As everyone who knows me, I’m a massive fan of Guardiola and also the way Barcelona teach their teams to play.
Up to now, Guardiola has dealt with truly world class football teams and players. I don’t mean players who some may consider being in the top 30 in the world but majority of them are easily in the top 20. At Barcelona the philosophy was already there and players ingrained into that from an early age. At Bayern, he simply had to teach great technical players with great football brains, a different way of playing.
Next season comes his hardest test and we will see how great a manager he is. At Manchester City he has very good players and with De Bruyne, Aguero, Kompany and Silva players in the category of what he has worked with in the past. However he does not have great players in the critical areas he wants like full backs, centre of midfield and wide midfield in both areas.
We shall now see exactly how good Raheem Sterling is because up to now the only thing that has improved since he joined from Liverpool is the number of tattoos he’s had.
Football is not about tactics and systems foremost, it is about players who can execute those tactics and work to those systems and for the first time in his career Guardiola hasn’t got enough quality players to do that but I guess a couple of hundred million will change all that!

On Match of the Day on Saturday, Roy Hodgson was asked about the possibilities of playing Dele Alli and Ross Barkley in the same team and he said it could be a possibility depending on the formation. That tells you Hodgson doesn’t send teams out with its best players but he adjusts them to the opposition. That is a manager who plays with fear and is cautious.
Since when did Spain adjust their team not to include Xavi and Iniesta or France years ago not to include Zidane or Vieira? The fact is the top teams may adjust their tactics depending
on the opposition but they won’t leave out their best players. Hodgson also said Rooney is Rooney whatever that means but deciphering that he won’t drop him for any England games if he’s fit. Well Maradona is Maradona but I can’t see Argentina picking him anytime soon! I’m not saying Rooney shouldn’t play but it is the wrong message to send out to other strikers who right now are playing much better than Rooney.
I saw John Stones playing for Everton a few weeks ago and he was playing around with the ball at the back and he got closed down but the ball went for a goal kick to Everton. When he went to retrieve the ball he had to tell the Everton fans to calm down!
Here is a young footballer who is trying to play football. He doesn’t like to pump it into ‘channels’ or ‘hit the front man’ early because he no doubt sees the bigger picture and know if he did those things, the turnaround of possession could almost be instant as the ball he is playing would inevitably be a 50-50. Yet week in week out his game gets analysed so much that people are looking for each mistake. Of course he will make mistakes not just because he is young but that is the nature of the beast when you try to play intricate football. I’ve seen Puyol, Piquet and countless other top defenders who play football from the back give the ball away. Look at the times he sets up an attack though, count all those balls he plays and imagine if he had simply ‘hoofed’ it up the pitch then and possession would have been lost. In this country he would have been told he did well, ‘cleared his area’ stopped a possible attack but the fact is he would have lost the ball. John Stones can become a great footballer and people just need to let him play, learn from his own mistakes as he is intelligent enough to do that, focus on his positives. A similar thing happened to Joe Cole when playing for England, he gave the ball away to an Italian player and Italy scored. That is all the English media and pundits focused on, losing it in the wrong area. There were four defenders and a keeper behind him incidentally! Creative players will lose the ball, they are expressive and want to make things happen on the pitch, let them get on and do that. Managers and pundits will highlight the errors but don’t keep on going on about them.

My England 11 for the Euros if everyone is fit:
                                                 
                                           STURRIDGE
                             BARKLEY    ALLI    WALCOTT
                               WILSHIRE    HENDERSON
                   GIBBS    SMALLING    STONES    CLYNE
                                                  HART

Money in professional football and clever manipulative football agents are ruining the chances of English footballers progressing into the first teams.
Years ago every football fan would welcome all the top foreign talent into the UK as those players were technically superior to a lot of the players that were playing here.
From 1973 to 1993 the Players Player of the Year was British. Since then the award has been shared 22 times between a British Player and a foreign player.
The Football Writers Player of the Year award since 1994/95 stands at 14 to 7 in favour of foreign players.
When you look at the foreign winners, they have all been world class and would have and can for those still playing grace any team in the world.
Now the Premiership and the Championship and to some extent lower leagues are awash with foreign footballers who not only are no better than the English talent but are inferior.
This is mainly due to clever football agents and stupid football managers who think every African, Brazilian, etc. has to be a great player.
For example if you were to put Fernandinho or Fernando of Manchester City into the likes of Watford, West Bromwich or Sunderland for example, would those teams improve significantly?
I don’t think they would and the question is have those teams not got those type of players in their own Academies?
Managers and more importantly owners need to wake up and realise the ridiculous amounts of money they are spending on foreign players is buying them average overrated players. Invest that money in your own Academies and produce your own top class footballers.

