Yesterday, FA Chairman, Greg Dyke set England two performance targets for the coming years:-
- To reach the semi-finals of Euro 2020
- To win the 2022 World Cup
Now, understandably, looking at their recent performances at international level they might seem like pretty lofty expectations and the England side get a fair bit of pressure from the media as it is without the added pressure of their own Chairman but you never know, sports journalists like myself have a hard enough time predicting what’ll happen in next week’s fixtures, never mind what happens in the next decade. However when you look deeper at what Dyke actually had to say, England’s chances might not be as few and far between as first thought when the time comes to play in these tournaments.
Dyke went on to say that last season only 32% of Premier League regulars were eligible to play for England as well as highlighting that in last weekend’s action, only 79 Englishmen played a part in the fixtures and with the typical provisional squad for a major tournament measuring up at around 23 men in size, it’s not a lot to choose from is it? Compare that to La Liga where Real Madrid and Barcelona have enough Spaniards between them to fill a 23 man squad; on the flipside, the two Manchester clubs would only have 17 England internationals between them, just about enough to fill a match squad. Plus you could argue that if these two squads were actually put against each other, Spain’s would probably still have more quality therefore it’s no wonder Roy Hodgson’s side can’t compete consistently if England’s top two sides can’t put a squad together to rival Spain’s top two.
The FA haven’t sat back and let this happen over the years, they have tried initiatives to encourage the use of ‘home-grown’ players by introducing regulations regarding the inclusion of a minimum amount of Englishmen in Premier League squads from the 10/11 season onwards but over the years this initiative hasn’t greatly improved the standard of the national side and new steps need to be taken in the coming years if indeed England are to reach the lofty heights that Dyke has set for them.
Dyke, with the mere mention of changes, went on to put the wheels in motion to improve England’s chances as much as possible between now and then as he said he was open to the possibility of changing the home-grown players rule in order to further limit the impact of foreign players in the Premier League. Other changes were mentioned such as the possibility of changing the loan system and looking into the way work permits are granted but the most interesting proposal for me was the openness to evaluate a possible mid-season break. You may remember this coming up as a reason for why England didn’t do so well in previous tournaments as the English league don’t have a mid-season break yet the other major leagues do so it’s good to see that Dyke is open to the possibility. The mid-season break can be looked at in another way too as it would open the door to the potential winter World Cup that has been proposed for Qatar in 2022 but with Premier League head honcho Richard Scudamore seemingly against the idea, you have to wonder if a mid-season break will actually come to fruition or not.
So, to go back to the original question in this article, do England need the pressure? No, they probably could do without it. But at least it seems Dyke is looking into ways to alleviate that pressure by looking at all the options to improve England’s chances. What do you think is the right way forward for England? Which ideas are the best options? Or do you have a better one that everyone just seems to be missing? Let us know in the comments section below!