“We think we are making them men but actually we are creating babies.”
What kind of academy system are they running in England?
Just about every former English player has piped up on the current crop’s humiliating Euro 2016 exit to Iceland. While the reactions have veered from over the top to measured, we were keen to learn what Jamie Carragher made of the whole situation.
We didn’t have to wait long. The former Liverpool and England defender has torn into what he calls the ‘Academy Generation’.
In his latest Daily Mail column, Carragher takes aim at many of the current England players, who he feels are kept sheltered from home truths and pampered far too much.
Carragher laments the fact that players as young as 12 and 13 are having ‘money thrown at them’ and caustically remarks that most wouldn’t have a clue about booking a holiday or a dentist’s appointment.
He feels that this generation of players, and the ones coming next, have everything handed to them but know nothing about fighting and scrapping when the time comes.
“Mentality and character is perhaps the biggest thing in football. Does this generation love the game? I’m not sure. I’ve been to three tournaments with England. I heard players say they were bored when they were holed up at camp and had nothing to do.
“Bored? There could be as many as three games on TV a day to watch. I wouldn’t miss one. I’d want to study future opponents or look at emerging talents but, more often than not, there would only be another two or three people watching with me. I can imagine that scene remains the same.
“They lock themselves up in their own bubbles and then, when things go wrong, they retreat back into them to be told it wasn’t their fault. That is the Academy Generation. The generation that became too soft.”
Carragher believes England fell down in an area tagged by former England rugby coach Clive Woodward as TCUP – Thinking clearly under pressure.
The players, he feel, lacked TCUP when they conceded a late goal to Russia, conceding the equalising goal to Iceland and failing to get back in the knock-out game for the remaining 72 minutes.
As for Tottenham fullback Kyle Walker, well, he does not come out of the article well after letting Ragnar Sigurdsson escape him for the equaliser.
