Eurotrip: Part 1 - Mother England

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England is far and away the most popular destination for Australian players with players arriving at various levels of English football.

The Premiership Could-Have-Beens

There is a plethora of players that who could start in the Premiership but fail to make the grade and then became marooned in lower division football or end up playing in the second-tier leagues around the world. Some of them you might have heard of but the majority are obscure. Some have hard luck stories in relation to injury, a change of manager after their arrival etc. One common dominator runs throughout all the players, all were given a chance by various Premiership clubs, all, for whatever reason, failed to make it. Basically all of these players have also failed to make a significant, if any, impact of the national team.

Some players were given the chance to develop through some of the better recognised and reputable youth academies of England such as Liverpool (Nick Rizzo), West Ham (Richard Garcia, Trent McClenahan and Chris Coyne), Leeds (Shane Sheriff and Jacob Burns), Aston Villa (Kyle Nix) and Arsenal (Neil Kilkenny). Add to this the likes of Andrew McDermott (Bolton), Aaron Downes (QPR) and Con Blatsis (Derby). A few were given their Premiership opportunity during their twenties such as Hayne Foxe and Ahmed Elrich.

The players listed, despite many of them being recognised for their talent by leading clubs during their youth, are spread out predominantly in League One or Two while Elrich and Foxe have returned to the A-League. The likes of McClenahan, Nix and Kilkenny are still young and could yet make an impact at a higher level. However, the trend indicates that these players will be spending the majority of their careers in the lower divisions. Despite the early success that many enjoyed, it is telling that the standout of the above listed players is Richard Garcia who is playing in the Championship with Hull, a team that is in contention for direct promotion.

From my research, in this generation of players, the only player that I found that came through Premiership club’s development system and became a regular for a Premiership side is Harry Kewell. The only player that moved directly from Australia to the Premiership and became a regular is Stan Lazaridis.

The Championship Slipping Stone

There are several players who had one year spells in the Premiership before their clubs yo-yoed back to the Championship (Danny Tiatto, Carl Veart, Richard Johnson and Tony Popovic). The rest such as Gareth Edds, David Seal and Paul Reid only found regular football after they dropped down a division or two. Simon Colosimo moved directly from the NSL to Manchester City when the club was in the Championship and was there for a season. He failed to make any kind of real impression on the first-team. He then failed to make the grade in Belgium with Antwerp before he returned to Australia. Steve Corica has also returned to the A-League although he very much returned in his twilight years after spending the majority of his career in the Championship. None of these players were really able to use the Championship as a spring-board to regular top flight football.

The Championship has been a favourite place for Australian players to move but looking at the general lack of success of Australian players at that level, you have to wonder why this move seems to be a preference. Perhaps this lack of success was why the FFA reacted negatively when Nick Ward, the Rising Star Award winner during the inaugural season, decided to move to English Championship outfit, Queens Park Rangers:

But an FFA spokesman said: “It’s disappointing to see one of our best players leaving the A-League to play in a second-tier competition in England. His decision is against the advice of the national team management.”

Having watched quite a few Championship games during West Ham’s two year stay, I can tell you that the Championship is not a place that is conducive to the technical development of a player and this probably explains why the FFA was disappointed by Ward’s decisions. Very few teams in the Championship play fluent passing football but there are the odd exceptions such as West Brom this season. It is a division where teams value safety above all else and long-balls and field position over short passes and playing out from the back. It is not surprising that the teams play such results orientated football given that they are all pursuing the highest payday in football with promotion being more lucrative than ever due to the new television deal. The wealths brought by promotion actually dwarfs the extra millions which a club gains through Champions League football. Managers are rarely judged by the quality of football their team plays but rather the results they obtain. All these factors contribute to creating an environment that is counter-productive to the technical ability of a player. Sure, they may develop other important attributes such as a strong competitive edge, a high work-rate and a do-or-die attitude. However, these attributes are ones that Australian player generally already have in abundance which is probably why Championship clubs are willing to sign Australians in the first place.

Generally, what they lack when they leave Australian shores is a high level of technical ability, something which the current reforms at youth level are trying to address. However, the affect of these changes will only really be seen in a few generations time. The majority of the current generation have not reached their full technical potential when they decide to move abroad. They should really be trying to move to an environment that will assist them in achieving this goal.

