EPL harming young English talent
English clubs spent more than £800m during the summer and there is increasing concern that young, home-grown players are not getting chances in the Premier League.
|||Germany’s World Cup-winning coach Joachim Low claims the wealth of the Barclays Premier League is ruining the chance for young English players to succeed with the national team.
Low believes English clubs are failing to invest in development and has warned that England face years in the international wilderness if their leading clubs continue to spend big on overseas imports.
Kevin De Bruyne left the Bundesliga for Manchester City this week in a deal worth £52million and Bastian Schweinsteiger was sold by Bayern Munich to Manchester United for £14m.
Low, who guided Germany to World Cup glory in Brazil last summer, said: ‘Premier League clubs are now paying three times what they used to. The good thing is that money is now being ploughed back into the Bundesliga. That helps make the German national team stronger because in the last few years £100m has been put back into youth development. If used sensibly and done the right way, then that will work wonders for German football.
‘That money has been used to make the standard of young players better. It makes sense to raise your own young players and give them an opportunity.
‘The English will have to face up to the fact that their young players don’t get the minutes for their clubs. That is why the English national team haven’t set the world alight in major championships, have they?’
English clubs spent more than £800m during the summer and there is increasing concern that young, home-grown players are not getting chances in the Premier League.
The England head coach Roy Hodgson has a dwindling talent pool because of a preference in the Premier League to sign overseas players, but the FA are trying to change the culture of English football.
FA chairman Greg Dyke wants to increase the number of home-grown players from eight to 12, but this has been rejected by Premier League clubs.
One talent who flourished in the Premier League last season is Harry Kane, and the Tottenham forward is convinced that he will soon return to goal-scoring form.
The England striker, who is preparing for the Euro 2016 qualifier against San Marino tomorrow, has not scored since the final day of the Premier League campaign.
Kane, who scored 21 times in the league last season, insists he can handle the increased scrutiny after seven games — four for Tottenham and three at the Under 21 European Championship in the summer — without a goal. He said: ‘I came on the scene so unexpectedly last year people were always going to wonder, “Can he do it again?”
‘But it isn’t, “Can he score 10 goals in his first four games of the season?” We will see at the end of the season how it is.
‘Even if I don’t score as many goals as last year I am playing week in, week out and hopefully I can keep doing that and do my best for the team. That is all I am focused on, what I need to do to help the team out, and we will see what happens.
‘I am confident. The chance against Everton last weekend was the first real chance I’ve had all season when I would say I probably should have scored. I know that. I should have scored that.
‘But as a striker you are going to get chances that you miss but it is about how you cope with that.
‘Some strikers go down a bad path and lose their confidence, but I am fairly self-confident and I have a lot of self-belief.
‘If I get chances in games I know I am going to score, so I am not too worried about that.’
*£164m – The amount spent on Bundesliga players by Premier League clubs this summer. In the last two transfer windows combined it was just £10.8m. – Daily Mail