David James on BT Sport, after England had lost to Italy said that he didn’t think there was any difference in ability between the English players and their foreign counterparts. He said that England simply didn’t fulfil their potential at the tournament.
That’s been happening for 50 year hasn’t it if we were to believe his statement.
Well I watched all of the England games and other matches and the conclusion I have come to is that David James is deluded!
Owen Hargreaves was spot on when he said that England were not good enough.
I probably sound like a broken record by now but I have always maintained that English footballers cannot play under pressure and in tight areas.
They won’t pass the ball to players who are marked, especially deep in their own half and centre backs cannot bring the ball out with confidence.
Gareth Southgate made all the right noises before the tournament about playing from the back but how stupid does that really sound?
If you were talking about 8 or 9 year olds, that statement would be perfect but we are talking about professional footballers here!
What exactly have these players been doing for the past 13 odd years at the academies?
It beggars belief that these players don’t know how to play football from the back but need to be taught at this late age.
They shouldn’t be professional footballers if that is the case.
The England Under 21 central midfield was just a hard working basic unit who was better of stifling the opposition than creating anything themselves.
Why are the English managers, coaches and all those involved in the game in this country from grass roots football to the professional game so scared to play maverick players or even develop maverick players who are cocky, arrogant and self assured on and off  the ball?
We will put someone like Jordan Henderson over Adam Lallana, David Batty over Matt Le Tissier, Bryan Robson over Glenn Hoddle.
I would have built teams around Hoddle, Le Tissier and now Wilshire and Lallana.
I can pick up hard working, strong tacklers any day of the week at every club.
In a previous article I said that if the Brazilians, Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho had been English, they would never have played together in the same national team.
Too lazy, don’t track back, too many tricks, unbalance the side and all the usual garbage that comes from managers in this country.
The F.A has now appointed Dan Ashworth to look at how to basically make England a success. He talks about having a system of play that is consistent throughout different age groups and also the need for more teams to have competition experience.
However he has basically missed out on the most fundamental point as he has been quoted as saying, ‘“This is not The FA telling people what to do, telling clubs what to do or to say how to produce and develop players. This is for us to set down some of the things we believe in and will help produce senior international players.’
Coaching and development is core to success not having 60 plus caps for your country.
David Beckham has 100 plus caps for his country, has played in Champions league final, won endless medals for clubs but he didn’t suddenly turn into Zinedine Zidane or Messi with all those! 
So if the F.A are reading this, or any Academy coaches or any coach for that matter, if you want to produce highly technical football players who have that ‘X’ factor about them then:

COACH PLAYERS TO PLAY IN TIGHT AREAS.
MAKE 1V1 2V2 3V3 YOUR CORE COACHING PLAN.
LET THEM EXPRESS THEMSELVES AND ALLOW MISTAKES.


A ROUTE INTO THE PROFESSIONAL GAME

Whenever anyone talks about becoming a professional, they immediately think about the Premier League.
With today’s money in the game and the lack of chances English players get, along with the pressure on Managers for instant success, the chances of breaking through are almost nonexistent.
Recently I have been watching the MLS on television and I can honestly say it is rubbish to put it mildly.
The MLS contains a lot of athletes who are strong, powerful and extremely fit but the majority of them seem to be ‘brain dead’ when it comes to playing the game of football.
So to any budding player, get yourself fit and strong and approach one of the teams in the MLS. Send them a video of you playing if you have to because if you have half a brain and the physical attributes, I can see you getting into most of those teams.
Don’t believe me, then simply watch the MLS and you’ll be chomping at the bit.

PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT CENTRES

Parents need to sometimes take a reality check and not be duped into having their child associated with a professional football club.
There are Development Centres popping up all over the country affiliated to professional clubs and parents get duped into joining them.
Most of these centres are run in the community and the coaches are part time and it is run more as a business than a feeder for the Academies.
If you go on the internet you will find all sorts of companies offering the riches into football.
Why?
Because they lure you in like a drug and they pull on your emotions just like a lottery ticket.
If you believe your son or daughter is good enough to be involved with an Academy, simply approach them directly.
Also make sure they are either in an Academy or a Colts set up which is associated to the club and is run by full time staff who are part of the Academy coaching set up.
Development centres are money making schemes, they never existed years ago, they don’t need to exist now so just use your brain.

