Gareth Southgate and youth Development

Hi this is my first ever blog and blog post so please bare with me for a while.


I thought for my first blog post i would discuss Gareth Southgates plans for youth development. Personally I think the job youth development should of gone to a footballer who is the sort of player and style of play we want to develop in our country and i think Gareth Southgate is the wrong man as he is an unsuccessful manager as his time at Middlesbrough proved it. Don't get me wrong he was a successful player and his plans for development sound decent i just wondered if trying to copy Barcelonas system and the Spanish system which by the looks of it is what he is planning to do is the right way of developing our youth, surely we should try and create a youth system unique to anybody Else's and play to the strengths which are country has.


If in about 15 years we are bringing through the youth system the same types of players as Iniesta, Xavi, Busquets, Messi, Pedro and others then i would be delighted and i'd probably enjoy watching England play which is something i haven't enjoyed in over 5 years and at the moment feel its a commitment to watch England play, but i always enjoy watching Barcelona play as i think that Xavi and Iniesta are the best passers in the world and the vision they have is immense and make games interesting and well Messi is just exceptional.


I'm not criticising his plans my point is just that i think if we take Barcelona and Spain's youth system then it wont be as successful as it is over there and we should create our own national identity playing style in football just like the Brazilian, Spanish, dutch, Italian and German who all have unique styles of football and i think copying the most successful style of football would not work.


His plans for 11 aside matches to start at at least under 13 which Gareth Southgates thinks that they will improve players technical ability rather than physical;
"With 11 v 11, there are fewer touches for players. If we go to that format too young then it becomes a much more of an athletic-based game. "We have huge pitches that kids can’t get around. It benefits the physically stronger players but there’s a real danger that we lose the smaller, more technically gifted ones.” 


For these changes to come into place 75% of the FA have to vote in favour of this and i hope they do as England need to improve there national game rather than concentrating on the club game as there is no pride in having the best league in the world if your country is not successful