Capello’s just a start – England must go Dutch to become world beaters

The debate over whether the FA were right to look abroad and appoint another foreign coach is still fresh on the lips of many England fans – but the answer to England’s problems could lie in applying foreign influences at a different level.

Fabio Capello cannot guarantee England future success – but implementing the foreign approach into the English youth development set-up can.

Last year UNICEF produced a league table of child well-being in rich countries. Focusing on 21 industrialised countries, UNICEF looked at 40 indicators including poverty, family relationships and health. The UK was bottom. Sitting at the top of the league was the Netherlands.

“In terms of what Holland does better than us in developing their youngsters, it’s not just about football,” said Paul Cooper, of the English based DutchUK football school. “England’s problem lies deeper than just football – it’s our society and culture.”

Cooper set up the DutchUK football school alongside colleague Bert-Jan Heijmans. Every year the pair take around 30-40 English football coaches to witness the different culture and structure of youth development in the Netherlands.

Cooper added: “The child is always the centre of their football – not the coaching. Their whole attitude is based on a child and community-based culture.      & nbsp;      &nb sp;        ;       & nbsp;      &nb sp;        ;       & nbsp;      &nb sp;       

“From travelling to Holland with the football school, I visited a club and saw a boy playing in the under-6 team. His dad played for the second team and his granddad was in the 10th team. They have true community clubs.”

In terms of coaching, England has also fallen behind the rest of Europe. The Premier League only signed up to UEFA's coaching rules in 2003, resulting in all the major European footballing nations having more coaches with the ‘A’ Licence and Pro Licence than in England.

Sir Trevor Brooking, the Football Association’s Director of Football Development, emphasises the need for much better quality coaches working in the younger age groups. He said: “At the moment anyone who’s any good quickly goes through the system and is coaching 16-plus because that’s the only place he’s going to get any money, whereas in other countries they pay quality people to stay in the five to 11s and to stay in the 11 to 16s.”

Brooking also views the proposed national football centre in Burton as a key change in how England produces its footballers.

The NFC was intended to be a training camp for all England teams as well as act as a focal point for the FA’s coaching and development work – similar to French football’s Clairefontaine centre.

Helene Schrub, head of communications of the FC Metz academy, said: “Would the English national team benefit from a structure like Clairefontaine? I am not too sure. The national school is important in France because one fifth of our population is concentrated in the Paris region – where there is only the single professional club, Paris Saint Germain.

“A Clairefontaine in England would perhaps be less effective because the English population is not particularly concentrated in a single region. The training centres of the professional clubs should answer for the needs of the population.”

Metz, along with many of the French football academies, has an impressive list of recent graduates, most notably Emmanuel Adebayor, Robert Pires and Louis Saha.

The European Champions League provides strong evidence of France’s dominating influence in producing quality players. There are more French players in the Champions League than any other European country – only Brazil produces more footballers.

As Aime Jacquet testifies, the continued success of France in churning out young stars is the result of a long, painstaking, carefully planned process to organise and teach football in an entirely new way.

Jacquet managed the France's World Cup winners of 1998 before moving into directing the national coaching and development programme. The on-off Burton National Football Centre is only a small step towards following the French example.

Tottenham’s sporting director, Damien Comolli, has told BBC Sport: “For me, the difference is the quantity of training in England and France. Over four years, between the ages of 12 and 16, a French boy would receive 2,304 hours of training. That is twice as much as in England – where you would be given 1,152 hours.      &nb sp; 

“Those four years are crucial – it is difficult to catch up when you are 17 or 18.”

Watford are the first English club to re-work their academy – geared towards the European way. The school, based on a Dutch system, provides youngsters with football training fitted around their education, which results in the boys participating in three times the amount of coaching of 12 to 16-year-olds that is standard in most of the English academies.

Paul Cooper believes that although the English culture and mentality to “win at all costs” is proving detrimental to developing our youngsters, but with a little foreign influence, it could give England the edge on other countries.

“When I go to Holland, they say, ‘teach us about your country’s passion and about your commitment’. They don’t naturally have it in their make-up whereas England does.

“Holland makes this up with their education and development. If we could just say to ourselves, we’ve got this passion for the game and will to win - we would always start one up on virtually any other nation.      &n bsp;      &nbs p;               &n bsp;      &nbs p;               &n bsp;      &nbs p;               &n bsp;      &nbs p;               

“The trouble is that’s all we ever concentrate on.”