SPECIAL REPORT: United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool have SEVENTY players out on loan amid youth crisis... and here's why Moyes is backing Spanish-style 'B' teams
In a World Cup year, it surely cannot be long before the grumbling commences in earnest. Why can't we keep the ball like Spain? Why can't we work it out of tight spaces like Brazil? Why can't we counter-attack like Germany? Boo-hoo-hoo, we wanna be like you-hoo-hoo.
Everybody will have their own answers, their own grand narrative to cure the English malaise.
And that, precisely, may be the problem. For there remains no unified approach to carve an authentically English football identity.
Instead, it appears that uncertainty is on the youth football agenda once more, despite the façade of solidarity painted by The Football Association's long overdue amendments to the grassroots game - small-sided games on smaller pitches with smaller goals - and the Premier League's Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP).
These concerns are not publicly aired but they are bubbling away under the surface. They primarily surround the Premier League's recently formed Under 21 league, billed as the finishing school for this country's most talented young players and designed to counter the galling statistic that over three-quarters of this country's young stars drop out of the professional game between the age of 18 and 21, as revealed by The Independent.
Unfortunately, the evidence suggests that the major clubs simply do not believe in the initiative. Rather than fielding their young stars in the youth league, leading Premier League sides are increasingly opting to further their players' development by maximising the loan system.
As we stand after the January transfer window, Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool have a combined 70 players currently out on loan, 55 of whom are 21 or younger and at a critical stage of their development.
Certain clubs sense that the Under 21 league does not foster a sufficiently stimulating pathway between the academy and the first-team while others have noted that it does not present that same results-based pressure as players discover in the high intensity surroundings of the Football League.
It is thought to be too cosy, too sanitised, too easy for young players to drift along.
Manchester United are chief among these doubters and they loaned out 10 on deadline day alone. David Moyes commented to MUTV: 'You find the jump between the reserves and first team is so big nowadays. Maybe, in time, if there was a different sort of games programme, we wouldn’t need to put players out on loan.'
The Premier League are aware of the problem but they maintain, with justification, that the implementation of the new league was never going to be a silver bullet that could resolve every issue in one go.
Next season will bring change to the structure of the competition for the third consecutive campaign, with the current 22-club division morphing into two divisions with promotion and relegation aimed at providing renewed motivation. The Premier League are also exploring avenues for a broadcasting deal that will further boost the profile.
They point to the success of Southampton, who do not have any players below the age of 21 out on loan. Their production line continues to churn, with Luke Shaw, James Ward-Prowse, Calum Chambers and more recently, Sam Gallagher among the young talents that have made the jump from the academy to first-team.
By way of retort, it should be noted that Southampton have now been producing players of world-class potential for a number of years and since well before the Premier League's recent initiatives. Theo Walcott, Gareth Bale and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain spring to mind while Shaw broke into the Southampton team in November 2012, just three months after the Under 21 league had been launched.
The Premier League also take confidence from the faith shown by Manchester City, whose 'holistic' approach brings a greater reluctance to loan out players, instead aiming to school their youngsters in the Catalan-inspired 'City Way'. Patrick Vieira's Under 21 team have won eight of their last nine in all competitions while the Under 18 side have won their last 13 matches. A couple of sharp performances from Marcos 'Rony' Lopes in the Capital One Cup aside, however, and there is little indication of progression to the first-team.
City, though, appear to be the exception, for the suspicion is that the major forces are becoming increasingly alienated.
One United player summed up the concerns to Sportsmail earlier this season: 'It's just not the same. The crowds are low, there isn't that buzz, or that pressure and expectation that you get with Football League games or first-team games.'
United's hostility towards the EPPP and the Under 21 division is nothing new. They have always had their doubts.
When the Premier League clubs were asked to vote on the issue, 19 clubs backed the reforms, with United the only exception. The bill was passed on account of at least two-thirds of the clubs being in favour.
Sportsmail can reveal the details of a letter distributed to staff by Les Kershaw, the club's former Chief Scout and Academy Director - who still works part-time - which was written a short while after the votes were counted.
Kershaw dismissed the new rules as 'totally confusing and inaccurate'. United were particularly concerned about the proposed coaching hours for the Under 12 to Under 16 age band - 20 hours per week - four hours per day - with the core coaching pencilled in between 9am and 5pm from Monday to Friday. The United academy coaches believed so many hours of coaching at such a young age to be 'impossible'.
There was also a swipe at the Premier League's methods of categorising clubs, with Kershaw saying: 'Fancy an assessment being made on the ticking and filling of boxes!!'
Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has gone on record to pledge his support for the Spanish model where leading clubs have 'B' teams playing in the lower divisions. Sportsmail understands that it is an initiative that would be backed by Moyes, who attempted to launch a second team during his time at Everton, only to be put off when the authorities insisted that the side start from the very bottom rung of English football. Should the debate seriously arise, it is a prospect that the Football League would vigorously seek to resist.
United are the most radical opponents but such lack of faith in the Under 21 league is becoming increasingly common elsewhere. Everton are rooted in the bottom-half of the Under 21 table and risk being relegated to the second tier next season, yet in January, they allowed six highly-rated young players to leave on loan for lower league sides.
