What the Premier League can learn from Germany and Spain
The Premier League is the most popular league in the world, and has been sold on paper and the most entertaining show on earth, however, due to the high demand and large audience for the Premier League, clubs are continuously expected to sign big stars and immediately get good results. While big signings can definitely increase the number of fans, a club has and lead to better results, such signings can also hinder the possibility for academy players to break into the first team.
What’s the issue?
The issue with the current way football clubs operate in England is the fact that there’s no proper league or place to go for players to gain experience. Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola has spoken in favour of Premier League “B” teams, stating that there’s a “real problem” because the academy set-up fails to adequately prepare aspiring young players for the pressures of the Premier League. At the moment, the best solution is for players to be continuously loaned out to Championship or Premier League sides, and because of that, many players fail to get the experience of playing top quality football at other clubs.
Germany’s success story: Invest in youth
Euro 2000: Finished bottom of their group. Euro 2004: Finished 3rd in their group. Despite the fact that Germany made it to the final of the World Cup in 2002, things didn’t seem right. Whether it was having a lack of youth in the national team or losing 5–1 to one of your biggest rivals, change was needed. Soon, representatives from all Bundesliga clubs alongside members of the German football federation had a meeting to discuss the future of football in Germany. They eventually came to a conclusion: invest in youth.
From 2004 onwards, most of the money Bundesliga clubs received was going into youth (Nachwuchsleistungszentrum), in the hope of developing a strong national team. While one of the primary advantages of this move is that they’ll be fantastic youth players coming up the ranks, Bundesliga clubs wouldn’t have to spend too much on individual players. As Lars Ricken has said, “Here we don’t buy stars, we make stars.”The 2006 World Cup was the first footballing event that we start seeing this program in motion as we see young players like Lukas Podolski and Philipp Lahm flourish on the global stage. Germany made to the semi-finals, but this was just the beginning. Fast forward 8 years later, and Germany are world cup champions, a team filled with a great mix of young but experienced players. And what was the reason for Germany’s success? Because they invested in youth, gave these young players game time, and were patient with them so they could flourish.
Spain’s success story: Youth + B Teams
In the past decade, Spain has won 2 European Championships and a World Cup, an achievement no other team has managed to do before. Apart from having world class players such as Xavi and David Villa in their prime, Spain had a mix of young players too, such as Andres Iniesta, Sergio Ramos, and others. Furthermore, one of the primary reasons that several young Spanish players were called up and Spain experienced success was because of the fact that most La Liga sides have “B” teams. Players such as Juan Mata was in the Real Madrid B team before making his break at Valencia, and playing in the B team is a great way for players to gain some experience before being called up to the senior team. The success of Spain’s B Team program has been seen on the pitch, and it’s definitely something that the English can learn from the Spanish.
Solution
Former FA chairman, Greg Dykes has already spoken about implementing Premier League B teams, however there’s been little work on implementing the program. In the short term, the most feasible solution for Premier League clubs would be to spend less on players and invest more into the youth academy, as that’ll give young players more game time. By doing so, Premier League would essentially be setting up a “talent factory chain” for the national team the same way Bundesliga clubs have. In the long term, Premier League “B” teams would be a more ideal situation. These “B” teams would give players more playing time and experience before they move into the first team.
The transfer market will still experience continuous inflation, and the game will continue growing, as more and more people are interested in the game. However, what’s most important as more and more money flow into the game is that clubs should still invest into the youth academy and provide as many opportunities as possible for young players. If little change is made in the upcoming years and Premier League continue their spending sprees than the idea of a youth academy would be useless. The FA and the Premier League need to act soon and if they don’t, they’ll be consequences.
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