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Following Germany’s much heralded 14-year road to success at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, England and Italy’s failure to progress to the knockout stages has put their own domestic situations in the spotlight.
The two so-called super powers of European football bowed out to Costa Rica and Uruguay in Group D, countries with populations of about five and three million respectively.
With Spain, despite their capitulation in Brazil, the Netherlands, France and the emerging Belgium facing promising futures, Italy and England are at a crossroads.
Italy’s situation is more complicated, given the current decline of Serie A and the struggle of clubs to remain financially viable, partly due to a limited number owning their own stadium.
Even the possible appointment of Antonio Conte as national coach would not be enough for a country in need of a major revolution.
But are England capable of implementing Germany’s model of success? Or are there too many differences in culture and governance to overcome?
Germany’s transformation has received a lot of coverage since their World Cup victory, and the story is now well known.
Following a disastrous 2000 European Championship (and even prior to that according to the impeccable Uli Hesse) the German Football Association (DFB) stepped in turn Die Nationalmannschaft‘s fortunes around.
The national side, despite relative success, had played boring, dire and dated football for some time, and it wasn’t going down well with the German public.
It forced a major rethink into how Die Nationalmannschaft was set up, which had largely depended on the “German mentality” to get through games.
The DFB launched a number of youth programmes, with an emphasis on improving coaching standards and developing more technically adept players, and in 2011 made it mandatory for all Bundesliga clubs to run a youth academy, going down to the Under-12s.
The DFB now employ 1000 part-time coaches to identify talent from the ages of eight to 14, and find the best club for the player. While they are discovering the talent, the Bundesliga clubs are developing the talent – a two-way system.
Outside the obvious stars that contributed to Germany’s recent success, and were products of the German Under-21s, there are many more waiting in the wings.
Ilkay Gundogan and Sven and Lars Bender were ruled out of the World Cup through injury, as was Marco Reus, while fringe players such as Julian Draxler, Matthias Ginter, Kevin Volland and Erik Durm are stars in the making.
German players are now comfortable on the ball and fluent in their movement because they have been brought up that way throughout their youth.
Of course, the DFB had a lot more control over German clubs at the time than the Football Association currently has over English Premier League clubs. The DFB had the power to relinquish a club’s professional license if they failed to comply with the youth system demands, something that would be much harder for the FA to impose.
But the solution for England essentially remains similar to Germany’s transformation. The FA has to work with its clubs in order to bring about success.
There needs to be cooperation from players, officials, coaches and owners in order to implement a football philosophy that suits the country. It may not be exactly the same at Germany’s – culture and history have to be taken into account – but it can be reached using a similar method.
The Under-21 team must play the same system as the national side, as well as the Under-17s and the Under-19s, and clubs have to be committed to developing home-grown talent. But that system needs to be identified first, because whatever it is at present, isn’t working.
The DFB, through consultation, developed that philosophy, and then wasn’t scared to impose their rules on the Bundesliga clubs, but they also didn’t have to deal with foreign owners.
Many EPL clubs are owned by rich investors from overseas, who aren’t going to be easily swayed into turning its focus from buying the best and drawing in sponsorship dollars for an approach that produces less immediate results.
England also need the right coaching staff. Despite the DFB’s work, the results wouldn’t have eventuated without the talents of Jurgen Klinsmann and his successor Joachim Löw. England need an innovative manager, supported by an equally-adept tactician who will eventually take the reigns.
England boast some of the best facilities in the world, including their state-of-the-art £105 million St George’s Park facility, where the FA Youth Coach Education programme is based.
They have 30,000 members involved in the FA Licensed Coaches’ Club, the biggest such scheme in the world, but where are the quality coaches?
In 2013 the Guardian quoted UEFA as stating that Germany had 28,400 B license coaches to England’s 1,759, while 5500 (895) had an A license and 1070 (115) held a Pro license.
There are managers in the EPL that do seem like they would be in favour of a German-style approach, but most of them are actually foreign.
Mauricio Pochettino and Roberto Martinez are two coaches who have shown they are in favour of developing English talent.
Louis van Gaal has long been an advocate of promoting youth, as has Arsene Wenger, and Brendan Rodgers is one of Britain’s brightest young managers.
They also have history of playing entertaining football, and are open to introducing progressive tactics.
Implementing the youth and coaching programmes is one thing, but introducing a uniform philosophy across all levels of football, from the grassroots up, is another.
England could probably take on Germany’s approach, but the FA need to work with clubs and owners to make it happen. They need to look past the success and money of the EPL, and realise the state of their game is in need of a complete overhaul.
England have some great young talent coming through, such as Ross Barkley and Raheem Sterling, but do they have the coaches or the blessing of club owners to follow the German model of success?
So much talent has been wasted, or is being wasted, under the current system. Just think of Joe Cole or even Matthew Le Tissier, and currently Ravel Morrison. Talented players are often cast aside because they don’t represent a certain brand of footballer.
Germany started something magical 14 years ago, and don’t look like stopping. While the programmes set in place were years in the making, the results should keep rolling in for years to come, and England have the capability to produce similar results, if they can work together.
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