English football in trouble as Sir Trevor Brooking speaks out

When Sir Trevor Brooking was appointed as the Director of football development at the FA in 2003, many people in England breathed a huge sigh of relief that a real football man was being hired by the men in suits who seem to know little about our game.

Contempt

The likes of Brian Barwick, rightly or wrongly, have been held in contempt by a majority of English football supporters for many years.

It is in the light of those facts that it is deeply depressing to England fans everywhere to hear that Sir Trevor is becoming increasingly frustrated with his role and feels that the FA are failing to provide the support and service that they should.

In an interview with the BBC Brooking was very open and honest and what he said was very worrying for the English game:

“We should have better depth of young English players. We are not maximising our opportunities. I want to have an effect with the 5-11 and 11-16 age groups. That’s where the gulf is with the rest of the world. We’ve been treading water for two-and-a-half years. There is more money in the game than ever before, but I don’t see us, in 10 years time, having capitalised on it. We’ve got some fantastic examples of good work going on. Having said that, there are some clubs that are not so good. What we would want to try to do, as the governing body, is to support them much better, to go out and do in-service stuff and let them know what’s happening in the bigger clubs. That is the sort of service the governing body should provide, but for the last two-and-a-half years there has been a vacuum. We would like to give much better support than we are giving. I think as a governing body at the moment, we are not giving enough.”

The obvious question to ask after listening to that is, what are the FA doing then?

The next question is to ask Sir Trevor why he isn’t doing his job. He actually goes on to give a partial answer to that question in his interview. He says that he is frustrated at his own inability to implement initiatives but claims he has been denied access to key FA meetings.

‘Men in suits’

If that last comment is even partially true then it confirms all of our worst thoughts of shadowy ‘men in suits’ running our game whilst the men and women who actually know and care about the game are excluded from the decision making process.

It seems then that after five years in the job the English Director of Football Development is saying that our football hasn’t developed. He is saying that the vast amounts of money in the game at the moment are not being used appropriately and that professional clubs are not using best practice when coaching their five to sixteen year old youngsters. He says that in terms of developing young players there is a gulf between England and the rest of the world.

Treading water

Sir Trevor says that the FA have been ‘treading water’ for over two years. If this is the case it is a national disgrace and should be investigated immediately. Football is the national sport in England and the FA have a duty to develop the game to a level where we can compete with the best in the world. If that isn’t happening then changes at the top should be made to ensure that it does happen.

Sir Trevor Brooking is a highly respected man in the football world and many people were relieved to see someone like him take up the role he was given. I really hope that his role hasn’t turned out to be one that is more about PR and appearances rather than making a real difference at the grassroots level of the game.

Loyal man

The fact that Sir Trevor has felt the need to express his apparently growing frustration and anger would suggest that may be the case. He is a very loyal man who has never caused any problems wherever he has been throughout his footballing life. He played well over five hundred games as a one-club man for West Ham United and gained a scandalously small forty-seven England caps.

After finishing his playing career he became a TV pundit for a while, the voice of the expert on the computer game Pro Evolution soccer and sat on the board at West Ham. He also had two spells as caretaker manager of the club when they were between managers. He did the job well but never wanted to be a manager on a permanent basis. As a result of that Brooking is known as the “best manager West Ham never had.”

Brian Clough

What I am saying is that Brooking is a fine, honest football man. He played the game with an elegance and flair that we all cry out for today. The great Brian Clough once said that Trevor Brooking floats like a butterfly and stings like one too. To a degree that was a fair description but it seems that he has now developed a sting.

For Sir Trevor to speak in the way he has, things must be pretty serious. This needs to be sorted out now or the very future of the English game could be in danger.