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England's youth development has slumped since tournament success of 2017

England players celebrate with their trophy after defeating Mexico, in the final match of the Under-21 Toulon soccer tournament, in Martigues,
England won the Toulon tournament in 2018 but finished ninth this year Credit: AP

The Toulon tournament went as badly for England this month as the recent run of junior men’s competitions have for the Football Association: three defeats in the group games, and if you thought the Nations League went on too long this was even worse. The team then had a four-day wait to play a ninth-place play-off.

No overnight flight home on Friday after the final group defeat to Chile for Paul Simpson’s men. No quiet shuffle through Luton airport’s VIP fast-track in the early hours. The Toulon tournament requires every team to take part in a post-knockout classification stage which in England’s case was a one-off game against Guatemala for the honour of ninth place. They secured that with a 4-0 win on Tuesday and were finally free to go home before the semi-finals.

England Under-20s teams have won the Toulon tournament for the previous three years under three different managers – Gareth Southgate, Neil Dewsnip and Aidy Boothroyd – so the FA can at least point to a vintage in that regard. This year they were up against older squad profiles, including Japan’s prospective Olympic team although coming last in a group including Portugal and Chile was not what they would have had in mind. The Uefa Pro License group studying with the English FA were there to observe the tournament as part of their coursework, a cohort that includes Frank Lampard, and no doubt there was much to analyse.

Last chance glory saloon for the men: the England Under-21s begin their European championships campaign against France in Cesena in northern Italy on Tuesday, a short, tough tournament in which the nation’s record of winning is frankly dreadful. An England Under-21s team have not won any version of it since 1984, although this time, with the focus on the women’s team in the World Cup in France and rather less scrutiny perhaps it might be different.

Certainly Boothroyd’s Under-21s squad does have some excellent Premier League talent, including Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Phil Foden, James Maddison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin who are among those extending their season until potentially June 30. For the England male junior teams it has been a very poor year indeed in tournament football after the golden summer of 2017 when the FA’s junior sides brought home two world titles (Under-17s, Under-20s) and one European championships (Under-19s).

Gareth Southgate, Manager of England and Aidy Boothroyd,
Gareth Southgate and Aidy Boothroyd discussing things like football at an England training session Credit: GETTY IMAGES

That was a high benchmark and the FA has slumped quite spectacularly off its stool. Denied by the clubs a whole range of players for last summer’s Under-19 European championships – which is also a qualifying tournament for the Under-20s World Cup - the team struggled and as a result will now not defend their Under-20s title in Poland in October. For the Under-17s competing at their Euros in Ireland in May the situation became farcical when one selected player was ineligible to feature.

The FA had originally hoped the Fifa-paperwork for 16-year-old Arsenal midfielder Yunus Musah would come through in time for him to represent England but it turned out that it arrived only on the day that they travelled home. He would have been eligible for the knockout stages if only his team had made it that far. In an era when many young players have options to represent different nations, much of the FA’s talent identification work goes into securing those they want to represent England. In this case, they left it too late.

Tournament success is not the ultimate indicator of successful development, although it is certainly one that is hard to ignore. It has been a better year for the Under-18s who are not an age group who have sanctioned Uefa tournaments. The Under-17s beat Brazil in October but struggled to assemble the same team again come May.

Why has it happened? There have been some major changes at the FA. The talent identification department, based at St George’s Park underwent a restructure in October 2017 and its then head, Richard Allen, left at that time. Earlier that year also saw the departure of the FA’s first head of people and team development, Jonny Zneimer, who had been seconded from the agency Lane4 which worked closely with the FA for the previous two years under technical director Dan Ashworth.

Those changes to staff at St George’s Park had begun almost as soon as that successful summer and autumn of 2017 was over and the improvement in tournament performance culminated with fourth place for the men’s senior team at the World Cup in Russia.  

Since then Ashworth has left to go to Brighton and Hove Albion and has been replaced by Les Reed. It looks likely the Under-17s 2017 World Cup-winning coach Steve Cooper will also be on his way soon, to Swansea City. Both of them represent success stories for the FA’s development teams, proving that successful administrators and coaches in youth development can move on to careers in senior football. It also asks questions about what comes next.

It comes at a time when there has never been more competition to plan the success of national teams years in advance, especially given the huge player resources of major European nations like France, Spain and Germany. For instance, the Liverpool Under-18s captain Paul Glatzel, Merseyside-born to German parents, began by representing England at junior level but has since transitioned to Germany having been keenly pursued by their scouts. Identified early by the FA as one with great potential, these are the kind of players who have to be persuaded and developed.

It may yet be the case that the women’s team at France 2019 deliver the FA the senior tournament success that it has sought in recent years. The Under-21s final in Udine falls one week earlier than the women’s final in Lyon on July 7 and an England team in one or both would represent a good end to the season for the FA, which finds itself a long way from those happier times in 2017.

The Premier League's transfer window puts clubs at a disadvantage

Since Tuesday when the Fifa transfer matching system opened, Premier League clubs could buy players from overseas clubs. The trading window for players within the English game opened almost a month earlier on May 16. As of this Thursday there are officially 57 days left until the window closes in time for the start of the new Premier League season.

For reasons best known to itself, the Football League will close the Championship trading window at 5pm on Aug 8 in line with the Premier League, while Leagues One and Two will continue until Sept 2. Meanwhile the European big leagues, including Spain, Italy, Germany and France will continue to Sept 2, putting the Premier League clubs at a trading disadvantage of their own making in which it inevitably will attempt to do so many of their deals right at the last moment.

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