Coventry City manager Steven Pressley feels that clubs should look to their young players.
Coming in a week where Greg Dyke lashed the Premier League for a league of clubs run by foreign owners, managed by foreign managers and comprising of foreign players, the City boss feels that the answer is closer to home and told the Coventry Telegraph's Alan Poole: “One of the biggest problems with English football – British football as a whole – is that clubs don’t trust their young players enough,” he said. “They don’t realise they’re as good as they are.
“They look at other teams playing young players and think that they’re better than the players who are under their own noses. But a lot of the time it’s just that these young players in other countries have had the opportunity to play football.
“For many of the young lads in England just now, I don’t think they’re getting that opportunity, and that could certainly affect the English team moving forward.
“If you look through history, the vast majority of top players are in the first team by the time they’re 17 or 18. Now in England I think the average age is 21 or 22 and that’s too late.
“Our club has speeded up that process, and it’s got nothing to do with financial considerations. I did that at my last club because I believe in it and I always intended to go through that process when I came here.
“We produce really good players in this country so we need to trust them more and play them much earlier.
“It’s funny because I was watching a piece about Alan Hansen retiring as a pundit and, of course, they showed that famous quote of his ‘you can’t win anything with kids.
“Well, the best manager we’ve had in this country, Sir Alex Ferguson, proved that you can and clubs throughout Europe prove it as well.”
More on this: http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/football-news/sky-blue-way-work-england-5848263