It was the morning after England had been demolished by Germany in the Under-21 Euros final and Sir Trevor Brooking was sifting through the debris in a Malmo hotel.
One obvious problem in the eyes of Brooking, then the FA’s technical director, in conversation with a small number of newspaper reporters, was that we were not turning out players like Mesut Ozil.
There was much more to the Germans than Ozil, it must be said. They had Manuel Neuer in goal, Jerome Boateng and Benedikt Howedes at the back, and Sami Khedira and Mats Hummels in midfield.
Toni Kroos would have been there too, but for injury, and those seven started when Germany won the World Cup final five years later.
Stuart Pearce’s England had held them in the group stage but with his team depleted by suspension in the final they were totally outplayed, and Ozil had been the creative force.
Back in 2009, long before bulking up, inking up and dabbling in far-right Turkish politics, Ozil was just the sort of elusive playmaker adored by Brooking with English football poised to embark upon a new era of development.
Mesut Ozil was Germany’s creative force in their triumph over England in the U-21 Euros final
Ozil was just the sort of elusive playmaker adored by Sir Trevor Brooking (pictured, left)
Cole Palmer has echoes of him but whether we have delivered any Ozils is debatable
England aren’t producing any centre backs or goalkeepers – pictured, Harry Maguire (left) and Jordan Pickford (right)
The Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) was being devised and would give the clubs with gleaming Category One academies the power to cherry-pick young footballers from up and down the country.
Together with the opening of the new FA coaching centre at St George’s Park, this would in theory unite the best players with the best facilities and best coaching.
Whether we have delivered any Ozils – indeed whether you can – is debatable. Cole Palmer certainly has echoes of a young Ozil, slender with a sweet left foot, outrageous vision and array of disguised passes.
But we certainly have an abundance of highly technical forwards. All play through the thirds, to adopt the coaching parlance, accept the ball on the half turn, drift between the lines. Many are attacking midfielders by trade with some converting to full back.
Phil Foden, Mason Mount and Bukayo Saka are classic examples. Rico Lewis and Kobbie Mainoo fit the bill. Another generation is on the way, led by Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri.
At the same time, we are low of variety. Centre halves and centre forwards are scarce. Midfield runners are disappearing. Why don’t we create the specialist defensive midfielders they do in Spain and Portugal? What about goalkeepers?
All positions down the spine of the team, and a perennial head-scratcher for those who remember when English football had a healthy production line of centre halves and goalkeepers.
Some of the exceptions tell the story. Declan Rice, rejected by Chelsea at 16. Jude Bellingham, out of the Championship and five years overseas. Thomas Tuchel’s centre halves against Albania on Friday started out with Charlton and Darlington.
We have an abundance of highly technical forwards with Bukayo Saka a classic example
In terms of No 9s, though, there are few options rather than captain Harry Kane – pictured, Dominic Solanke
Another generation is on the way, led by Myles Lewis-Skelly, who scored against Albania
Fabio Capello believes England are not blessed with a large number of centre halves
‘At centre back, they have not a lot of English players,’ said Fabio Capello, still oozing Italian catenaccio vibes in an interview with Mail Sport. ‘And the keeper is a normal keeper.’
The problem is not new. Training-on talent from 18 to 21 amid the strength of a multi-national Premier League and the demise of competitive reserve team football has been a cause for concern for years.
Opportunities to break in or make an impact from the bench most often come on the flanks of the team where technical excellence can shine.
Managers will be less inclined to tinker down the spine of the team, the central positions where big-money signings dominate. Where maturity is vital. And maturity comes from experience, learning from mistakes.
A shift in recruitment strategies has seen the elite cream off and stockpile more young players, effectively depriving them of competitive game time. Nine subs on the team sheet and homegrown squad quotas feed into this, too.
The architects of EPPP figured the talent would filter back through the pyramid. That smaller clubs losing players at 16 might pick up those discarded by the big clubs a few years on.
Loans have become a vital element of this, but the game is evolving apace post-Covid. Premier League football feels further removed than ever from the lower tiers, with its new-age technology and tactical fashions, and owners pushing into multi-club models.
Do managers fearing for their jobs in Leagues One and Two want defenders and goalkeepers bred to tap it about in their own penalty box? Can young players meet the physical and psychological demands of the EFL after playing neat tidy football on the immaculate pitches of the academy circuit?
How many of those rejected have the appetite to knuckle down and start again? Or are too many of those identified as the cream at 16 going to drift away and be lost to football?
There have been successes and Lewis-Skelly is the latest. We should applaud him but let’s not bask in successes without tackling the problems.
FIVE THINGS I LEARNED THIS WEEK
1. Monaco goal sensation Mika Biereth made his Denmark debut to banish the myth he might fancy converting to England. London-born Biereth was schooled by Fulham and Arsenal before Sturm Graz paid £4million to make a loan from the Emirates Stadium permanent last summer. Six months and 14 goals on, Monaco swooped for £12m and the 22-year-old scored 11 in his first nine league games, making him one of Europe’s hottest strikers.
2. On a similar theme, Belgium-born Konstantinos Karetsas, a product of the Genk academy which turned out Kevin De Bruyne and Thibaut Courtois, sparkled on his debut for Greece from the bench against Scotland at the age of 17. Karetsas is tipped for a big future, already a fixture in Genk’s team and hailed perhaps inevitably as the Greek Messi.
3. Football’s strangest cosmic triangle, connecting Milton Keynes, Crawley and Gateshead, continues to spin its magic. When MK Dons sacked former Gateshead boss Mike Williamson in September they hired Scott Lindsay from Crawley, who hired Rob Elliot from Gateshead. When Crawley sacked Elliot after less than six months they rehired Lindsay, who had already been sacked by MK, who have appointed former Crawley midfielder Ben Gladwin as caretaker boss.
Monaco goal sensation Mika Biereth made his Denmark debut and won’t convert to England
Konstantinos Karetsas, a product of the Genk academy, sparkled on his debut for Greece
4. Bumper attendances galore on Saturday for Non-League Day included a new National League North record of 8,274 at Scunthorpe, who beat Chester 3-1 to remain clear at the top of the table. In the South, Torquay drew 5,202 for a 1-0 win against Bath.
5. 50 years passed on Saturday since Tony Currie’s glorious slalom through the Bramall Lane mud prompted one of John Motson to call the most memorable line, ‘a quality goal by a quality player’ into his Match of the Day microphone. Currie-inspired Sheffield United finished sixth in Division One, only four points behind champions Derby County and still missed out on Europe.
