As I write this epistle I am watching so-called FA coaches teaching (?) under tens to play the Wonderful Game.
They are clueless.
In Blackpool we had good amateurs such as Billy Underwood and Geoff Barnes. You played alongside them in the semi dark on Tennyson Road school pitch only if you already had the basic skills to play ball. At Lillishall, Harold Hassell didn't waste time teaching you the rudiments, although he laid out schemes to improve your technique. One of the first lessons on heading a ball was to get your feet off the ground. I can feel the blank stares.
Peter Crouch is one of the worst headers of a ball I have ever seen, yet he towers above his opponents. Why? He can't use his body to generate direction or pace. With feet on the ground you can only cushion a ball. It is the type of lesson he should have assimilated already by his eleventh birthday.
Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger slams Premier League squad rules as a 'joke'.
However Wenger was dismissive of this argument. "You have as many foreign players in Spain as in England," he said of the world champions. "You can sign players from all over the world in Spain. Why do they still produce players and we do not? It's down to the coaching. You cannot just close your eyes and say: 'Let's kick the good players out' and produce the same quality [in the league].
"I've been educating players since I was 25 and I know one rule. The first thing you do to develop a player is to put him with another good player. If you are a great player, you want to play with great players.”
Read more at www.telegraph.co.uk
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