Chapter 472: Learning from the Good Examples of the Saints
"Really?"
After the conversation just now, David Bernstein is now completely convinced of Young Master Huan.
"Master Huan, please speak."
Yang Huan looked at his excited expression and knew what was going on.
In fact, this guy is also a fan of officials. Although the English Football Association is not as lucrative as the Premier League, it is not bad either.
More importantly, football has a very high status in the UK. At first glance, he is the chairman of the English Football Association. However, he actually benefits greatly from it secretly.
"It's very simple, just draw a pie."
"Paying big lip service?" David Bernstein was stunned.
Prince William was also a little confused. What does this football guy have to do with making big promises?
Master Huan chuckled, "To put it simply, you need to design a complete and detailed football reform plan that involves all aspects, so that everyone can see the FA's determination to promote reform, including reforming the FA's internal management system."
When David Bernstein heard this, his eyes lit up. Yes, who can't make a big promise?
The slogan of reforming the internal management system of the English Football Association has been shouted for many years. Almost everyone feels that it is necessary, but it cannot be promoted due to some resistance.
But if I push it hard and put it into practice during my term of office, wouldn't that greatly meet everyone's expectations?
Besides, how would outsiders know how the internal management system was reformed?
But soon, he noticed the problem again.
"Master Huan, I have two questions."
Yang Huan nodded. It is normal to have problems. If there are no problems, what is there to reform?
"Tell me about it."
"First of all, this comprehensive football reform plan is not easy to implement."
David Bernstein said with a bitter face, "To be honest, the government and the English Football Association were determined to promote youth training reforms around the year 2000. To this end, we even spent tens of millions of pounds in 2001 to build the St. George's Youth Training Center with first-class hardware."
It would have been better if he didn't say anything, but as soon as he mentioned St. George's Youth Training Center, Yang Huan laughed.
This crappy youth training center was originally regarded as the Clairefontaine of the UK, but it took more than ten years to build. The investment has been increasing, now more than 100 million pounds. It is planned to be opened at a later date after the Olympic Games.
England and Germany launched youth training reforms almost at the same time. Germany has cultivated a large number of talented newcomers such as Ozil, Gotze, Thomas Muller and Toni Kroos, but your youth training center in the UK is still in its infancy. How disappointing is that?
Of course, a very important reason is that there is no money.
Hearing Master Huan's laughter, both David Bernstein and Prince William felt ashamed.
But what can we do? Who made our family poor?
"In the past few years, we have visited many countries with strong youth training programs, such as France, Germany, and Spain, but we have never been able to come up with a specific youth training reform plan."
"The main reason is that we have our own special football environment."
Yang Huan agrees with this point very much.
Many English fans say that directly copying Germany or Spain is a rogue statement.
Are the football and social environments in England similar to those in Germany and Spain?
Besides, the biggest feature of the Premier League is its fast pace and high intensity. You use the youth training methods of Germany and Spain. OK, assuming you really manage to cultivate players with outstanding skills, will Premier League teams use them?
Just like Joe Cole, his skills are amazing, right? Awesome, right? Back then, he was known as the Zidane of England.
But can Chelsea use it?
The problem still lies in the overall environment of English football
Learning is easy, but applying is difficult
Many people regard the FA and even English football professionals as fools, thinking that they are just sitting there doing nothing but realizing that they also have their own frustrations.
Since the 1980s and 1990s, after English teams were banned from European competitions by UEFA, the overall development of English football has lagged behind that of continental Europe for a long time.
This lag is not only reflected in tactics, but also directly reflected in youth training.
Technology is generally emphasized nowadays. Who doesn’t know that technology should be valued?
But the problem is, if you want to pay attention to technology, you need a coach who pays attention to technology to teach children to play football, right?
What should you do if all your previous youth training coaches have emphasized physical fitness and fighting, and ignored technology?
All fired?
Who will take over for the time being?
Well, you said we need to quickly train a new group of coaches, who doesn’t know that?
But the problem is not that simple, training! Money is not the primary issue, the real primary issue is, you have to have a direction, right?
What style of football do you want for your country?
You must at least have a direction so that everyone knows clearly what you want to learn.
Then we design a system in this direction. Otherwise, if we practice skills at the age of eight or nine, following the Spanish route, and practice fighting at the age of ten, following the British route, does that make sense?
When Yang Huan heard this, he felt a little more helpless about the English football practitioners.
They are like standing at a crossroads, with roads everywhere, but they don't know which one to take.
Relatively speaking, the club's situation is much simpler, as it directly adopts the tactical concepts of the first team.
As for youth training talents, it doesn’t matter. If it doesn’t work, I can directly recruit people from abroad. Premier League teams are not short of money anyway.
But can the FA promote this model nationwide?
If this is true, he will definitely be drowned by the saliva of fans across the country.
"You know, we at Southampton attach great importance to youth training."
David Bernstein nodded, which was worthy of recognition.
