Why we need La Cantera

Easter weekend had been watching two local youth teams battling it out  on the outskirts of a very typical English provincial town. I have deliberately resisted naming the teams or the town as I would not want their reputations  unfairly tarnished.

Suffice it to say that I was shocked by the poor quality of football played compared  to similar level games I have seen played in villages and towns across Spain, and I blame this on poor coaching and facilities rather than the lack of any potential talent- although it was hard to spot any budding genius.

Both teams had tall lumbering players  in defence,  kicking long balls. Their colleagues dribbled balls they seemed incapable of controlling when not passing up similar routes 66’s. They pressed and fought but so much energy was wasted by fouls or poor positioning. Fluidity and imaginative play were absent. My heart went out to my friend’s son who spent most of the first half in a lone striker’s position without once receiving the ball and eventually being substituted. Noone had suggested he should track before or help te development of play in mid-field. I could think of nothing better to do than give him a couple of old tapes I had of FC Barcelona before whispering- “Get your dad to convert them to DVD’s, then have a look at how they move positions, how they hold the ball, how they pass it, how they inspire each other ”.

I suppose this is not advice that Spain’s current head of government Mariano Rajoy much cares for. Just the other day he said that Spain had to get used to having less sports stadiums and more austerity. And yet if Spanish football  is as good as it is it is because of the considerable investment that has been made over the last two decades in training and developing good footballers  from childhood through to  young manhood.

Within the present La Liga, it is FC Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao that provide the best examples of what can be achieved by developing home grown talent. I don’t know if Barca will clinch La Liga or indeed win any trophies this season, but just how brilliant are the products of the club’s Cantera was very much in evidence in the game against Getafe earlier this week.

By contrast over at Real Madrid, it is still star foreign signings that hold the key to success or failure in the Mourinho  era- which is not to belittle the quality of their play, simply its self-evident disfunctionality at times, not to mention its lack of soul.  If Messi plays inctictively, Ronaldo still looks as if he is being activated by a computer.even when humiliating Atletico de Madrid.