Spain Football

Glenn Hoddle has taken on his first batch of young English footballers who were released by their clubs and are now hoping to take a second chance to launch a career in the game. (and thanks to bbc.co.uk for this article by the way)

Hoddle played under Arsene Wenger at Monaco

"This is about developing players. It is not about academies or reserve team football where we have to win matches to be successful.

"We have played Seville and Real Betis and a lot of our players have said they aspire to play in Europe.

"A lot are quite small, but very technical. We have got three or four very technical players who would suit Spanish, Italian or Dutch football and it's opening their minds towards playing abroad.

"This is a stepping stone for them in a different culture and climate and we are almost setting them up to have that option, they are learning languages and putting things in place.

"They are improving astonishingly and I hope they continue to improve. Slowly but surely we will get some players back into the game."

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"I don't think we work on technique as much as we should do," said Hoddle, who has found his players learning things they should have mastered a decade ago.

"I've seen that as a player. I was naturally gifted, but I worked on it, it doesn't come easy. If you're good at something and you practice more, you get better."

Hoddle, who also cites the English climate as a key factor, argues that English football is still too concerned with finding strong and athletic youngsters, often at the expense of smaller technical players.

These powerful youngsters are then thrust into games, learning to win against those of the same age, yet never learning to master the basic skills of controlling, passing and dribbling.

Millions have been spent on state-of-the-art academies, but Hoddle insists the money needs to be spent on actual coaching rather than bricks and mortar.

My experience of coaching in England is that in many cases the first thought is of how tall and strong players are Glenn Hoddle

"I think it goes down to eight, nine and 10-year-olds. Frankly, I don't think players in England play with their heads up as they do abroad.

"Continental players see a picture quicker than English players and if have that and you have better technique, then you are going to have an advantage.

"At those young ages, where they are like sponges and can take things in, I don't think we coach enough, teaching them to play with your head up so they can do the next thing.

"My experience of coaching in England is that in many cases the first thought is of how tall and strong players are and whether they can get box-to-box.

"If that is the priority, the smaller players with better techniques can get left aside and that's a conundrum we find ourselves with."

The Football Association has tried to address the problem and last year announced that 66 specialist coaches will visit schools and summer clubs to try to improve the technique of five to 11-year-olds.

Launching the scheme, the FA's director of development Sir Trevor Brooking admitted that often the least experienced coaches work with the youngsters, putting English footballers behind from a very early age.

Any FA scheme will take years to produce real results, but Hoddle is looking for a more immediate impact.

By next season, he hopes that players at his academy who were once released by Championship clubs will be earning contracts with top Spanish and Italian clubs.

It is a salutary lesson that a little coaching - even at a late stage in a player's development - can go a long way.