I have always said the Premier League is not the best league in the world, has hardly ever been the best league in the world since it was formed. It is without doubt the most exciting because the ball is moved from back to front quicker with less emphasis given on possession by the majority of the teams and turnover of possession high in a lot of the matches. 

The teams that compete in the Europa League are the ones who are generally the median of their respective Leagues. Usually in all the Leagues you can predict who will be challenging for the title and those who will be fighting for survival. The rest have a chance of getting into the Europa League. 

The past few seasons have shown that English teams are not as good as we in this country think they are. 

Teams abroad are more technical, individually they are better technically too but we just dismiss them because of our ignorance. 

Look how many people dismissed Monaco for example against Arsenal, I know it is not the Europa League but I am just highlighting the fact of how quickly everyone saw all the other teams in the Champions League and automatically assumed Arsenal had an easy draw. 

Hardly anyone could have named more than a couple of players in the Monaco side, hardly seen them play this season but just because we have more knowledge on Arsenal does not mean Monaco are weak. 

I watch Italian football and I even admit I do find it hard to watch sometimes because it can be ponderous on occasions but if you analyse it, the ball retention is high. 

Look how many Italian teams through to the next round of the Europa Cup!

I’ve been coaching for over sixteen years and during the early years, I used to always say that more parents should come and watch their children as there used to be a handful from each side. 

Now it’s the complete opposite where there are parents and family members attending matches. 

The majority are fantastic supporting and encouraging their team and child but you do get others who are obsessed with winning no matter what. 

I’ve heard parents shout ‘kick it out’, ‘get rid of it’ just because their team is leading, they are more concerned about the match being won. 

This is to the detriment of the child’s development because if he/she was left alone during those times, they would probably have executed or tried a skill. 

So what if they lost it and the opposition scored? That would then be up to the coach to explain afterwards about what they could have done better in terms of decision making or what skill they could have used. 

Recently I went to watch a trials session held by Coventry City and some of the things I heard from parents was madness. 

“Don’t go in goal, what you going in goal for?” “I don’t know why I bothered bringing you” 

Those parents will find their child will stop playing football because of them in the future. 

Let children enjoy themselves, let them learn from their mistakes because without mistakes you cannot develop. 

I have said this for a long time until English players are taught at a young age to play and work in tight areas to be able to control and manoeuvre the ball, they will always play second fiddle to their European and South American counterparts. 

This can only be done through good coaching and also some input from the F.A at grassroots football. The F.A have taken positive steps in as far as banning the publishing of results up to the age of 11 for next season so more emphasis is put on development rather than who is top of the league. I have had parents say well that loses the competitive edge. Try telling that to young children when they are playing matches and are in the moment of the game. When players are on the pitch, they are competitive and are focused on the game. 

However the F.A can take even greater steps by keeping matches to 7-a-side  until the age of fourteen.  

Children aged 6-9 should play 5-a-side only with coaches from both sides being able to agree to even making the game 3-a-side. 

Pitches should be made smaller so emphasis on first touch.  

At the moment children move to 9-a-side at Under 11’s with the offside rule introduced and of course a bigger pitch and bigger goals. 

TOTAL MADNESS! 

Children in Holland would probably be having four separate games on a pitch that size with every one of those players getting far more touches of a football than the 18 combined. 

Four separate games of 5-a-side equates to 40 players being coached, playing matches and touching the football more often. 

40 players having to make quicker decisions, react quicker, facing more 1v1 challenges, having to pass to players who were under pressure because they have no other choice, those players having to receive the ball under pressure because the size of the pitch dictates that, having to learn new tricks and ways of beating a player and then we in England......... 

SCRATCH OUR HEADS AND WONDER WHY WE ARE BEHIND AS WE POLISH THE TROPHY OUR SON/DAUGHTER HAS JUST WON!!

Gordon Taylor recently stated that there was ‘hidden racism which holds clubs back’ from appointing black managers. 

Jeffrey Webb, FIFA vice-president said racism in English football is ‘right in front of your face.’ He went on to cite the case of ex Chelsea player and coach, Eddie Newton who cannot even get an interview for jobs. 

Jose Mourinho on the other hand says ‘there is no racism in football’ 

So who do we believe? 

Well certainly not Mourinho because he must be walking around with his head up his backside to make comments like that. 

