West Ham United - The Self Proclaimed Academy of Football - has just appointed a new manager in Sam Allardyce who has the reputation of "long ball game" much in contrast to West Ham's football traditions. West Ham's demise is even more surprising when you look at the England Internationals the club has produced in the past 15 years Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Glen Johnson and Jermain Defoe all with 25+ caps. But can they really claim to be the academy of football when Manchester United produced a generation of footballers to represent the 3 Lions with distinction from 1995 for a decade and more.
I was interested in looking into the players that have represented England since the year 2000 and where their debut was made with more than 25 caps. Unsurprisingly the two aforementioned clubs top the list, with West Ham having six internationals (those players mentioned above plus Paul Ince) while Manchester United and Liverpool both had five (The Neville Brothers, Nicky Butt, Beckham and Scholes for United) (Folwer, Owen, Carragher, Gerrard and McManaman for Liverpool).
The fact that these clubs with a tradition of promoting from within have been successful in producing young english players in the past decade is not a surprise but only Wayne Rooney has come out Everton's famed academy. Of course Jack Rodwell could be a multi capped international in the future but this is no certainty of course.
So it appears West Ham are the academy of football but after Manchester United's 2011 Youth Cup win, with Ravel Morrison, Ryan Tunnicliffe and Will Keane starring, beating Chelsea and Liverpool on the way lets see how the land lies in 5 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment