*Clapping hands emoji*
Graham Barrett is a man speaking a hell of a lot of sense.
The former Republic of Ireland international has hit out magnificently at the “huge issues at grassroots/underage level in Irish football.”
Once a teenager with Arsenal, Barrett believes that the country is in a state of steady decline and that the structures for young footballers in Ireland are not there to develop kids into top class players.
Barrett wrote in the Irish Times an essential mission statement (hat-tip to Jerry Maguire) on the problems that are not being addressed.
“It’s imperative that we open our eyes and recognise that we have drastically fallen behind our rivals,” he said.
“Our structures are outdated and they have been failing us for a long time, yet we still dance around the subject and pretend that we are doing something, when the reality is that we are not doing nearly enough.”
Barrett was a product of some of the underage teams coached by Brian Kerr and Noel O’Reilly back in the late 90s and early 2000s and he believes that Ireland have drifted too far from what was one of the best set-ups in Europe.
“Our problems are down to the fact that we have stagnated while the football world around us moved on,” the former Shamrock Rovers striker wrote.
“We have stood back and watched as other countries professionalised themselves in how they developed players from an earlier age and invested in new facilities.
“As measures were implemented elsewhere to increase the numbers of properly qualified coaches, we did next to nothing and now it has come back to haunt us.
“All over Europe, aspiring young footballers aged 8-12 train between 8 and 12 hours a week while players aged 12-16 can practice as much as 12-15 hours per week at fantastic training facilities.
“At 16, the best players then enter a full-time football environment at professional clubs.
“Here at home, our kids get an hour on a Tuesday and Thursday, more often than not on very poor surfaces that might be more fit for a local gang’s piss up than a technical football session.”
Barrett dismisses the examples of the Keanes and Duffers, the Giles and Bradys of this country because it is a different era. Back then, they were playing football on the street from dusk ’til dawn. Now, there are more distractions. The social environment has changed but football training hasn’t changed to meet that.
Barrett doesn’t want Ireland to lose its identity either. It shouldn’t be changing culture or copying other cultures, it should be adding to its own. And, whilst the Dubliner doesn’t believe in taking competitiveness out of youth sport or devaluing winning, he believes that other values need to be taught first and foremost to the kids.
“The plans put in place so far are just not good enough. For example, the Emerging Talent programmes set up by the FAI to provide extra coaching for our elite football players aged 11 and up do not provide enough training time.
“Indeed, the drawn out development plan to improve grass roots football in Ireland is only so-so and although some parts are good, overall it fails to scratch the surface in terms of establishing the foundation we now need to put in place before we can kick on.
“Changing the ‘win at all costs’ mentality for children is something that has been fairly well received, but in my opinion, not fairly well explained.
“There is nothing worse than going to watch my 10-year-old son’s team and, more often than not, seeing a raving lunatic of a coach hopping up and down on the opposite sideline shouting and roaring, rather than encouraging imagination and expression from his team.”
And, with less players going across the water at younger ages, Barrett believes that the leagues in Ireland need to urgently improve to help homegrown players grow… at home.
“Seamus Coleman, James McClean, Wes Hoolahan, Shane Long, Kevin Doyle – some of our most prominent senior international football players over the past few years began their senior education in the League of Ireland, rather than leave for England at 16.
“For now, and in the short term, this is the route that most of our children aged 15-16 years of age should look to take and the establishment of a new, improved National League should be the very foundation of how we build our way forward.
“This new league should consist of one division, with no more than 15 teams.
“Clubs from the most dominant football counties should be prioritised to be restructured, and merged with the best and most productive amateur schoolboy clubs of each county.”
Read Graham Barrett’s full piece in the Irish Times. You won’t regret it.