The general conclusion about the Championship is that it generally does not operate as a stepping stone to the top flight. The trend indicates that a player is actually doing quite well if they can maintain their Championship status. Given this, it is worrying that the Championship is currently home to the technically gifted Nick Carle who has the ability to provide a level of creativity and flair that few other Socceroos possess and David Carney who has been sensational for the national team and one of the few left-footed current Socceroos. Next year, current Olyroos Zadkovich and Leijer will be joining them. Leijer looked particularly impressive during the second A-League season and was seen as a potential replacement for Craig Moore. Sterjovski will probably also be there which is disappointing because his experience will be invaluable but his inclusion in the national team may be undermined by his Championship status. Kisnorbo, who was given a chance to replace Moore after at the Asian Cup, will be just hoping to remain in the Championship with his club still in danger of relegation to League One. Leicester also has 20 year old youngster James Wesolowski who is starting to force himself into the first-team and could make an impact on the national team in the future.

The General Trend

I was able to draw out a few general trends:

• Australian players tend to struggle to remain at the level at which they enter English football. The general trend is for players to drop one or two divisions below the division at which they entered or they move to a lower quality league in another country, particularly if their entry level is the Premiership. The one obvious exception is Harry Kewell.
• While dropping back one or two divisions is quite normal under the trend, dropping back more than two divisions is also quite frequent.
• Moving up from where you start is extremely difficult. There are a few famous examples such as Neill and Cahill who both started in League One. However, these examples are rare and very much go against the general trend.
• This downward trend is evident across the age spectrum as it applies to players who move to England as juniors as well as more senior players who are looking to establish or advance their careers.
• After a player has dropped back a few divisions to find regular football, the general trend is that they then remain at that lower division for the majority of their career. There are exceptions. Scott McDonald and Luke Wilkshire both dropped down as far as League Two but have since gone on to forge successful and developing careers in the top flight of other countries as well as the national team. Although Danny Invincible is still to earn national team honours, he has become a regular for Kilmarnock after leaving League One with Swindon.
• The Championship is a poor stepping stone with very few players being able to progress from this level to top leagues.

This trend will continue this year with Leijer, Sterjovski, Kisnorbo, Skoko, Federici, Coyne, Henderson and Wesolowski all in line for potential or certain relegation. There could be a few players potentially breaking the trend in Garcia, Carle and Carney who are all with clubs that are pushing for direct promotion or the play-offs.

Although I have not really listed players who started with clubs outside the Championship and Premiership, my research indicates that there is very little upward movement.

Conclusion

The general trend is concerning for any Australian player contemplating a move to England, whether as a youngster that will go through their youth system or a player looking to advance their career. The downward trend is clear from my research. We should be concerned because Australian players still tend to move to England while there is also currently several youngsters spread through various English clubs such as Troisi of Newcastle, Brent Griffiths of Blackburn and Christopher Herd of Aston Villa to name a few. It could be argued that perhaps the players just did not have the potential or ability to maintain the level of football at which they entered. However, I believe that the English system has inadequacies in relation to youth development while I have also explained both why the style of play can also impact on the technical development of a player.

England is only now facing up to its own inadequacies in relation to youth development after missing out on Euro 2008. It is now recognising that the influx of foreign stars into the Premiership is partly due to the technical deficiencies of English players. There are some serious grass-roots reforms being put in place by the English FA, headed by its Director for Football Development, Trevor Brooking. Most Australian players move to England with room for development in their game. Given this, I think it is appropriate to at least partly point the finger at the English developmental system and coaching deficiencies for the backwards trend experienced by Australian players who move there.

Given this trend, one has to also ask who is responsible for herding players such as Nick Ward, Adrian Leijer and Ruben Zadkovich to England, a country that is struggling with its own developmental system. The role of agents should also be put under the microscope. If the agent is really looking after the best interests of the player, perhaps they should be warding their clients away from England and direct them to countries where there are renowned developmental systems in place.

Note: For those interested in how the research was conducted, I used the impressive database that has been collected by the folks that made Football Manager. I tried to find examples of players who have spent time in either the Championship or the Premiership. I have tried to keep the work unbiased as I really want the evidence to speak for itself. I have not conducted ‘historical’ research by going back several generations of players to determine a trend. Such an exercise would provide a better basis for drawing conclusions but I simply do not have the resources to undertake this. Additionally, such research would probably produce biases as it could be hard to find information on obscure players relative to successful ones. Hence, I have confined my research to the current playing generation of players (which itself ranges from players in their teens to mid thirties) and I hope that this generation is representative of historical data.

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Filed under Australian Football, Olyroos, Socceroos, Youth Football