The Saints' youth training is the best in England, and perhaps only Manchester United can compete with it.
But in the past two years, Yang Huan has invested heavily in transformation, introduced a large number of talents, and promoted high-tech auxiliary systems. All these measures have brought tremendous changes to Southampton.
The whole of England knows that the Saints' youth training camp is full of talented and new players.
"Griffa and Madoni are both veterans who have been immersed in football for decades and have been engaged in youth training. Bielsa's tactical concepts have always been very advanced. In addition, there are former FA technical director Harrison Reid and England youth training expert Matt Crocker. I have brought them all over and talked about youth training issues several times."
The main reason why Yang Huan talked to them was about Chinese football, but they also talked about English football.
"The traditional advantage of England's youth training is physical strength and strength. It emphasizes players' speed, running and confrontation. This is consistent with the style of the English league.
David Bernstein kept nodding his head. He himself had been working in the football field for decades and knew very well whether Yang Huan was right or not.
"England's characteristics are different from those of Brazil, Spain, Germany and France. We can't copy them, but we can learn from their strengths and use them for our own benefit. I agree very much with what Bielsa said, Southampton's tactical style is the most suitable for English football."
When saying this, Yang Huan did not show any boasting, but rather was very serious.
"Ferguson is a great coach, but he is a pragmatist. He does not have his own stable philosophy. Wenger has philosophy, but his ball-control style is not suitable for England. Mourinho's style is more defensive, which is not popular in the UK. Therefore, even when Chelsea won two consecutive championships, the stadium attendance was terribly low."
"Benitez's style seeks balance, but it is too rational and lacks creativity. Rather than calling the Istanbul miracle a masterpiece of Benítez, I would rather see it as an explosion of creativity in the long-standing dull English football."
"Yes, that's right." David Bernstein was excited when he heard this.
It felt like everything suddenly became clear.
Prince William also nodded continuously as he listened. These words were indeed insightful and unique.
"Bielsa's football style is very aggressive, emphasizing running and covering, and always giving opponents high-intensity pressure and pressing. The tempo is very fast, which is very consistent with English football."
There is one more thing Yang Huan didn't say, that is, Southampton's football is definitely one of the most popular teams among local fans in the Premier League this season. The reason is very simple. Bielsa's football is always full of passion.
This is what England fans want to see most
"But at the same time, Bielsa attaches great importance to technology, teamwork, creativity and imagination of players, which represents the future development trend of football. That's why I say that the Saints' tactics are very suitable for England."
David Bernstein nodded repeatedly after hearing this.
He himself couldn't understand why Southampton was so popular.
But now that Yang Huan said this, it really makes sense.
Isn’t what Southampton has in its bones the traditional characteristics of English football?
It's just that the Saints have absorbed advanced football concepts and made their entire tactical system more advanced and more in line with the development trend of modern football.
In this way, England's youth football training should learn from Southampton.
Learning from the saints has a bright future
"After solving the directional problem of England's youth training, we must solve the two biggest problems next."
"One is the lack of coaches in England's youth training"
Yang Huan's words made David Bernstein frown again.
Prince William was a little puzzled when he heard this. "How can there be a shortage? Aren't there plenty?"
Yang Huan smiled and shook his head, "My Lord the Duke of Cambridge, don't you know? There are 24,000 coaches with UEFA B and B professional coaching certificates in Spain, 35,000 in Germany, guess how many there are in the UK?"
Prince William understood Yang Huan's subtext and hesitated for a moment, "There should be at least 10,000 people, right?"
In terms of population, England has more people than Spain but less than Germany. However, when it comes to professional football clubs, England is far ahead of them. So the number of holders of high-level professional coaching certificates may be small, but it is not too outrageous.
But who would have known that Yang Huan would burst out laughing when he heard it.
Even David Bernstein found it difficult to talk about it.
"Not even ten thousand yet?" Prince William was a little depressed.
"No," Yang Huan nodded very affirmatively.
"Eight thousand?"
'Too many'
Prince William was furious and spread out five fingers on his right hand, "It should be at least five thousand, right?"
Who knows, Master Huan is still laughing, "It's still too much"
"Don't we have less than 3,000 professional coaches in the whole of England?"
This time, Yang Huan smiled and said nothing.
Prince William immediately looked at David Bernstein, and the pitiful FA chairman greeted him with a wry smile.
"We only have more than 2,700 coaches who have obtained UEFA professional coaching certificates."
Damn it, it's not even a fraction of what they give me.
No wonder the level of youth training is so low
It turns out that there are too few professional coaches.
"Hey, that's not right. If there are really only 2,700 people, how many will be left after deducting those from professional clubs?"
David Bernstein smiled helplessly, "In fact, even in professional clubs, there are many youth training coaches who do not have professional coaching certificates. What's even more outrageous is that some head coaches of Premier League first-teams do not even have the qualifications to coach. The domestic media is not ashamed of this, but proud of it."
This problem has always been the crux of English football.