Looking at England retaining, not just winning, the Under 17s European Championships gets me wondering if the FA have just made the biggest mistake they've ever made?
All the recent upheaval and major changes made to junior football in this country were designed to have us match the Dutch and Spanish. Seems that as at the age of 16 we're already doing that. The guys that are winning these trophies for us now were brought up on the old school systems.
I've watched a fair bit of under 7s football this year and it's utterly farcical watching the basketball style games of kick off / shoot / block / run / shoot / block / run / shoot / goal. All it does is makes it ridiculously easy for the athletic kids.
As we're the best in Europe at 16, would a more suitable quota to get English players playing in the Premier League not have been a more suitable change than tearing the junior game to pieces?