18-08-2016, 14:50
(This post was last modified: 18-08-2016, 15:26 by SaltergateBorn.)
I give you this, on which to ponder and discuss.
[i]The World Cup - and After
WHY ARE ENGLAND SO FAR DOWN THE COURSE
Why are England `down the course` in world football? All doubts have been removed by the ........exposure of our inferiority in the World Cup tests I watched during June-July....
We have allowed foreign footballers to overtake us in craft and ball-play because we have failed to work at the game, to practice with the ball, and to develop equal physical fitness.
Complete ball control developed in youth is the first essential to real stardom. It is so much developed in youth by [other countries] that when the players first enter first-class football the clubs pay equal, if not more, attention to augmenting physical fitness by physical training on an intense disciplined system, including exercises specifically intended to assist football leaps, twists and turns and suppleness.
Britain has fallen behind because its league games are so important that clubs are scared of experimenting in tactics in case they lose points.
How many players in our league teams can use both feet? Not more than 1 or 2 in our [top flight] and the proportion is lower in the [lower leagues], whereas every full-time professional player should be proficient with both feet.
We shall not get far along the road to recovery until a) the league is divided into 6 sections to provide a shorter programme b) the relegation nightmare is reduced in intensity so that football is less frenzied and c) such reorganisation leaves a month of the season clear for assembly of the England team to fulfil international matches....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is all eminently sensible stuff and represents very modern thinking, don`t you think?
Sadly, that is not the case. The above represents an abridged but totally verbatim set of quotes from an editorial to the 1954/55 edition of the Sunday Chronicle Football Annual written by one Ivan Sharpe (1888-1969), a long-time journalist who became President of the Football Writers Association. The World Cup he was talking about was the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland; it seems that, 60+ years ago, our extraordinary and never-to-be-repeated (?) non-performance at the event was followed by great soul-searching and desperate ideas to solve the perceived problems inherent in our game. It`s good to know that these were all acted upon and that we don`t have to suffer like that any more, eh?
(Sorry, Dev, but that`s your fault! You were the one who forced me to go up in the loft and start reading the things again.)
[i]The World Cup - and After
WHY ARE ENGLAND SO FAR DOWN THE COURSE
Why are England `down the course` in world football? All doubts have been removed by the ........exposure of our inferiority in the World Cup tests I watched during June-July....
We have allowed foreign footballers to overtake us in craft and ball-play because we have failed to work at the game, to practice with the ball, and to develop equal physical fitness.
Complete ball control developed in youth is the first essential to real stardom. It is so much developed in youth by [other countries] that when the players first enter first-class football the clubs pay equal, if not more, attention to augmenting physical fitness by physical training on an intense disciplined system, including exercises specifically intended to assist football leaps, twists and turns and suppleness.
Britain has fallen behind because its league games are so important that clubs are scared of experimenting in tactics in case they lose points.
How many players in our league teams can use both feet? Not more than 1 or 2 in our [top flight] and the proportion is lower in the [lower leagues], whereas every full-time professional player should be proficient with both feet.
We shall not get far along the road to recovery until a) the league is divided into 6 sections to provide a shorter programme b) the relegation nightmare is reduced in intensity so that football is less frenzied and c) such reorganisation leaves a month of the season clear for assembly of the England team to fulfil international matches....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is all eminently sensible stuff and represents very modern thinking, don`t you think?
Sadly, that is not the case. The above represents an abridged but totally verbatim set of quotes from an editorial to the 1954/55 edition of the Sunday Chronicle Football Annual written by one Ivan Sharpe (1888-1969), a long-time journalist who became President of the Football Writers Association. The World Cup he was talking about was the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland; it seems that, 60+ years ago, our extraordinary and never-to-be-repeated (?) non-performance at the event was followed by great soul-searching and desperate ideas to solve the perceived problems inherent in our game. It`s good to know that these were all acted upon and that we don`t have to suffer like that any more, eh?
(Sorry, Dev, but that`s your fault! You were the one who forced me to go up in the loft and start reading the things again.)