fucking hell - some of these german kids can absolutely fly ... the humidity is difficult for some of these players to adjust to in these games - they are tiring around the 75-80 mintue mark, making games far more wide open at the end.
I wonder if anybody has mentioned him recently on here .....
I wonder if anybody has mentioned him recently on here .....
It doesnt say our scouts arent present.The fact we are not present is because we already know the players well. Right?
RIGHT?
Anybody know what our scouts are doing?
The playing time of English under-21s in the Premier League has fallen to its lowest level.
English under-21s made up 2.28% of the total minutes played in 2012-13 with Manchester City, Chelsea, Swansea, Stoke and Wigan failing to field an English player under 21 all season.
The new figures fall behind Italy (2.38%), Spain (3.40%), Germany (6.22%) and France (7.32%).
Holland are at another level - they are the best team with Spain by far ... Winjdlbaum ... SIGN SIGN SIGN. And if there's room, Maher and Strootman too! 😉
Spain’s Under-21 squad looks to have lost Sergio Canales for the rest of the UEFA Under-21 Championship to injury.
The attacking midfielder was a second half substitute for La Rojita in their 1-0 win over Russia yesterday, but suffered an injury in the closing stages suspected to be a hamstring strain.
Initial tests have confirmed this fear and the player has now left the Under-21s’ training camp to return to Valencia, where he will undergo a more clinical ultrasound on the injury on Saturday.
The 22-year-old returned to playing action this midseason with Valencia, after recovering from a second consecutive knee ligament injury, but has suffered a number of minor muscle-related injuries since.
The latest of these was a hamstring strain picked up at the start of May.
UEFA regulations stipulate that Spain cannot replace Canales' place in the squad at the tournament.
There is a lot of money in the English game, which makes it far more tempting and easy for clubs to go out and buy ready made talent (or in a lot of cases wasting it on shit English players). In other countries there are only a few teams that have that luxury - most don't. They buy players on the cheap from South America, develop young players or get cast offs from the bigger teams (e.g. Mata, Reina, Soldado).
That's one issue. The other big one that is simply going to take time is that young footballers don't get as good a deal in England as they do in other countries in terms of the number of qualified coaches available etc. It seems on the surface of things that the FA realize that things need to change but I'm guessing attitudes aren't going to change overnight. People are still looking for an easy scapegoat all the time. Unfortunately it's just going to take a lot of work by people who get it to turn things around.
Fulham used five English players in the Premier League last season. Two of them — Matthew Briggs and David Stockdale — started five games between them, and defender Alex Smith played for one minute as a substitute.
Kieran Richardson and Steve Sidwell were the only Englishmen to reach double figures.
In two years at Craven Cottage, Dutch manager Martin Jol has signed only three English players: Richardson, 28, Dan Burn, 21, and Tom Donegan, 20.
Fulham have won the Barclays Under 18 Premier League for the last three years but the star striker is a 16-year-old Frenchman called Moussa Dembele.
Sportsmail also understands Jol has irked respected coaches at Fulham’s respected academy by showing little interest in bringing young players through to the first team.
It seems a shocking indictment of a very traditional club that boasts a statue of Johnny Haynes.
But the reason Fulham struggle to promote homegrown talent is a familiar one and the prohibitive cost of English footballers is the over-riding factor. Fulham enquired about Dwight Gayle, a 22-year-old striker who scored 13 goals for Peterborough on loan from Dagenham.
They were quoted ‘£5-10million’ and promptly walked away.
Fulham were also interested in signing Scott Sinclair from Swansea City but he went to Manchester City for £6.2m to earn £50,000 a week.
Last summer they looked at Jordan Rhodes, too, but the 23-year-old striker joined Blackburn Rovers for £8m. Fulham responded by bringing in the experienced Dimitar Berbatov for £5m and he was their player of the season.
‘When you are looking within the UK, the clubs price their players at ridiculous levels, plus their wage demands are too expensive,’ said a Fulham source. ‘But if you are looking at a player in Holland, for example, you can pay them a pretty average Premier League wage of around £20,000 a week and they are absolutely delighted.’
