There are few more popular characters in football today than Sir Trevor Brooking. The West Ham and England central midfielder was an exemplary professional during his playing career, and has since enjoyed successful spells as manager, commentator, and now Head of Youth Development for the FA. Like the modernization of Wembley stadium where his office is situated, Brooking is at the helm in the bid to “radically change” English football to make it world-leading once again.
Brooking and his colleagues are now four years into a complete overhaul of the English football structure. “We have now set age appropriate courses. We’ve got three phases of youth modules. It’s absolutely crucial that by the time you are coming out of the under-11s, you’ve got a great touch.” This focus stems from the direction that the world game is going. “The game is very technical, it’s passed quick. You look at all the top sides and all the top international teams, that’s the way the games is going to be played.”
One of the key introductions in recent times has been a more progressive process of development in the pre-teen years. “The real dropout rate in football is 11, 12 and 13 years old, when they are making the transition to 11 v 11. To help the transition we are going to go 9 v 9 from 11 and 12 years old. This is to try and get the pitches reduced and the goal sizes reduced, so that you don’t go from 7 v 7 mini-soccer, which is fantastically popular, to 11 v 11 on a senior pitch where you can hardly see the goal in the distance.” By introducing this policy, it is hoped that youngsters will be able to transfer their ball skills better into the full game.
Over the past few decades, the basic fundamentals of the way that kids play football has significantly altered according to Brooking. “In my generation we’d have kicked the ball around informally. The big difference is that parents want to know where their youngsters are now, and so you have to have sessions that are structured with an adult. We need to make sure between ages 5 to 11 the game is very enthusiastic, fun, enjoyable. not too much talking from coaches, just encourage them.” This will tackle one of the most common issues within the game; the demanding father on the touchline screaming at a group of children is an all too common scene in grassroots football.
Despite all these new concepts, the fruits of the FA’s labour have not been realised yet. “If I’m being honest, it’s mainly been about getting the basis for success. I’d like to have seen in this time this great progression, and producing great players in the younger ages groups. But we are not, that’s why the structure had to be put in place. Now we feel like we are in a position, having got the investment for St. George’s Park, to take it to the next level. We’ve created the framework. I’d like to think in 5 to 10 years time we’ll get the benefits of what we are doing now.”
But the question of whether investment will yield results still hangs over the media coverage of the investment by the FA, Professional Clubs and the government. To answer these critics, Brooking recalls experiences with other nations. “It’s interesting, at a workshop after the European Championships last year we were talking to [Vincente] Del Bosque, the manager of Spain. He was a very humble man who spoke well, and we were talking about the three trophies he’s won, and how it must be great. But he said ‘We’ve taken 30 years to get to this stage, so let’s enjoy it. But if you’d asked us 10 or 20 years ago, we hadn’t won anything for a long, long time.'”
“Then Joachim Loew was interviewed, the manager of Germany and the interviewer said you must be really disappointed that in the last four tournaments you have got to the last four but haven’t managed to win anything. But he said, ‘No, it is not frustrating. Because 10 years ago we were almost in despair, we were not playing well, we were not performing in tournaments. In the attacking third we were almost running out of quality creative attacking players. We have to do something. So 10 years ago, last summer, we invested €50m. Government, the Bundesliga, and the Federation shared the funding to produce a youth development programme to identify youngsters earlier, invest in them, and we are just starting to get the benefits of that. As I sit here and you look at the Bundesliga, we have a lot of 18, 19, 20 year old young German players coming in, playing regular first team football. So to be honest, I’m confident we’ll win something in the next decade.’ He was very positive.” The patience of Brooking to reap long term gains is a refreshing, unusual perspective for an Englishman. “I was sitting there with Roy Hodgson and I said that’s probably where we are now, 10 years away from success.”
In particular, Brooking is keen to allow players to mature before entering the high-pressured arena of international football. He provides a frank analysis of England’s current squad. “We are hoping in the next five years you will see a little bit of improvement in the depth of the talent coming through. At present we sit here with Alex Chamberlain, Danny Welbeck, Jack Wilshere. Those sort of players would probably find it harder in Spain, because there’s not the openings in the senior squad. They play in their actual age groups and come through later. We are at a stage at the moment where we have to fast track those with a little bit of exceptional talent because they can force their way in. What we want to do in the next few years is to have an Under 21s group who are made up of Under 21s, and have to fight their way to get into the seniors. We haven’t got the depth that we should have for a 55 million person population.”
Brooking’s own experiences have undoubtedly shaped the philosophy he has introduced to the FA. “When I was a youngster with Ron Greenwood [then manager] at West Ham, that’s when I understood about the impact of a coach. A coach can have a massive effect on you, good and bad. He said two or three things that just stayed with me throughout my career and I took away and practised.”
“One, he used to work on us receiving the ball sideways on. What I hate to see is when someone is trying to dislocate their kneecap by playing with their wrong foot. Against the better teams you get found. The other thing he always said to me was to have pictures in your mind. If he snapped his fingers and got you to shut your eyes, we were expected to be able to tell him where everyone was within 30 yards of you. If you watch Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard they’re really good at this, always turning their head. When I was 3 or 4, my dad told me it is useful to kick with both feet. I used to have a little terrace house with two drainpipes and I used to knock it between there with my weaker left foot. Little things like that helped my progression massively. When you started playing games it came instinctively, and no one could close or shut you down.”
However, Brooking genuinely believes that the distractions are much greater in the modern day. “It’s knowing what you need to do but then having the enthusiasm to go away and get better. I didn’t think I was going to be a professional footballer, but I just loved football and wanted to be as good as I could so I practised. But in my day we had black and white BBC One and that was about it, we didn’t have 50 channels and computer games and everything to distract us. Today you’ve got to make football fun and enjoyable otherwise they won’t do it and they will just relive it in the computer game.”
An important point usually raised in the discussion of youth development is the need for genuine footballing role models. Brooking has a rare sympathy for the current crop of players. “I grew up in an era when there were a lot of great role models and a lot of bad ones, but you never had quite the media coverage that you do now. Footballers now have to understand they have the celebrity status that we didn’t in our era. A film star or a pop star was probably under a bigger spotlight than a footballer. But now with the money involved in football, they have become almost the equivalent of the headline-makers of anyone. They’ve got to understand that, and the money they earn makes them a target.” Extra interview and media training in academies under the EPPP (Elite Player Performance Plan) is designed to help this.
An even bigger issue in many peoples’ minds is that the Premier League seems to be falling behind the standard of other top leagues in Europe. Brooking sees otherwise: “It’s got some fantastic benefits and some big challenges. I think it is the most exciting league. Germany and Spain are really technically fantastic leagues, and you can debate that how you like, but I think the pace of the game and the crowds and the drama is special. Especially in the last couple of years, you couldn’t have written the script of the Man City winner against QPR, you’ll never get anything better than that.”
Finally, one fundamental accomplishment is hoped to be achieved as the culmination of this hard work. “As we sit here, it’s pretty difficult if close to impossible to win international tournaments or get in the final on a regular basis if you’ve only got 30% English players playing in your starting line ups every week. We’ve got to, like Spain, get over 70% in starting line ups in the Premier League. I’m not for imposing quotas, it’s up to us to raise the bar.” With this no excuses attitude, maybe within a decade England will be able to return to the very pinnacle of world football.
