Next generation showing future is bright for Premier League
England were fortunate to avoid defeat against Montenegro, a nation whose population is about the same as Cork and Limerick combined.
Ireland suffered the biggest letdown of the week, even if Spain came close with a 1-1 draw against Finland.
The Champions League action elsewhere over the coming weeks just adds to a sense of depression.
Arsene Wenger is surely right to warn that the rest of Europe has caught up with the Premier League. If anything, it seems an understatement.
European clubs develop better, more technically gifted young players. That used to be the argument anyway. Yet over the past four days, on a bumpy rainsoaked pitch by a lake north of Milan, youngsters from three clubs have been showing that at U19 level, English football is more than just competitive.
The NextGen international tournament is only in its second year but has already proved enough of a success that UEFA is preparing a youth version of the Champions League to run alongside its main competition next season.
Twenty-four sides competed this time, with Arsenal, Chelsea and Aston Villa reaching the semi-finals in Como last weekend. Liverpool and Tottenham also did well. Over the past few months, these sides have defeated youth teams from Ajax, Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona, Juventus and Inter Milan.
Aston Villa’s success is particularly encouraging from Ireland’s point of view. The club has no fewer than 11 youngsters who are eligible to play for Ireland, seven of whom were in the NextGen squad.
Attacking players such as Jack Grealish, Michael Drennan and Graham Burke have impressed. On their way to the final, they twice defeated a side from one of the continent’s most respected football academies, Sporting Clube de Portugal — the club that nurtured talents such as Luis Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani, Simao and Joao Moutinho.
It would be wrong to get carried away. None of the six English sides in the competition shone in the earlier group stages and clubs such as Bayern Munich and Real Madrid did not enter. After the tournament reached the knockout stage, one or two of the continental clubs, including Sporting, were only able to field weakened teams.
Nevertheless the tournament suggests that the eclipse of English clubs in Europe should be temporary — if they can get their younger players to make a successful transition to the first-team squad.
That’s where English clubs have a problem. The next step for Barcelona’s NextGen youngsters is their B team — which plays in Spain’s second division. Dortmund’s young players will also move up to competitive football — Dortmund II are currently in the German third division which was set up four years ago to bridge the gap between the regional leagues and the two Bundesliga divisions.
All there is in England is the newly-formed U21 tournament, which has yet to prove itself — or a loan move to another club. Italian clubs have a similar problem. Last week, Napoli owner Aurelio de Laurentiis proposed reducing Serie A to 16 clubs rather than 20 and letting the youth (primavera) teams compete in the Lega Pro, formerly known as Serie C. It would suit the leading clubs very well, especially those with a good youth set up like Napoli and Roma, but naturally the cash-strapped provincial sides are less keen.
“It would turn us into a pub league” says Mario Macalli, the Lega Pro president. “I’m in favour of discussions with the Serie A clubs but we have our pride, no less than those gentlemen.”
At least the NextGen competition can provide a different level of challenge for young players. The worry is that, by promoting their own competition, UEFA will now restrict that challenge to Champions League qualifiers.
That will deprive young players from good academies like those at Villa and Sporting of the chance to test themselves against the top European sides. It would be in Ireland’s interests, as well as the clubs, to keep Europe’s nascent youth tournament from becoming a Champions League sideshow.
