Does the Academy need FA guidance?

[Bruce Wayne]

There's an interesting piece here by Steve Heighway, the former academy chief at Liverpool.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ma...AVCBQWIV0?xml=/sport/2007/11/30/sfnhei130.xml

He seems to suggest that the academy system was doing ok when the FA had Howard Wilkinson appointed to ensure that all the academies shared best practice and were working in the right way.

Now he's gone he suggests that things are less structured and as a result less productive.

 

[SuitsBlue]

why did wilkinson leave? did they replace him or leave the post vacant?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

He went to Sunderland as manager, not sure whether he was pushed or he jumped.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I did find this, written last year by Graham Taylor.

So the England job has been given to Steve McClaren. At long last the Football Association have made what a lot of people consider to be the most important appointment in their organisation. But is it and should it be?

Howard Wilkinson, the former technical director at the FA, made some telling observations in his article in this paper earlier this week, which can still be viewed on the League Managers' Association and the Daily Telegraph website.

In effect he identified the role of the FA as having full responsibility for the education and development of the game throughout the country. I agree and am happy to quote him when he says: "The FA have to safeguard the interests and growth of football in England. To safeguard that growth we need to develop a strong, respected and well qualified group of English coaches."

Now we have got an English manager everything should be all right. Well, I do not see it that way. After tw o years in the job I would like to know what Sir Trevor Brooking has done or has proposed to do under his title of director of football development.

advertisement

What I do know is that Les Read, who acted as caretaker technical director when Wilkinson left, was dismissed two years ago and settlement has still not been reached with him. The FA have no technical director. Yet the Uefa Coaching Convention insists that each affiliated association should have such an appointment in place to oversee the structure, content and delivery of their coaching and education programme.

It goes further by saying that if there is a change of technical director or a change in that association's coaching and education programme then the programme has to be re-evaluated.

This, for me, is looking at the big picture. This is the most important appointment in the FA's organisation. And, as Wilkinson says, you will be at loggerheads with Premiership clubs because their interests are different - and quite rightly so - from the FA.

It means that the technical director has to stand up and be counted. It means that he has to argue his corner and be prepared to make enemies within both the FA and the Premiership.

To keep these enemies to a minimum he has to be a politician - and perhaps Brooking is that - but I do not see any evidence that the structure Wilkinson put in place is being protected and built on. In fact, I would go as far as to say that what he created is now being dismantled.

Wilkinson was an excellent technical director. The academy system, which was brought in for the long-term development of both club and international players, needs a serious review because more and more clubs resent the costs and yet they are prepared to spend millions of pounds, especially on some foreign players. There is little or no desire on the part of certain clubs to understand the value, philosophy and detail of a proper coaching education programme.

Understandably none of this attracts the headlines in comparison to the appointment of an England manager. But why doesn't Arsene Wenger sign English players? Because he does not rate their technique, especially at the speed the game is now played. We are not going to improve that overnight. But we can over 10 years or more and then only if we continue to produce top quality coaches.

I repeat that is the FA's responsibility and to do that I strongly believe there is a need for a highly qualified visionary technical director who has the strength of character and foresight to put in place a coaching and education programme of the necessary standards. I do not see that happening.

There is talk of creating an elite coaching unit to monitor acadamies and centres of excellence in order to raise coaching standards. Not exactly a new idea - and shouldn't the elite coaches already be working at the clubs. I think a starting point would be to see how many clubs are actually meeting the criteria which gave them a licence to run an academy in the first place. What is the point of creating rules and regulations if people do not abide by them.

In order to protect the interest and growth of the game the FA have to employ a technical director with the licence to produce a long-term coaching and education programme which, in itself, produces coaches of high quality, who are prepared to revisit the programme to continually update and improve themselves.

Getting qualified - even over a period of two years - means little unless the coach is prepared to keep in contact with change. Football needs that appointment. And the FA need to settle with Read.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

By the way, the letter referenced in the above article is included below.

Memo to Brian Barwick, chief executive of the Football Association: As you probably now realise, government by committee on major issues is unworkable, especially when the members of the committee sit there representing divided interests.

The major responsibility of the chief executive of the Football Association is to the English game, players and coaches at all levels.

That is not the responsibility of the chairman at Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United or whichever club it is, nor should it be. The aims of the FA and Arsenal are fundamentally different.

They pursue totally different goals. The responsibility of any club is to work for the commercial success of their products as reflected in results, commercial income, turnover and revenue. Clubs thrive on competition and conflict.

advertisement

The FA are about cooperation and consensus: what is best for the whole as opposed to what is best for me! It has no choice.

All FA thinking should be based on "the best interests of English players and coaches". they do not have a choice.

That is why we have the FA, the Welsh FA, the Scottish FA and the Irish FA. When the FA crossed the Welsh border, it resulted in the sacking of their chairman Keith Wiseman and chief executive Graham Kelly.

The FA have to safeguard the interests and growth of football in England that means the interests of coaches and players. Without them there would be no game. The FA have no choice in this matter. To safeguard that growth we need to develop, and this is crucial, a strong, respected and well-qualified group of England coaches like the French, the Dutch, the Italians and the Spanish have done.

Coaches who will give something back to English football and coaches.

Ron Greenwood set out the blueprint in 1980 which I picked up and ran with 20 years later.

His first group of supporting coaches - Bobby Robson, Terry Venables, Dave Sexton, Geoff Hurst, Brian Clough and myself - all went on to work towards the success of England teams at various levels.

For this to happen English coaches, like English players, need to be given opportunities for their potential to grow. If the FA do not have the confidence to back their own, who will?

Yours faithfully,

Howard Wilkinson

 

[SuitsBlue]

the same les read that stabbed dowie in the back (that was karma) then helped guide the good ship charlton down a division.

if it is, i have to ask, why can he work yet the fa cant appoint his successor.

that contract should never have been offered and the individuals making the appointments should be sacked.

sadly, the fa is a closed shop, its ''jobs for the boys'' - that old network and they dont push each other off the football gravy train.

a lack of accountability and that old gem of 'responsibility'.

 

[SuitsBlue]

the ideals have become corrupted, the FA pander to the top earning clubs, push the product, reap the rewards. then have a complain that england didnt make euro 08.

i have said for a while, that rules, referees and england managers arent the problem, its the step up the ladder to the individuals* in the fa halls of power that need addressing and in some cases removing.