Courtesy: The FA.com


Time to focus

By Graeme Dell

Tuesday, 11 September 2007

Hi again, it’s international week once more and there has been plenty going on as our next major Futsal test will be the World Cup Qualifiers in February next year. However we’ve already started preparing for the challenges that will bring, with an almost new group of players.

The past fortnight has been very focused for me, getting a squad together for our trip to Turkey at the end of the month. We play in a four-nations tournament in Izmir against the hosts Turkey as well as Azerbaijan and Holland which will be a good introduction for many of the new lads. I will only have five players who have been capped before whilst all of our opponents play in regular high level Futsal leagues, the bit we’re still lacking here in England.

The majority of the squad therefore will all be new to international Futsal but that’s the concept of F30, the group has to be evolutionary. It might be a step backwards for us with so many fresh players but that’s what happens when you keep moving a group forwards. However, from what I’ve seen so far, this group is better than what we’ve had but we still have a long way to go and will need time to settle in – we will know in a few weeks time!

The Futsal group is one of the hardest England groups to look after because not only are you dealing with semi-professional players but you also have the added issue of their full-time employers to deal with, and ensuring that you can get them released. Then there is the issue of giving up ‘home’ time as they also have full-time work or educational commitments and there has to be a balance, so it’s very demanding upon them in comparison to the full-time professional players in other squads but means I have a myriad of off-court issues to look at.

A lot of our 23 England teams are out this month and getting kit requisitions, travel arrangements, itineraries and staff sorted out is a mammoth task. This time around it’s had to be done well in advance of our travel date because of the number of teams but I have a good support team and we all pull together to make sure it happens.

I was at Wycombe last Friday to watch the new group of U17s play Turkey and I was eager to see what this next crop have to offer. As some drop away, they may be of interest to me for Futsal in the years ahead so doing the research now and following them is important in my role. These lads, along with John Peacock’s group that were in Korea last month are the generation which will be the most exciting for an England Head Coach to work with in eight years time.

There is much excitement about these two groups and many of the national coaches were there too. Ray Clemence, Stuart Pearce and Steve Wigley were also watching and, as ever, Sir Trevor Brooking was casting his eye.

We can’t get too hung up on what we see at home week in, week out and how good we think they are. We have to make sure that we look outside of England to ensure we see how we are progressing relative to the rest of the world and without that you can have misaligned expectation.

I travel a lot and see a lot of both international football and Futsal. I have a view that it’s a case of life being that much harder for some continental players and football, in whatever form, offers a way out. But they have to work exceptionally hard to be the best in their country when every young lad wants the same. Avoiding the non-football distractions is key. The lives of these young players is little else than playing and training. Their work ethic, dedication and focus are exemplary and our players must learn from that if they want to be the best in the world.

Looking forward, we have another F30 session at Lilleshall in October after we get back from Turkey and planning is almost finalised. It’s the right time now to be introducing the game to the professional clubs and I’m inviting 20 Youth Team coaches and Academy Directors to come in and visit us. They are focused invitations, as I want to step it up a level now. There will undoubtedly be players in that next level up who might be suited to Futsal when their football careers finish and now is when we have to get hold of them and introduce the game as part of the player development angle.

These players have the better technical competences and should be able to learn the game quickly, which is what I need to move forward. Unless we make the in-roads now, we will continually be chasing the clock in player development terms.

Much has been said in recent weeks about the foreign player invasion and I share the views that we have to do something to curtail it. I mentioned in this column several weeks back that Futsal faces the same issues with many foreign players involved in our National Finals, 45 per cent this year.

As the senior women start their World Cup campaign in China this week, I sent a message of good luck to Hope Powell and her team over the weekend, which I am reliably informed, is now posted on their HQ corridor wall.

The girls have a tough challenge ahead of them in the coming weeks but they will have been well equipped with Hope’s thoroughness. I was once taught that the meaning of success is ‘preparedness meeting opportunity’ so it’s now down to them to take their opportunities as they arrive and I wish them all well with what lies ahead.

A World Cup at whatever level is an exciting environment to be part of and the experience will be so much better for all of them if they can play at the top of their game. Like all of the national coaches, we’re England fans too, at whatever level. So I, like many, will be fixed to BBC2 over the coming weeks to see if they can achieve.

C’mon England! Enjoy the games.

Graeme



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com