Post by QPR Report on Jan 30, 2009 7:40:46 GMT
[Of course Matt Derbyshire is one of those players I read elsewhere was set for QPR 
Telegraph/Duncan White
Matt Derbyshire sets an example to all English footballers
It might well be one of the strangest transfers of the window but only because English football is so desperately provincial: Matt Derbyshire's sixth-month loan move to Olympiacos is an example to any young English football who is serious about their profession. Here is a 22-year-old leaving the town he was born and raised in to go to a country whose language and culture are unfamiliar to him. He has one-year-old twins and all the demands that being a young father entails. Yet still he has had the courage to make what must be a pretty frightening step.
By not going abroad English footballers are hurting themselves. The European game is a free market. Crossing borders is not a problem. Foreign players take advantage constantly, many coming to England to earn their living. But it is all one-way traffic. When a foreign player arrives in England, an opportunity opens up at his old club. But English players would rather slide down the domestic hierarchy than risk an adventure abroad. With the weakness of the pound the finances are no longer an excuse to hide behind.
I spoke to Huw Jennings about this very subject before Christmas. Jennings was the Premier League's head of youth development and has since become Fulham's academy director. There are few people who know more about developing football players. Anyway, Jennings has long advocated British players moving abroad to improve their game. English players are a match for anyone at youth level, but their development becomes stunted on the bridge between teens and twenties.
"It is not easy to get into a Premier League first team and some players will have to think about a different way of doing things in the future," Jennings said. "The Championship is far from an ideal place to develop as a player so it might be good for 18, 19, 20 year old British players to think about moving abroad. We need to break out of our insularity."
Fabio Capello famously complained about having only 35 per cent of the Premier League from which to select his England squad. There are 334 scholars (16-18) currently registered in Premier League Academies and 80 per cent are British. Even subtracting the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish, that would still come to a much higher percentage of English players than are in the Premier League. It's quite simple: Premier League clubs buy established foreign players, leaving fewer slots for academy graduates, most of whom are British.
The usual route for this kind of player would be to go on loan to the Championship. Derbyshire is behind three foreign players at Blackburn: Roque Santa Cruz of Paraguay, Benni McCarthy of South Africa and Jason Roberts of Grenada. Pavel Pogrebnyak of Russia is apparently on his way. So what does he do? Go to a middling Championship club on loan? Perhaps one in the North-West so he doesn't have to leave his home? He's already played at Wrexham and Plymouth. He's 22 and an England Under 21 international. He does not need mere game-time at an inferior level, he needs to improve.
By taking the courageous decision he is going to an iconic European club 11 points clear at the top of its domestic league and which is still in the Uefa Cup. Greek football might not be as competitive as the Premier League but at Olympiacos Derbyshire will be under pressure to win every week, to break down stubborn, defensive opponents, to cope with huge pressure from the fans. He will be playing with internationals from Argentina and Brazil, not to mention some of the very best Greek footballers around. He will have to learn what it takes to be a winner. And when the day comes that he is brought into the England, that experience will be invaluable. It's just a shame so few have the vision or will to follow him.
blogs.telegraph.co.uk/duncanwhite/blog/2009/01/29/matt_derbyshire_sets_an_example_to_all_english_footballers
Telegraph/Duncan White
Matt Derbyshire sets an example to all English footballers
It might well be one of the strangest transfers of the window but only because English football is so desperately provincial: Matt Derbyshire's sixth-month loan move to Olympiacos is an example to any young English football who is serious about their profession. Here is a 22-year-old leaving the town he was born and raised in to go to a country whose language and culture are unfamiliar to him. He has one-year-old twins and all the demands that being a young father entails. Yet still he has had the courage to make what must be a pretty frightening step.
By not going abroad English footballers are hurting themselves. The European game is a free market. Crossing borders is not a problem. Foreign players take advantage constantly, many coming to England to earn their living. But it is all one-way traffic. When a foreign player arrives in England, an opportunity opens up at his old club. But English players would rather slide down the domestic hierarchy than risk an adventure abroad. With the weakness of the pound the finances are no longer an excuse to hide behind.
I spoke to Huw Jennings about this very subject before Christmas. Jennings was the Premier League's head of youth development and has since become Fulham's academy director. There are few people who know more about developing football players. Anyway, Jennings has long advocated British players moving abroad to improve their game. English players are a match for anyone at youth level, but their development becomes stunted on the bridge between teens and twenties.
"It is not easy to get into a Premier League first team and some players will have to think about a different way of doing things in the future," Jennings said. "The Championship is far from an ideal place to develop as a player so it might be good for 18, 19, 20 year old British players to think about moving abroad. We need to break out of our insularity."
Fabio Capello famously complained about having only 35 per cent of the Premier League from which to select his England squad. There are 334 scholars (16-18) currently registered in Premier League Academies and 80 per cent are British. Even subtracting the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish, that would still come to a much higher percentage of English players than are in the Premier League. It's quite simple: Premier League clubs buy established foreign players, leaving fewer slots for academy graduates, most of whom are British.
The usual route for this kind of player would be to go on loan to the Championship. Derbyshire is behind three foreign players at Blackburn: Roque Santa Cruz of Paraguay, Benni McCarthy of South Africa and Jason Roberts of Grenada. Pavel Pogrebnyak of Russia is apparently on his way. So what does he do? Go to a middling Championship club on loan? Perhaps one in the North-West so he doesn't have to leave his home? He's already played at Wrexham and Plymouth. He's 22 and an England Under 21 international. He does not need mere game-time at an inferior level, he needs to improve.
By taking the courageous decision he is going to an iconic European club 11 points clear at the top of its domestic league and which is still in the Uefa Cup. Greek football might not be as competitive as the Premier League but at Olympiacos Derbyshire will be under pressure to win every week, to break down stubborn, defensive opponents, to cope with huge pressure from the fans. He will be playing with internationals from Argentina and Brazil, not to mention some of the very best Greek footballers around. He will have to learn what it takes to be a winner. And when the day comes that he is brought into the England, that experience will be invaluable. It's just a shame so few have the vision or will to follow him.
blogs.telegraph.co.uk/duncanwhite/blog/2009/01/29/matt_derbyshire_sets_an_example_to_all_english_footballers