Trevor Brooking urges clubs to give youngsters more first-team chances

Sir Trevor Brooking has called on Premier League clubs to ensure young English players are given a chance at the highest level to boost the national team's chances at the next World Cup. The Football Association's director of football development said he felt progress was being made in the wake of the soul searching that followed England's humiliating exit from the World Cup but said there needed to be a concerted effort to raise the numbers and quality of coaches across all age groups. "The more I look at players under 16, my view is unquestionably that this is the whole game's problem. It's not just the elite or the grassroots," said Brooking, talking at the Professional Players Federation national conference. While he said there were encouraging signs, particularly among the group of under-17 players who won the European Championships, there was more to be done to improve the technical ability of English players. He said that too many players, particularly defenders, were not confident enough on the ball. The FA has employed 106 Tesco Skills Programme coaches to develop grassroots skills but critics claim it has not invested enough in boosting the number of coaches specifically targeted at younger age groups. "What we have got to do is get a new culture and philosophy. No matter who you are or where you are, you've got to start playing it out from the back," said Brooking, who sits on the Club England board. Together with Club England managing director Adrian Bevington, he has been tasked with completing a wide-ranging review of England's youth development issues and comparing them with systems in place in Germany and Spain and elsewhere. Last week, the FA, the Premier League, the League Managers Association and the Professional Footballers' Association met with former players and managers for a think tank on the subject. Brooking also called for an end to the "win at all costs" mentality among Premier League Academy teams. He said too many owners and directors pressured academy coaches to win at the expense of developing skills. "We've got to try and protect coaches from the pressure above them if they are not getting the results," said Brooking. Brooking, who revealed that the FA would bring out a version of the Future Game coaching manual that it released to the elite game prior to the World Cup before Christmas, said the same was true of the game being played up and down the country. "At every stage, you have to ask yourself, 'Are these youngsters getting any better?'" he said. "We have to get away from the dad trying to run it as a Premier League club and the win at all costs mentality." Brooking admitted that England was still not producing enough players of quality but said there was hope. "That's because we had 10 really strong outfield players. There are 14 or 15 in that group who have a real chance. We have fast tracked nine of them into the under-19s," said Brooking. "Eight clubs provided those players. We have got to try and keep them together. The challenge is: where will those 17-year-olds get first-team football? I think there are at least three or four who could go through to the senior England team if they get first-team football." He said a combination of the strength of the euro against the pound, favourable tax rates on the continent and Uefa's new financial fair play rules would increase the likelihood of top clubs blooding young players. New Premier League rules introduced this season require all teams to have eight "homegrown" players in their squad of 25. Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association, also called on Premier League clubs, most of which have invested hugely in their academies since they were overhauled in 1997 by Howard Wilkinson's review, A Charter for Quality, to give youth a chance. "I think it should be at least two or three players in each starting 11. Liverpool used to win the FA Youth Cup but not one of the lads in the best youth team in the country got a chance in the first team. We have a duty in the next generation to give them a chance." Brooking said he agreed but argued that the prize money on offer in the Premier League for each league position meant clubs they were reluctant to experiment with young players. Taylor also pointed to the high level of wastage among the players recruited by Premier League clubs. Of the 600 players who signed professional forms at 16, about 500 would be lost to the game by the age of 21 he said. "If we were a university, we would be closed down," he said.