Everyone knows there is racism in football but why the sudden outcry recently? It wasn’t because an Asian raised their voice about it as we have been talking to brick walls for years. It was in truth because there are a lack of black managers in the game. The black people cried that there had only been the likes of Chris Powell, Paul Ince, Chris Kiwomya, Edgar Davids, Keith Curle and the late Keith Alexander involved as managers in the game. Then on top of that there will be coaches I am sure who have been or are still involved in the game such as the aforementioned Eddie Newton and Terry Connor at Ipswich. So we know of at least eight black people who at some time or another have been involved in the upper echelons of the game. Eight!!! What a pathetic figure, it’s embarrassing, stinks of out and out racism. 

So now let’s name all the Asian managers and coaches involved at a similar level, no forget that, let’s not just concentrate on the Premier League and Championship but we’ll look at all the levels through to the Conference. Can you name one? It makes the figure eight look like a massive amount now doesn’t it! 

What will the blame be on this now? Cricket maybe? Our diets are still wrong? Parents still want us to be doctors and solicitors? I’ve heard people at meetings say that certain cultures ‘fast’ so this causes a problem? How many footballers are currently following the Muslim faith? Answer –hundreds.  

Only the most stupid and illiterate people will bring these excuses to the table. 

Recently Football League Chairman, Greg Clarke, said he would be leading a review of all matters relating to the under representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) managers and coaches at League Clubs. They will be consulting with its own clubs, The Football Association, other Leagues, the Professional Footballers’ Association, the League Managers’ Association, the Football Supporters’ Federation, Kick It Out and other interested parties. I presume by other interested parties he means the actual people who matter –US!! 

There is talk of introducing the ‘Rooney Rule’ which would compel clubs to interview at least one BAME candidate for management jobs. I usually would not agree with this because I believe you should be judged on merit but it is obvious in football this is not the case so it is must be introduced. 

I will say this to the F.A let us see the proof in the pudding. You bring me all your highly rated coaches from whatever club you want and I will bring you Asian coaches and for a specified period let all these coaches take children of similar ability away to be coached under the same guidelines and with access to the same facilities and equipment. Then we shall not only see who has been coached better but can ask the question why are they in jobs and the Asian coaches are not. 

As we can see with the numbers, there should be many more black managers and coaches but the fact is the black community is involved in football in every degree from players through to managers and coaches. Your feet are firmly inside the door. You just believe and rightly so that there should be more black managers and coaches in jobs on merit. Well whilst you are moaning and complaining in the inside, Asians are still knocking on the door outside. 

Kick It Out has black representation at the highest level, as does the F.A. I have written a past article of my experience when I attended a meeting about lack of Asian players in the game which was headed by a black member, Jonathan Mills! That is like me going into Brixton and telling the community there I’m going to lead a review of problems within their community.  

So what are the solutions? 

Definitely not meetings where the Asian community gathers at some so called prestigious venue where we talk about the same thing we talked about decades ago. A place where some token Asians are bought to so they can tell us everything is fine and things are moving forward. Then we put some dates in our diary to hear the same thing trashed out six months later. 

To give you a personal example how some of these establishments treat people, I contacted Troy Townsend of Kick It Out. An organisation that is meant to be at the forefront of equality and anti-racism. I asked Troy Townsend about mid June whether he would be prepared to give me an interview. He emailed me and said yes he would. I sent him the questions and he said if I could change the word ‘Indian’ to ‘Asian’. I did this and never heard back. Eventually after more emails and texts he kept on promising that he would get back to me by the end of the week etc;. Then suddenly no contact whatsoever. This is a man in a very respected and prominent position and if he had said he was not able to take part in the interview for whatever reason, then I would have understood and accepted it whether I liked it or not. However it was just promise after promise that he would do it. Now after reading this, what is the Asian community going to think?  

Brendan Batson sent me emails about a Bursary programme for coaches and said he would be in touch. That was over a year ago. He must have lost my email! 

It is just talk, lip service and available funds to waste on lies and false promises. 

I must add though that when I contacted Kick It Out about my experience with Troy Townsend and spoke to Tom Taylor, he and Paul Mortimer were very accommodating in helping me and Paul gave very honest and candid answers to my questions. Two good people who do genuinely want to help and improve links in the communities. 

The people who make the difference, owners of clubs, Chairmen, Heads of Academies should go into the grassroots level of Asian Clubs. They should go and watch the children, watch the coaches and then meet up and discuss the ways forward. 

There should be timescales and objectives set so there is a visible outcome from these meetings. 

In my interview with Paul Mortimer which you can read (click Interviews tab), Paul says we should gain our qualifications and at least challenge the authorities. 

What chance though when you read stories of Eddie Newton and you see high profile managers unable to get into the game? 

