During those long days of Covid lockdown four years ago I would sit at my office window and watch a teenage boy dribbling a football in and out of cones on the family driveway across the road. He would do shuttle runs, too.
His father would sometimes watch but the boy clearly knew what he was doing. Turned out he was in Manchester United’s academy and was following a detailed programme provided by his club.
I spoke to United’s academy head Nick Cox about it at the time and he explained that his staff were determined to ensure their players were occupied and focussed as much as possible during those confusing and scary weeks when they were unable to come to the club.
More importantly, though, were the phone calls that were being regularly made to boys and their parents to check on mental and economic wellbeing. At one stage, there was a Zoom call made by first team manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
‘We care about their football progress,’ Cox explained to me back then. ‘But first and foremost we need to make sure they are okay.’
Manchester United’s academy head Nick Cox (left) explained how academies care about the wellbeing of players
Kobbie Mainoo is the latest example of a star who has broken through from an English academy
National team boss Gareth Southgate, however, has concerns over the future direction of English football
Mail Sport’s Ian Ladyman believes we should care about and listen to Southgate’s concerns
I thought about all this on the way home from Wembley on Tuesday night because young Kobbie Mainoo would have been 14 when lockdown started. He was in United’s system back then. Just another hopeful boy. Maybe he was guiding footballs through cones outside the family home in Stockport too. Maybe he picked up the phone one day to hear his academy coach on the line simply asking if he was all right.
And this is not just a Manchester United thing. It’s an academy thing. It’s a modern English football thing. This is the way it is now and that is why when we watch Mainoo easing the ball neatly and progressively through the England midfield in the rain against Belgium we should all feel lifted for all kinds of different reasons. This is the future of the game and of our young footballers and it looks and feels healthy.
In that England team on Tuesday we watched Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden too. And James Maddison and others. Before the game Bellingham and Foden offered their jackets to their mascots as the rain began to fall during the anthems. The TV cameras picked it up but it was not done for show. Afterwards in the interview area, Maddison paused before talking to the media as he wanted to watch the Wales penalty shoot-out on somebody’s iPad. When he was subsequently told it had gone badly his first thoughts were for Spurs team-mates Ben Davies and Brennan Johnson.
We care first and foremost about what these lads do for us on the field. We want them to win. We have waited a long time and once again we feel as though England have an opportunity this summer in the European Championships. We don’t expect these young men to live perfect lives. It is unrealistic. There will be blemishes. But they have been placed on the right path.
That’s the important bit and as the Premier League continues to grow and push forward as a domestic competition of unrivalled quality and drama, it is impossible not to be heartened by the fact that our own young players remain at the heart of it.
England manager Gareth Southgate, who has name-checked Archie Gray at Leeds as another one to watch, does worry that one day there may not be enough of them. He points out that the number of home grown players at top clubs has never been lower. We should care about this and listen to him.
The influence of certain favoured agents at some of our clubs is a concern. Are all players being bought for the right reasons? No. Are there too many coming from around the world who are not necessarily better than what we can produce ourselves? Yes. Can the search for a quick fix by managers and sporting directors get in the way of sound judgement? Undoubtedly.
Still it is impossible to watch young Northern Irishman Conor Bradley hustle the Scotland defence out of possession and then hammer the ball in to the top corner at Hampden on Tuesday and not see the creed of his Liverpool football education running right through his every thought and act.
Jude Bellingham showed his class by giving a young mascot his jacket before the game against Belgium on Tuesday
Foden joined Bellingham in giving his jacket to his mascot – and it was not done for show
Some players are born to play at the highest level while others need nurturing. Foden, for example, had to wait for his body to catch up with his brain. That has not been a problem for Bellingham and clearly not for the prodigious Mainoo. Maddison, meanwhile, needed some emotional maturity. So too Jack Grealish.
Our academies, in which so much time, money and thought has been invested, are now programmed to tick these boxes. Who knows what lockdown was like for Mainoo at United or Bradley, then 16, at Liverpool? Their clubs knew, though, and that was probably the most important bit.
England may well not win the European Championships. It is always worth remembering there are other talented teams available. But beneath the money and self-interest of our domestic game, good things have been happening. We should be grateful for it.
There are concerns that the number of home grown players at top clubs has never been lower
UEFA’s system flawed
Estonia finished bottom of Qualifying Group F for the Euros. They lost seven games and drew one. They scored two goals.
Yet Estonia were given a play-off spot for this summer’s finals in Germany. Thankfully, and not surprisingly, they lost it 5-1 to Poland. But that’s not the point.
Estonia were awarded their shot at glory on the back of their performance in the Nations League which, should anybody need reminding, is a different competition entirely. But that’s the way UEFA choose to do it.
It was Estonia’s ability to beat San Marino (world ranking 201) and Malta (172) in a Nations League group that also featured Cyprus (125) that got them in to a Euros play-off.
So what this tells us is that European Championship qualifying groups are not really qualifying groups at all. The top two go through but what happens beneath them literally doesn’t matter.
Sweden and Azerbaijan, for example, finished comfortably ahead of Estonia in that group but didn’t get a play-off spot and were never going to. In Group A there was similar injustice as Georgia, in fourth, finished three points behind Norway, in third, but were given a play-off place ahead of them. Georgia subsequently beat Luxembourg and will play in the finals.
In Luxembourg’s group, incidentally, three teams reached the play-offs, including Bosnia and Herzegovina who finished fifth. The only nation from that group not to do so were Lichenstein who lost all of their 10 games and scored one goal.
It would be ridiculous to hand the worst team in qualifying a play-off spot wouldn’t it? Well, Estonia were only a point and a goal better and they got one. So it will happen one day, no doubt. On UEFA’s watch, nothing is ever off the table, no matter how stupid.
UEFA’s flawed system was shown by the fact Estonia received a play-off play for the Euros
Georgia’s qualification, meanwhile, showcases another injustice from the play-off format
A future role for Southgate
Martin O’Neill is the favourite to become the new president of the League Manager’s Association but there is a hope from within the organisation that Gareth Southgate may one day consider the role.
Xhaka’s all smiles
Whenever a team proves something or achieves something or wins something, there are always those who played their part on the journey only to fall by the wayside.
At Arsenal, for example, goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale was an integral part of last season’s progress but no longer plays. Kieran Tierney, meanwhile, was a captain and leader when things were hard during Mikel Arteta’s early days and is now on loan at Real Sociedad.
Granit Xhaka (left) went through it at Arsenal, and now sits top of the Bundesliga and is undefeated with Bayer Leverkusen
Xabi Alonso’s side are 10 points clear of Bayern Munich, and Xhaka has started every game
And then there is the story of Granit Xhaka. The Swiss midfielder went through the ringer at Arsenal. Captain then not captain. Liked then not liked then loved and then gone. And now he is in Germany where he sits at the top of the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen.
Xabi Alonso’s team are still unbeaten in the league and are 10 points clear of Bayern Munich. They have played 26 games and Xhaka is one of only two players to have started every single one. Only a cold heart would not feel happy for him.
