Park Life

If the DFB were in charge here every talented Scot, Welsh, Irish, Jamaican, HK chinese, any former colonial African would be qualified for Eng. It's what the Germans have been doing quietly for a decade now. Meanwhile the FA fuck about at garden parties, building projects, sponsorhip deals with Mars and expensive promo videos about blind kids or summink...

"It is now a requirement for all Bundesliga and Bundesliga.2 clubs to have Youth Academies which meet certain criteria. In the top league, these academies must have development groups at all ages and a written development programme. In the 2008/2009 season, 91 players from academies in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga.2 managed to get on to the field for the first time. Professional clubs in Germany maintained over 270 youth teams with over 5,000 players and there are 121 national football centres in the country. As of 2007/2008, over €70m was being spent into Youth Development per year, that figure will have increased due to the thriving economy of the Bundesliga." We're about 3 decades behind.

Infact it qualifies you for Germany. We're fucked. The whole executive branch of football in Eng is run by amateurs and buffet munchers.

In Spain and Germany there are 600-700 Uefa A and B trained youth coaches working with youth primarily. In England it's about 150.

Germany vs Turkey: The Fight over Talent The Turkish community is the largest immigrant community here in Germany. Integration and its problems are often a topic, but football is one area where integration has worked better then in the general society. At the professional level it is a real success story! For many young footballers of Turkish origin it is a question of Half Moon or Eagle? Turkey or Germany? For most it is a difficult decision then growing up in Germany with Turkish roots many feel they could play for both teams, but there are others who make an own decision at a young age. The best examples are Real Madrid duo Mesut Özil and Nuri Sahin. Both come from the Ruhr Valley area from rival clubs in FC Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund. While Özil took the decision to play for Germany, Sahin at the young age of 17 decided to play for Turkey. Other names which come to mind are former Bundesliga players Yidiray Bastürk, Hamit and Halil Altintop plus recently Werder Bremen's Mehmet Ekici and Leverkusen's Ömer Toprak. The last two have come through the German youth system and have represent Germany at youth level before switching to play for Turkey, where the competition at international level isn't as tough as it is for Germany. Turkey has been making a coordinated effort to get young footballers of Turkish origin to play for the country of their forefathers. For that they have an office in Cologne run by former Bundesliga player Erdan Keser, who has 25 scouts under him across Germany. They look at young boys from the age of 15 and if of interest, they and their families are approached about playing for Turkey. A difficult situation sometimes with youngsters having to decide which way their career can go, then playing for Germany and making it is a bigger career option then playing for Turkey with many boys ending up playing in the Turkish Süper Lig. Tomorrow Turkey host Germany in a Euro2012 qualifier with Mesut Özil a doubtful starter. Otherwise the Real Madrid star would be getting a rough welcome from the country of his forefathers, who still are disappointed that he chose Germany over Turkey. Surely he won't be the last... What are the FA doing? Fuck all.

If Bale had been born anywhere in Eastern Europe I guarantee he'd be playing for Germany.

The main football source used to be Afro-carribeans and mixed race versions of other Africans...Now our clubs just buy africans.

This is because, in Germany, one in five people was of foreign descent. To illustrate, German team regulars Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose and Piotr Trochowski hail from Poland. Mesut Ozil and Serdar Tasci have Turkish parents. Brazilian-born striker Cacau usually shares the bench with Mario Gomez, who has a Spanish father. Winger Marko Marin was born in Bosnia. Dennis Aogo (Nigeria), Jerome Boateng (Ghana) and Sami Khedira (Tunisia) complete the cast of “half-Germans” proudly donning the tri-colors of Germany. The Germans have youth training camps in Prague. What are we doing? Some bloke from the FA saunters through a park once a year for a fag and a wank.

Totally agree. It's madness to go against what the players do in the PL week in week out. Germany have found a nice middle ground with their new 433. A proper striker and two half strikers (Muller/Podolski) who drop off when they lose the ball. Got Reus and Schuerlle coming through as well. Not to forget Goetze. The DFB are casting their net all around Poland, Czech looking for quality youngsters who they will move to Germay at the age of 12-14 and give them a passport..The German net is huge compared to ours.

This as well.

There's plenty of talent in Eng as is seen by the Arsenal and Spurs youth set ups...THEY JUST CAN'T GET GAMES. The Spurs right back only broke through cause Spurs were quoted silly money for a right back and they had started cutting back (adebayour on loan half the wages paid and so on..)

Germany have it down to 40% now, something they have been working on since 2000. There has been massive change at the grassroots here to help develop German players since Low and Klinsmaan started it a decade ago. France is 30%. Also it isn't just about getting in PL sides packed with talent from all around the world it's about being frozen out of key positons by the likes of Mata, Modric and Silva and so on...We're not developing midfielders cause our top clubs buy them in. Will Cleverley and Wilshire develop properly??

Milner and Young aren't a threat at international level and I suspect Welbeck with his lukewarm temprement won't be either. I couldn't belive the way he was jogging around with the ball 10 yards away and Italy in the first phase of their buildup. What planet is he on ffs!

World Cup 2010: England are 'paying price of foreign Premier League' • President says 77.1% of La Liga players are Spanish • Contrast with 40% English players in Premier League The Premier League is dominated by foreign talent, including Spain and Liverpool striker Fernando Torres. Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images England's dismal failure at the World Cup can be blamed on the Premier League's inability to promote home-grown talent, according to the president of Spain's La Liga. José Luis Astiazarán has questioned the number of young foreign players at Premier League clubs and said the principal reason Spain have reached Sunday's final against Holland is that "77.1%" of footballers in their domestic league are Spanish-qualified, a direct result of home-grown players being given the opportunity in their clubs' first teams. In the Premier League fewer than 40% of players are English. "In La Liga there are 77.1% Spanish players, 16.7% European and 6.7% non-European," Astiazarán said. "Our strategy is to work very hard with young home-grown players and to try to have a mix between them and experienced players.

Only 40% of the players in Eng qualify to play for the national team.

Keeeel Heeeem!!

Linked with Barca.

Benzema showing Spain how the ghost striker thing is really done.

Washes his hair in milk apparently.

There's a lot of stuff they haven't released.

More compact, less madness and running around too much.

Evil demons my arse! Pack of self-centered, prissy, egoheads! Almost impossible to drill a team ethic into that lot (always someone else's fault syndrome). On holiday in France a few years back me and my mate would just cream French teams at poker and various other card games cause as soon as they started losing they would argue with each other. Hopeless.

Obama is getting dumped by Bilderberg so Julian just has to keep out of America for a year or two. Bet they're already planning to kidnap him anyway (rendition)...Irony of ironies.

Young seems out of sorts imo.