No black, Asian, ethnic minority footballer or coach has a right to a path into the professional ranks of the game above their white counterparts but they do have the right to be treated equally and fairly without discrimination. 

THERE IS RACISM IN FOOTBALL BUT IT IS NOT JUST BLACK AND WHITE, IT IS MAINLY BROWN.

First of all I’d say that almost everyone coaching at amateur grassroots level will be a volunteer so you have to commend them for all the effort and time they put into running a team. Most will be parents or have some sort of vested interest in the club. Then you will also have the coaches that do it purely for the love of football and interest in coaching and genuine desire to help the children they work with. However once you strip the sentiment away, you will find not all of them are actually good coaches. I’ve been involved in coaching for over sixteen years and in that time I have met some great coaches, great people involved with clubs and fantastic parents. Then again I have also met coaches and parents who think each game is a World Cup Final or the Champions League Final. For them winning is everything. Even more than the children who are actually playing! To these coaches I suggest you go to a trophy shop and get all your medals and trophies engraved with ‘Coach Of The Year’ and put them on your mantelpiece for friends and families to see! 

So what makes a good coach at any level but more importantly at grassroots level?  

Foremost it is having a genuine desire to improve a child’s ability on an individual basis. The teams’ ability to perform will be a natural progression if you work on this. 

So how do you improve a player who may be struggling? It is simple; you work more on a one to one basis with them. You involve them in 1v1 and 2v2 drills more often. 

When it comes to matches, in all my time as a coach, I have hardly seen any rotation by an opposition manager of their players in terms of playing them in different areas of a pitch. 

If you never ever play players in different positions at an early age, how are they going to learn different aspects of the game? I have heard some coaches say “He is our best defender” or “He is our best striker” That may be so at that particular stage in his or her development but what about the rest of the children in your team? Shouldn’t they get a chance to play in those areas of the pitch? The answer will be that they are not good enough. However the real answer is that as a coach you are not good enough. You cannot be bothered to develop the players, you have no patience, you want a readymade player but the bottom line is when you play a match, the chances are your team may lose if you don’t play your ‘star striker’ in his best position and that will be too much for your ego to take! 

The above scenario happens more often than not. Coaches will tell players in their team that they must get the ball to “little Johnny” as quickly as they can. They will focus on the better players. What happens when these better players are not available, are you going to cancel the match because your ego cannot allow defeat? 

Every year you will get clubs advertising for players by putting articles in papers regarding up and coming trials of their particular age group at their club. I have no issue with this if the club has no players in a particular age group or they need players because they are short of players for whatever reason that may be. 

But why would a coach or manager advertise for trials if he or she already has enough players in that age group? 

Again the answer is simple. They want to win things. They want readymade natural players. So what happens to the existing players? It may be that due to the influx of new players, the club may form another team in the same age group and some players may have to play for what will be considered the ‘B’ team. However the other scenario is that a player will simply have to go and find another club because the coach is more interested in success rather than development. The child eventually falls away from the sport through rejection. 

The F.A did have some sense in introducing a rule for 7-a-side games where whenever there is a goal kick the opposition must retreat to the half way line. This was to encourage teams to play from the back. Yet you still see managers telling the keeper to kick the ball. The reason is fear; that if they get players to actually try and play they may lose the ball!! How stupid does that actually sound! 

Well if we followed that philosophy in our own team, there is no doubt we would have won a lot more games. Develop players? No chance. 

Because none of our players want to play in goal, we are constantly reminded by others that we have no goalkeeper. Our response is that we actually have 10! 

We never ever force someone to go in goal at a young age because none of them want to play there so why should we. They take it in turns in each game to go in goal and even in that game they will rotate to play in goal. Imagine if we insisted that one of them must play in goal. What happens a few years down the line when he states that goalkeeping does not interest him any longer and that he wants to play outfield? Look at all that neglect of not coaching in the correct way. 

So what constitutes a good coach? 

1. One who has the player’s interest at heart in terms of individual development. 
2. One who rotates players in different positions so they learn all aspects of the game. 
3. One who doesn’t go around advertising for players when he/she has enough anyway. 
4. One who allows players to express themselves and play without fear. 
5. One who puts winning secondary to development. 
   
   

Of course there are many other aspects of being a good coach but for me in terms of technical development those are the stand out ones. 

WHAT SORT OF COACH ARE YOU AND WHAT SORT OF COACH DOES YOUR CHILD PLAY FOR?

- IMPORTANT - 

The Prince's Trust Get Started with Football programme with ASTON VILLA F.C.

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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.