No excuses: England’s new golden generation must take it upon themselves to thrive

No longer had the triumphant England under-17s arrived on English soil had the nay-sayers set sail on their magical misery tour.

Having staged a stunning comeback to win a World Cup final against Spain in India to cap off a frankly incredible twelve months for English youth football, the excitement over the likes of Phil Foden, Rhian Brewster and Joel Latibeaudiere crumbled to classic English pessimism.

“They’ll never get a chance to play,” they said, “they’ll all end up playing in League One.” And to a point, you can understand that outlook. England football fans have every right to be pessimistic, their footballing dreams having been crushed time and again by footballers not good enough to win things or not brave enough to try.

Some describe this England under-17 side as the ‘new golden generation’ for England, a thinly veiled backhanded compliment alluding to the fact that a side containing Michael Owen, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and a young Wayne Rooney failed to perform on the biggest stages. Talented this cohort may be, they say, this is still England.

It’s time for this tired and negative outlook to change. Whilst apathy levels surrounding the senior men’s national side are at an all-time high, football fans in England should be incredibly excited about its future.

It’s not just this one under-17 team that has enjoyed success, although they are right to own much of the limelight – their World Cup win succeeded a Toulon Tournament victory and a runner-up berth at the European Championships. England under-20s won their World Cup this year, the under-19s won their European Championships and the under-21s made it to a European Championship semis. The golden generation is not one team but exactly that – a generation of genuine world-class talents.

And this hasn’t happened by accident, of course. Between the efforts of the FA and a number of Premier League and Football League clubs, youth football in England has become a place to flourish – indeed, quite possibly the best in the world.

There is no coincidence that the players winning world tournaments are the ones that, in footballing terms, have grown up in the grounds of the world-class St George’s Park facility. The central headquarters of English football has streamlined the focus of the national game into one 350-acre plot, with the best coaches and elite players from all age groups rubbing shoulders with one another on a daily basis.

For the first time in the history of English football, it owns a facility that is leading the way in terms of how young players are nurtured, and five years since its completion, these facilities are bearing fruits.

St George’s Park was more or less the brainchild of former Leeds United manager Howard Wilkinson and former Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier, who together spearheaded an independent review of what facilities were needed in order to allow England to win football tournaments. It is heavily influenced by the Clairefontaine facility in Paris, which produced squads that won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championships at senior level.

But where all is rosy at St George’s Park and where, to a point, the facility has already served much of its purpose, it won’t mean anything unless the senior side are able to compete for major honours, and to that end the FA are partly beholden to the clubs of the Premier League.

In fact, St George’s Park project is quite possibly not the best youth football facility in the country. Manchester City’s Etihad Campus is a sight to behold for anyone lucky enough to have stepped foot through its heavily-guarded doors, and it is little wonder that the likes of City products Foden, Latibeaudiere and Jadon Sancho are among the world’s brightest talents.

The academies of Liverpool, Everton, Manchester United and Chelsea are prolific, also, the latter especially so with no fewer than 15 of their academy players featuring in 2017’s triumphant England youth teams.

But it is Chelsea’s youth policy that perhaps best represents the reason that so many England football fans resigned themselves to pessimism during the gold rush of trophies. Premier League sides don’t seem to hand opportunities to young players, they say, and with the wealth of these clubs skyrocketing, their ability to spend big on players from around the world will only serve to inhibit the progress of these players further.

A few years ago many would have expected the likes of Josh McEachran, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Michael Mancienne to play starring roles at the tournament, but with opportunities limited at Stamford Bridge, promising careers have been allowed to fall to the wayside.

Indeed, the Chelsea youngsters that are in with a chance of making the trip with England, Daniel Sturridge and Ryan Bertrand, took the opportunity to move elsewhere in order to fulfil their potential, but it’s not an issue exclusive to English players.

Much has been made of the fact that Chelsea allowed the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah were shunted out of the club with little opportunity – if players of their undoubted potential are left to stagnate, what chance an Englishman?

But that’s just the point. English football needs to remove itself from the negativity surrounding these issues and drum up a whirlwind of optimism for this generation of world-beaters to thrive in. Blessed with tremendous facilities and growing reputations, the likes of Foden and Brewster now have a name for themselves and will be afforded chances, however small, in the future. It’s up to them to take them.

Many ideas have been bandied about how best to nurture these players, but the fact is that they have to be good enough to play in a top Premier League club, or find themselves a place elsewhere. Brewster and Dominic Solanke took it upon themselves to test the waters away from Chelsea at Liverpool, where Joe Gomez and Welsh starlet Ben Woodburn have been allowed to develop nicely. Tammy Abraham’s loan move to Swansea has so far been a huge success in a way that those of McEachran and Patrick Bamford weren’t.

Jon Flanagan, Kieran Gibbs, Jesse Lingard, Martin Kelly, Jack Wilshere, Tom Cleverley, Carl Jenkinson; these are once-promising English players afforded game time by some of the biggest clubs in England. The fact is that they weren’t good enough to keep their place in the top side. Having experienced the sort of facilities and coaching other nations had boasted in years gone by, the new crop may well be.

The loan market itself is awash with worthwhile opportunities for players brave enough to take their chance. Beckham, Terry, Defoe, Lampard and Ashley Cole are just some of the names who flourished during short-term spells at smaller clubs. More recently, Harry Kane spoke about the benefits of time away from the bosom of his home club.

One road less travelled is abroad. Jadon Sancho’s summer transfer to Borussia Dortmund has positioned him as the brightest young things at one of Europe’s biggest clubs, and he made his Bundesliga debut just weeks ago. Josh McEachran famously turned down Real Madrid to stay with Chelsea, and with Spain having benefitted greatly from the likes of Gerard Pique and Cesc Fabregas having cut their teeth in foreign climes, there is no reason why English football can’t do the same.

Whether the FA can impose rules on Premier League clubs to ensure English players are given more opportunities is a debate for another day, but the fact is that through world-class facilities by both club and country, these youngsters have been given enormous opportunity to thrive. If they are to continue to be winners, it is up to them to make sure they fulfil their potential by whatever means necessary.

This is a hugely exciting time for England football and with a little optimism around the chances of an international stage revival over the next few years, this talented generation of footballers will be able to flourish. From both the press box and the terraces, England have been for too long dogged by negativity. The future is bright, there are opportunities available and those players should be told that.