It’s now becoming a commonplace in modern day football to see young English players being bought and sold for wallet aching transfer fees. The value of these players has continued to soar higher and higher with each passing season seeing another absurd height reached.
2011 has already seen four players fee’s smash the £100 million mark in cumulative transfer fees. Liverpool have invested heavily in Andy Carroll and Jordan Henderson whilst Manchester United have spent big on Phil Jones and Ashley Young. Apart from Young, who has been performing consistently for four years at Aston Villa, the rest can hardly be labelled as experienced players.
Carroll’s transfer is the most baffling of the lot with the Merseyside club shelling out a staggering £35 million pounds for his services in January. It really does beg the question as to whether these clubs have more money than sense or is there a serious issue in the production of quality English players starting at grassroots level?
It’s likely that a mix of the two is causing the downward spiral in quality and speedy rise in price. The standard of English players certainly has decreased over the last 10 years or so and big clubs seem to be panic buying. Many have seen the failings of the national side and come to the conclusion that England are now producing more players at an average standard. It seems that when one really good player comes through the ranks the vultures all start circling and a bidding war ensues.
The transfer of Carroll is the best example of the lot. For Liverpool to pay such an extortionate amount of money for a player with very little experience is staggering. From the eyes of a Newcastle fan I was sad to see him leave because he did well for us but £35 million for an academy graduate who is very limited in what he does was too hard to turn down. Obviously Tottenham were interested and they’ve been known to splash the cash before but even they weren’t stupid enough to pay the fee. To put it into perspective, David Villa moved to Barcelona just a few months earlier for the same fee. Which one would you have in your team?
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Don’t get me wrong Carroll is a good player if you mould the team around his style of play, which Newcastle did to great effect. But for a player with only six months Premier League experience, 11 goals and a hoard of off the field problems it seems hard for Liverpool to justify the outlay on him. The same applies to Jordan Henderson who has played consistently in the last two years for Sunderland but hasn’t set the world alight. He isn’t a midfielder who will score important goals, create openings or take a game by the scruff of the neck and drag his team to victory.
For Liverpool to open their chequebook and pay £55 million for the two is ludicrous. Looking at their strategy it seems as if they are playing the transfer window like an adolescent on Championship Manager. Spending like this is nothing short of madness and is leaving clubs with crippling debts.
A more serious problem in the decline in English talent is the state of the grassroots game. It’s been well documented that there are participation problems with the number players, coaches and referee’s falling dramatically. Issues like pitches, facilities, and behaviour and coincidentally, the cost to actually play football, is driving people away. To get young players out onto the pitch is becoming increasingly difficult for parents and clubs financially.
If money is the problem then it’s up to the FA to rectify the problem. They aren’t pumping enough money in to alleviate these problems despite it staring them right in the face. Coaching standards are falling and this is having an effect on a player’s ability to learn and evolve. Youngsters aren’t being given the opportunity to play, be coached and guided properly before they are spotted by a club and taken on. A majority of these players will fail to make the grade at a professional top-flight club because of this.
The small number of English players that do fulfil their potential, come through the ranks and show glimpses of their talent are instantly snapped up and lured by the bright lights of big clubs. This also puts the selling club in a strong bargaining position to get the best and most extortionate price possible which is wrong. The smaller clubs, both in the Premier League and Football League, who are producing the players, are merely turning into feeders for the bigger clubs.
Desperation to secure the best English players ahead of their rival’s means it’s impossible for smaller club to resist hiking up the price in the midst of a bidding war. With Carroll now the most expensive English player in history it will be no surprise if one of our own finally breaks the £100 million barrier. When that day comes we’ll know for sure that football has finally lost touch with reality.
