that move at any stage of their career whether young or adult. However, if a child has been practicing that move since five, his execution will be much better in my opinion than if you teach someone say from the age of 16. People will argue that point but I think if you have been practicing something for years, when you execute that move, you don’t think about it, it is second nature, it just happens naturally.  My message to the F.A and Mr. Dyke is forget your ‘B’ league, focus on the young children and get coaches in who focus on simple drills like 1v1 2v2 3v3 in small compact areas where you have to be clever in your use of the ball.

0 Comments

F.A's Asians in football plan delayed until 2015

15/6/2014

0 Comments

 
Apparently the F.A has had to delay its report due to gathering more information from local communities, key groups and individuals.

The initial deadline was December 2013 and then it was put back to March 2014.

The objective is to increase the number of home grown Asians playing and coaching from grass roots level to professional level.

This report may as well come out in 2020 because it is another example of lip service to appease the Asian communities.

I have said before that I was asked along to a meeting at Wembley Stadium back in September 2011 which was chaired by Jonathan Mills of the F.A. It was about Asians in Football.

The follow up since that meeting?

Nothing, nada, zilch!! Maybe the funding ran out for the F.A and at the time they had appeased us for a while.

Maybe because I challenged some points during that meeting, they considered me to be a negative influence or that they were wanting to work with ‘yes’ men?

Who knows but all I can tell you is that since then I have heard nothing.

There are Asian Clubs in Leamington and we haven’t heard anything from the F.A, our views haven’t been sought so who are the F.A asking at grassroots level exactly?

The problem is they have a more urgent agenda in their mind to attend to and that is finding English players!!

Now the F.A knows what it may feel like to be Asian because the shortage of English players at the top level of the game, the Premiership is alarming.

I re-iterate what I have written in the past, that no Asian has a right to suddenly be an Academy player but he has a right to be treated equally and be given a fair chance.

However we can keep waiting for all these reports to come out and keep hoping for a fair chance but the best way is to CHALLENGE these academies.

For example how hard can it be for all the Asian Clubs say in Coventry or Birmingham to get together with teams from surrounding areas and have your own Academy for certain age groups?

Imagine if you got all the best 7 year olds or 8 year olds together and coached them even once a week at a central location and after a decent period of coaching, you asked one of the professional academies for a friendly.

Isn’t that the best way to show how good you are?

Isn’t that the best way for someone to sit up and take notice?

For me the formula is very simple but what prohibits something like this taking off is politics within our own community, egos and selfish attitudes.

If we can overcome these barriers ourselves, I think we can then progress.

0 Comments

England At The World Cup 2014

14/6/2014

0 Comments

 
Can they win it? Never say never in football!! Denmark came off the beaches to win the European Championship when they hadn’t even originally qualified back in 1992. 

Greece won the same tournament in 2004 when they were the rank outsiders so who knows what will happen in Brasil. 

The only problem I have with Roy Hodgson is that he is a safety first manager and he will set up teams in my opinion where he hopes they can win rather than go out and expect to win. 

If I was the manager I would just go for it, after all nothing has happened in over 48 years so what has he got to lose!! 

I would set up 4-1-4-1 with the following players: 

Hart 

Johnson Cahill Jagielka Baines 

Gerrard 

Chamberlain Wilshere Barkley Sterling 

Sturridge 

That side has pace, players who can run with the ball in numerous positions and have no fear. It will concede goals no doubt but with those front five there is excitement and expectation. I would have played that side in a few friendlies to see how they gelled. 

As for my thoughts to who will win the World Cup, as much as I would like Brasil, I think they may fall short and I think Messi and Argentina will prevail with Spain another one who could win it again.
0 Comments

Liverpool & Luis Suarez

14/6/2014

0 Comments

 
Being a Man Utd Supporter, it was a catch 22 situation for me as to who won the Premier League, Man City or Liverpool!! 

They both played great football throughout the season but from a pure footballing view taking into account a team built around a philosophy and way of playing and not having limitless funds, I would have preferred Liverpool to win the league. 

I have heard so many of their fans say the lost it because of tactical naivety but apart from the Palace game that is nonsense. They lost the league because they made too many individual errors; it had nothing to do with tactics. It is the tactics and way of playing which actually nearly won them the league. 

I was so glad that Suarez got the acknowledgement he fully deserved by winning both the PFA Player of the Year and writers Player of the Year. 

He should have won the awards last year but the media almost drove him out of the Country because of the biting incident involving Ivanovic of Chelsea. 

Maybe the media should keep a camera on Suarez for every one of his matches and then they would see how many times he gets kicked, pulled, and abused by the opposition. 

I don’t condone what he did but it shouldn’t have cost him the recognition he deserved.
0 Comments

    Author

    Joogy

    Archives

    February 2016
    June 2015
    February 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    June 2014
    February 2014
    November 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    February 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.