There are fears the Premier League’s new financial fair play rules could make the situation worse by encouraging clubs to try to extract even more money when they sell players because there will no longer be an unlimited pot of money with which to pay them.
The loan system, whereby only two players be signed from inside the top flight, also works against British talent. It is easier — and cheaper — to bring players in from abroad instead.
Fulham right back Sascha Riether, for example, excelled last season after joining on a season-long loan from Cologne on ‘relatively low’ wages before signing a permanent deal.
‘Everyone would love to have an English spine to their team,’ a Fulham source said, ‘but we want the best value — and that comes from abroad.
‘We would like more English players but not at inflated prices. Look at what Liverpool had to pay to sign Jordan Henderson and Andy Carroll (£35m). Fulham can’t compete with that.’
There is a lot of money in the English game, which makes it far more tempting and easy for clubs to go out and buy ready made talent (or in a lot of cases wasting it on shit English players). In other countries there are only a few teams that have that luxury - most don't. They buy players on the cheap from South America, develop young players or get cast offs from the bigger teams (e.g. Mata, Reina, Soldado).
That's one issue. The other big one that is simply going to take time is that young footballers don't get as good a deal in England as they do in other countries in terms of the number of qualified coaches available etc. It seems on the surface of things that the FA realize that things need to change but I'm guessing attitudes aren't going to change overnight. People are still looking for an easy scapegoat all the time. Unfortunately it's just going to take a lot of work by people who get it to turn things around.
Fulham used five English players in the Premier League last season. Two of them — Matthew Briggs and David Stockdale — started five games between them, and defender Alex Smith played for one minute as a substitute.
Kieran Richardson and Steve Sidwell were the only Englishmen to reach double figures.
In two years at Craven Cottage, Dutch manager Martin Jol has signed only three English players: Richardson, 28, Dan Burn, 21, and Tom Donegan, 20.
Fulham have won the Barclays Under 18 Premier League for the last three years but the star striker is a 16-year-old Frenchman called Moussa Dembele.
Sportsmail also understands Jol has irked respected coaches at Fulham’s respected academy by showing little interest in bringing young players through to the first team.
It seems a shocking indictment of a very traditional club that boasts a statue of Johnny Haynes.
But the reason Fulham struggle to promote homegrown talent is a familiar one and the prohibitive cost of English footballers is the over-riding factor. Fulham enquired about Dwight Gayle, a 22-year-old striker who scored 13 goals for Peterborough on loan from Dagenham.
They were quoted ‘£5-10million’ and promptly walked away.
Fulham were also interested in signing Scott Sinclair from Swansea City but he went to Manchester City for £6.2m to earn £50,000 a week.
Last summer they looked at Jordan Rhodes, too, but the 23-year-old striker joined Blackburn Rovers for £8m. Fulham responded by bringing in the experienced Dimitar Berbatov for £5m and he was their player of the season.
‘When you are looking within the UK, the clubs price their players at ridiculous levels, plus their wage demands are too expensive,’ said a Fulham source. ‘But if you are looking at a player in Holland, for example, you can pay them a pretty average Premier League wage of around £20,000 a week and they are absolutely delighted.’
There are fears the Premier League’s new financial fair play rules could make the situation worse by encouraging clubs to try to extract even more money when they sell players because there will no longer be an unlimited pot of money with which to pay them.
The loan system, whereby only two players be signed from inside the top flight, also works against British talent. It is easier — and cheaper — to bring players in from abroad instead.
Fulham right back Sascha Riether, for example, excelled last season after joining on a season-long loan from Cologne on ‘relatively low’ wages before signing a permanent deal.
‘Everyone would love to have an English spine to their team,’ a Fulham source said, ‘but we want the best value — and that comes from abroad.
‘We would like more English players but not at inflated prices. Look at what Liverpool had to pay to sign Jordan Henderson and Andy Carroll (£35m). Fulham can’t compete with that.’
England are pretty awful. No shape, no tactics, no plan.
I can never understand Roberts calling themselves Robbie when they could all be Bobs or Bobbys.
I have to say, I don't get the Zaha hype.