There is no way that the lower leagues in English football get half the credit they deserve. Often categorised as the bridesmaids to the Barclays Premier League’s bride, the divisions continue to consistently slide under the radar, overshadowed by their counterpart.
And yes, while they might not be the money-making, foreigner-filled corporate machines like their big brother, the lower leagues still have a hell of a lot to offer, particularly to the English national setup.
Take the England 2014 World Cup squad — of the 23 men picked by Roy Hodgson to fly the flag in Brazil, an astonishing 13 were given their first taste of senior football outside the top tier, seven of these coming in the Championship. While a few of the debuts came as a result of loan deals from Premier League teams, nine players in the squad began their careers after coming through the ranks of clubs in the lower leagues. Alas, Chris Smalling was playing non-league football with Maidstone Utd in 2008!
This proves two things:
1. Premier League clubs need to do more to cultivate young English talent. The figures show that not enough sides are willing to take a gamble on an English player with potential, and allow such a player to grow in the top league to give him the best possible chance of playing for his national team. Instead, foreign imports are signed up, undoubtedly ruining the careers of plenty of English youngsters and harming the country’s chances of competing in national tournaments.
Even a club like Manchester United, which has prided itself on its production of English players, only had one of its academy players in the squad; and I’m sure that many of the England fans would have preferred Danny Welbeck to be left out!
Obviously, the money which has been pumped into the league by owners such as Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour has encouraged the influx of foreign players, but it has to be said that many clubs have lost sight of the importance of combining their own succes with support of the country’s team.
2. The lower leagues are, at the moment, the best place for a young English player to begin his career. Since there is such a minimal chance of a fledgling youngster finding regular football at a Premier League club, surely he would be better off settling at, for example, a Championship club, where he is given the chance to improve on the pitch each week, before potentially making the step up?
Take the careers of Adam Lallana and Theo Walcott. While their success is, in part, down to the excellence of Southampton’s academy (which also produced Luke Shaw and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain), it is also owed to the first-team football which they enjoyed in the lower leagues from their teenage years. Without that, would either of them be playing in the Champions League next season? Somehow, I doubt it.
So, while the state of the England team is nothing to brag about, I doubt the country would have even qualified for the World Cup at all without the contribution of clubs in the lower leagues. While this highlights a major problem in the upper echelons of the English game, it also emphasises the brilliance of our ‘lesser’ teams.
What would we do without them?
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