As England prepare to play two more World Cup qualifiers against San Marino and Poland in the coming week, former Arsenal and France legend Patrick Vieira has argued that young English players no longer dream of playing for their country, according to the Daily Mail.
Vieira has argued that he is often staggered by the number of 16 to 21 year olds who pull out of the England junior and senior sides due to minor injuries and then appear for their clubs the following weekend. He says that as a youngster he couldn’t get enough of playing for France and although he loved Arsenal, France was always his priority.
So is there any substance in what Vieira is saying? This is not the first time someone in the game has remarked about the lack of ambition shown by young English players to play for their country. In February 2011, Phil Neville branded some of the England under-21’s ‘disgraceful’ following 12 withdrawals in a friendly against Italy under-21. To this extent I believe both Vieira and Neville have a point. I think there has become a culture within the English game where players are too easily withdrawing from England squads so that they’re match fit for their club. This simply shouldn’t happen. Call me old-fashioned, but whether it’s a friendly against Georgia or a qualifier against Armenia, surely the pinnacle for your country?
I believe that the ongoing problem regarding international withdrawals in the under-21 game has come as a result of emulating the senior squads. This doesn’t always apply to all players who have picked up genuine injuries whilst training with England. However, in conducting my own research on this, I looked at the last five England squads that have been called up dating back to England’s 3-2 defeat to Holland in February and through to their recent qualifiers at Moldova and Ukraine last month. I found that in the past five squads, an England player has pulled out on 14 occasions. Several of these withdrawals have occurred from the younger generation i.e. Kyle Walker (Holland), Tom Cleverley (Holland), Theo Walcott (Italy), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Italy), and Daniel Sturridge (Italy). It just appears convenient to me that the withdrawals by the youngsters have come in friendlies, but should that matter?
I also think there are other possibilities as to why the younger generation are not as keen to play for England. The relationship between the England supporters and the fans has been poor now for as long as I can remember, perhaps to such an extent, that the job of playing for England has become a bit of a poisoned chalice. Whilst the media must take some responsibility for this unfortunate state of affairs, so must the current crop of players. In the past ten years, England has had some of the most disliked personnel representing the country in the history of the game. Often embroiled in scandals, the likes of Ashley Cole, John Terry and Wayne Rooney have made the national team hard to warm to. As a result, youngsters growing up in this era are perhaps keen to shy away from the unprecedented negative media attention that these players attract. The recent mention of a code of conduct exemplifies the point I am trying to make.
By the same token, premature international retirements have also set a bad example for youngsters. This has been happening for the past decade now. From Alan Shearer and Paul Scholes through to Ben Foster and Jamie Carragher, these players have made their statements that they don’t value playing for England as much as they should. As a result, they have diminished the respectability of wearing the England shirt.
I also wonder whether the modern day football is sometimes restricted by the changing dynamics of the game. Such is the intensity and the obsession with the Premier Leauge in recent years that perhaps means the national game has been pushed into the background as a consequence. Every time England are knocked out of a major tournament either Alan Hansen or Gareth Southgate will pop up and say something like ‘If you’re going to have a great national team you need to start sacrificing the quality of the Premier League’. But I don’t think this is particularly an issue. La Liga and Spain are the perfect example of being able to have a great domestic league and a great national team.
I think that more of a problem in the Premier League is the club’s manager’s distain for international football, in other words, the club versus country row. One of the great culprits of this is Arsene Wenger who seems to have a problem with every single player that plays for their country like the national set-up have committed an act of treason for fielding one of his players. I believe that this sort of over protectionism at club level has deterred young players from aspiring for their countires. So, in this sense, an argument may be that it isn’t so much that they don’t want to play for England, but they can’t play for England.
This has been a pretty negative article but I do believe there is light at the end of the tunnel, coincidentally with the opening of England’s new base in Burton, St. George’s Park. I think we now have a centre which will instil a bit more closeness and continuity in the England set-up and hopefully it will make the young players coming through a bit more attracted to playing for their country.
Also I believe it is important not to generalise all young players who do have genuine ambitions of being successful at international level. For example, James Milner is a great example of dedication to the cause at under-21 and international level.
So do you agree with what Patrick Vieira’s view that youngsters don’t love playing for England? Or do you think that they are given a bad press?
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