English Football: The start of the downfall or a mere hiccup?

This past decade has seen the English Premier League rise to power and being known as the toughest league in the world. Every player who aspires for greatness and a legendary status beyond his imagination nurtures the dream of playing in this league.

Yet the day is here when all the English teams have crashed out of the Champions league. Few didn’t even make it through the group stage. Has the EPL finally reached its threshold and is on the decline? The warning signs have been looming large for quite some time now. Last year, both the Manchester clubs crashed out in the group stage and Arsenal in the last 16 of the knockout phase. Chelsea went on to win the cup, but only due to the sheer determination of its players. This should have stirred the clubs in England;rather they chose to ignore it. Result? The English clubs find themselves out of the Champions league at a premature stage yet again.Here are some viewpoints which might suggest how this fall of stature in European football has come about for the English clubs.

Fire up or get FIRED

Quite a few clubs have adopted the ‘Hire and Fire’ system of management. The manager is expected to produce instant results or the club would be ready with his replacement. The fans and the owners have become more demanding of their team, which is good but they are also ready to pull the trigger should the team performance see a dip. Chelsea is the best example for this model, but there is no denying the fact that Chelsea has reaped benefits of it as well. Last decade has been the most successful in Chelsea F.C’s history. It won more trophies in the last decade than it did in the previous 9. Only Manchester United have won more in the last decade when it comes to the number of trophies in EPL. Seeing this success, smaller clubs like QPR and Blackburn have also adopted this system. But there are always two sides to a coin. Although this brings instant success, in hindsight the stability of the club is lost. Stability is what is required in the long run. As a result, Chelsea have been suffering in the last two seasons, whereas clubs like Manchester United and City are doing well, at least in the League.

Essence of a team

For a club, the essence of a team is its youth setup. Many English clubs have invested heavily on their youth teams. Still, very few players actually make it through the grade for their team. So where is the flaw, with state of the art facilities being provided to the youngsters to train? Again it comes down to restlessness of the owner. Each manager, when he first comes to the club, first develops his first team and slowly and gradually makes his decision about the youth team players. He identifies the best out of the lot; someone who he thinks can represent the club in the long run. But nowadays, with manager not even lasting a season, youth development has almost stopped. Managers are not given enough time to even settle. To save their job, managers need to produce results instantly, whereas young players develop over time. This forces the managers to look to already established players from other clubs.

Scouting system

Countries like Germany and Spain have invested heavily on their youth and scouting system just like England. But there is a difference; they try to find players in their own backyard before looking elsewhere. Andre Schurrle first came into prominence at the age of 19, whereas Toni Kroos had started showing signs of promise at the age of 15. Germany has multi-layered scouting system based on age-groups, which makes sure they are not missing out on talented players, whereas, Spain has a very strong network of scouts developed over the course of years which ensures they don’t miss out on talented players. Here is where English teams are lagging behind. English teams look for players outside England more often. As of date, 62% of players plying their trade in English football are not English compared to 40% in Spain and even lesser in Germany. This needs to be changed. Even top clubs like United, Everton, Arsenal etc (teams that give youngsters a chance) are fielding more youngsters from outside England than usual. Has the talent pool shifted to other parts of Europe other than England? Something for all to ponder upon.

Until and unless these issues are handled, one can only see English football falling further down. There are very few clubs in England who are scouting predominantly in England (such as the likes of Southampton, Crystal Palace, Swansea to name a few). More and more clubs need to follow this path. Also, the fans and management need to understand that it is the players who perform on the pitch ultimately, and a manager needs time to get his ideas across to his players. They need to be patient. Once these issues are rectified, we will, definitely, see English football rise again to heights and be known as the most competitive league in the world, as it once was.