The transformation is incredible, but it is not by accident. <\/p>\n
In 2013, shortly after taking over as chairman of the Football Association, Greg Dyke was fiercely critical of the structure of English football. <\/p>\n
“The problem is serious, very serious,” Dyke said about an “alarming” lack of homegrown talent.<\/p>\n
Dyke set the England team two targets: reach the semis of Euro 2020 and win the World Cup in 2022.<\/p>\n
Many scoffed at the mere suggestion, external<\/a> of such success, but he was not too far out.<\/p>\n Dyke knew that two key building blocks were already in place. <\/p>\n In 2011, the \u00a3340m elite player performance plan (EPPP) was voted through by EFL clubs. It funded an overhaul of elite academies and restructured the system.<\/p>\n Then came St George’s Park.<\/p>\n It took the Football Association 11 years to build it after purchasing the land in 2001. <\/p>\n Plans were approved, then mothballed, and then resurrected. <\/p>\n Finally, in 2012, it opened as the destination of coaching and development of the England team at all levels.<\/p>\n The EPPP was no quick fix, a long-term investment in coaching and facilities. <\/p>\n Today, academy players use state-of-the-art training centres with the best pitches, coaches and back-up staff. <\/p>\n And then they join up with the England development teams at a similarly high-quality training centre.<\/p>\n The pathway is not perfect. More than 12,000 boys are in the academy system and 91% will never play a professional game.<\/a><\/p>\n But 15 years on it has created a production line of talent that has helped to make England the competitive team they are today.<\/p>\n Bellingham – who only recently turned 23 – Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka and Elliot Anderson are star names within the squad as products of EPPP.<\/p>\n Such are the depth of options available that Trent Alexander-Arnold, Cole Palmer and Phil Foden can be left out of the squad – three players who were part of the squad which reached the final of the Euros just two years ago.<\/p>\n Tuchel can choose not to pick them and still get England to the final four of a World Cup.<\/p>\n And the production line keeps running, with Alex Scott, Josh King, Ethan Nwaneri and Rio Ngumoha part of the pre-tournament training squad. <\/p>\n Arsenal’s Max Dowman, 16, broke records for his age-related achievements in the Premier League<\/a> and the Champions League<\/a> and is destined to make the step up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The transformation is incredible, but it is not by accident. In 2013, shortly after taking over as chairman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-797071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}