English football is traveling backward not through lack of talent but through lack of courage and the blame for that lies not only on the backs of the players but also in the minimum expectations of the supporter and the back-stabbing mentalityof the press.
Heres a good article from Harry Rednapp
SEPP BLATTER is demanding six 'home-grown' players in every team across the world is he? Good luck. I challenge the FIFA chief to find that many able English kids in the entire Premier League. OK, so I'm stretching a point but it's to underline that I'm fed up with managers being made scapegoats for the state of our domestic game. The English working class is turning its back on football - and that is not my fault.
I do have a lot of foreign players at Portsmouth but believe me I'd love nothing more than to field a team of 11 so-called 'home-grown' lads born within the city limits. But it has become harder and harder to find enough kids of the kind of quality required to make the grade without buying an air ticket.It may sound old and corny but when I was growing up, working class lads like me in the East End lived and breathed football.
Now I rarely see a kickabout in the park. All I see are the dazzling lights of bedroom windows from the glare of TVs and computers. It seems football cannot compete with an X-Box.
Why on earth do you think so many African players are filtering through into the English game and filling the spaces in the top teams? Maybe they have the hunger and drive that working class boys of England had 30 years ago but now is replaced by video game passion.
When I got home from school I grabbed a ball and went out to play with my mates until it was too dark to see on the estate in Poplar.
Then when night came we would go to the bike sheds where there were two lights - and carry on until we were chased off by the porter. I trained with Tottenham aged 12 and as a lad with West Ham. The only facilities we had at Upton Park was a space in the car park. At Portsmouth we are investing a small fortune in trying to bring local lads through the ranks. We have recruited two great coaches in Paul Hart and Ian Woan and our academy has superb training equipment. But we cannot force kids to come and play for us.
Sure, we get the numbers but they don't seem as committed these days. It seems as if one hour a week at our academy is enough. It's almost as if today's generation want the vast rewards but they are not prepared to put in the work - or simply they do not have football running through their veins like I did. Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said last week it is not his responsibility to look after future England teams by using positive discrimination in favour of English kids.
He is right. But he is also French and understandably he probably doesn't care about the England team. I am English. I care. And I fear a bleak future for our national team unless kids rekindle their passion. You cannot fault Premier League clubs for the effort they put in trying to nurture kids from the UK. What we are doing at Portsmouth is mirrored up and down the country. But managers like me should not be scapegoats if English kids would rather play fantasy football on their computers than the real thing.
