Brooking calls for more home talent

15 March 2012 20:17

Trevor Brooking insists England need to increase the amount of home-grown talent playing Premier League football for the new national manager to have a greater chance of achieving success.

Brooking, the Football Association's director of football development, is one of the four board members who will choose Fabio Capello's successor. He is reluctant to comment on how that search is developing, but admits the bright talent at Under-16 to Under-19 level needs more top-flight football to flourish on the international stage.

"People say more young home-grown players are now making their mark in the Premier League but unfortunately it is a bit misleading because it is still the 35% figure for starting XI's," said Brooking.

"In the Under-16 to Under-19 bracket, we have got a good group of youngsters coming through with potential, a bit more imagination and creativity, showing a bit more in the attacking third.

"But there is still that frustration that the Under-18 and Under-19s are not playing as much first-team football as we would like. There are a few on loan to Football League clubs but you would want them playing in the top flight.

"If you compare us with Spain, where nearly 80% of the starting XI's in La Liga are Spanish players, you can see the Spanish national coach has twice as many players to choose from. We need to get that 35% figure up to 45%, 55%, and over 60% to give us more of a competitive chance in terms of the depth of choice."

Brooking believes the new senior manager will also benefit from mirroring other leading countries by taking a greater interest at all levels of the game. The National Football Centre will open at Burton this summer and Brooking can see that helping in interacting between all age groups.

He said: "We all understand if you are a senior manager that to a certain extent you are always judged on the results of the senior team. But at times there are quite a few weeks between those games and during that period we have a lot of other development teams playing.

"The National Football Centre will open in the summer and in other bigger countries with such centres, there is an inter-action between coaches, teams and young and senior players.

"It is beneficial to all involved because you all aspire to get to the senior team and if they are all mingling at the National Centre, that will be an additional advantage we have. It is something that person (the new manager) will want to be involved in as much as they can, but again their priority will always be getting those results."

Source: PA