This is not to say that there is anything chronically wrong with the loan system and nor should we forget its merits. It exposes young players to the challenge of playing in front of a visceral, demanding support - something that the youth league does not provide.
Immediate examples of successful loans spring to mind: Jack Wilshere and Daniel Sturridge benefited from half seasons at Bolton, Jermain Defoe scored in 10 games in a row at Bournemouth in the early part of his career, while much has been made of the circuitous route taken by Andros Townsend, who wore the shirt of nine different clubs between the age of 17 and 21.
Yet the loan system is not flawless and remains a lottery, a gamble on a young player's happiness and career development that must be accurately judged. Last week, Larnell Cole signed for Fulham from United on a permanent deal, reuniting with Rene Meulensteen, who first coached the player at the age of eight.
In the first season of the Under 21 league, Cole scored a hat-trick in the semi-final against Liverpool and the winner in the final against Tottenham. Interestingly, Cole, a slight playmaker and now 20, never experienced a loan spell away from United.
The player's agent Peter Morrison explained to Sportsmail: 'Larnell was quite a unique case. He was technically way and above many of those around him but physically, he was still developing.
'Some clubs can fear sending players on loan because for all the benefits, playing in front of fans and the exposure to physicality as well as meaningful competition, the downside is they maybe don’t quite continue to work on the things they need to improve on, which means they could ultimately fall short of the required standard at their parent club when they return.
'With Larnell, there were opportunities to go out on loan in this window but prior to that, he was the kind of player that would have needed to have gone to a team that suited his style of play. Both the club and the player didn't feel that there was the right Championship club available.
'It is crucial that players are placed in good hands with coaches who will continue to develop them in the right way because league position alone is not a sufficient enough reason for players to join a club, despite the perception.’
In the case of Cole, he wasn't far away from the United first-team fold. He traveled with the squad to several away games, including the visit to Norwich on Boxing Day and he frequently trained with the first team. He did not start a first team game for the club, meaning his progress depended greatly on the Under 21 Premier League.
His agent continued: 'It was a tough decision for him to leave United. They were not pushing him out of the door, quite the opposite, but Larnell felt like there wasn't going to be too many opportunities in the near future and it had got to the stage where he wasn't going to improve anymore by playing in the Under 21 league for another 12 months.'
And this is where the Premier League are struggling to provide, for those players that clubs feel require more gentle guidance and cannot simply be dispatched on a trip down the motorway to return as a new man.
Premier League figures reveal that there are around 350-400 contracted players aged between 18 and 21 who do not go out on loan. As such, a more feasible games programme is needed to accommodate those players and the perhaps even greater number who clubs would prefer to avoid having to send out on loan.
The quest for a solution goes on, yet with such a diversity of views being promoted, we are left wondering whether the Premier League can ever discover a formula to unite the powers of English football.
Chelsea: 27 (20 aged 21 or below) - picks include Patrick Bamford at Derby, Romelu Lukaku at Everton and Nathaniel Chalobah at Middlesbrough.
Man United: 15 (12 aged 21 below) - picks include Nick Powell at Wigan, Wilfried Zaha at Cardiff and Jack Barmby at Hartlepool.
Liverpool: 14 (11 aged 21 or below) - picks include Andre Wisdom at Derby and Tiago Ilori at Granada.
Arsenal: 14 (12 aged 21 or below) - Picks include Benik Afobe at Sheffield Wednesday, Chuba Akpom at Brentford and Hector Bellerin at Watford
Manchester City: 7 (5 aged 21 or below) - Picks include Karim Rekik at PSV and John Guidetti at Stoke
Southampton: 4 (0 aged 21 or below) - Loanees are first-team understudies or cast-offs, such as Lee Barnard, 29, at Southend and Dani Osvaldo, 28, at Juventus.
Why Manchester United believe their way is the best way
1 Statistics provided by United youth historians Tony Park and Steve Hobin reveal that 3,677 first-team games have now passed since Manchester United last went into a football match without a homegrown player in the squad - a 77 year record stretching back to 1937.
2 Outside of Old Trafford, there are currently 24 players on professional contracts in the Premier League that began their careers as Manchester United juniors, including Ravel Morrison (below, at West Ham), Wes Brown and new Cardiff signings Magnus Eikrem and Mats Daehli. United's primary goal is to bring through players for their first-team but they take great pride in ensuring that youngsters go on to have distinguished careers should they not make the grade at Old Trafford.
Old Trafford graduate: Ravel Morrison is now impressing at West Ham+18
3 Since England's last competitive victory without the participation of a Manchester United player over 20 years ago - Graham Taylor's 6-0 win over San Marino in 1993 - the Three Lions have gone into just two competitive matches without a United man. Both were lost, against Germany at Euro 1996 and against Croatia in qualifying for Euro 2008. 235 England matches have passed since that time (including friendlies).
Manchester meat market
The belief that the Under 21 league has become little more than a cattle market for lower league clubs to cherry-pick the smartest loan deals was underlined by the Manchester derby clash last week, which City won 2-1.
A source told Sportsmail that a brigade of at least 60 scouts, managers and dignitaries were in attendance and mingling after the game, including Wigan's Uwe Rosler, Carlisle's Chris Kavanagh, Bradford's Phil Parkinson and Doncaster's goalkeeping coach Paul Gerrard, who was making a personal check on United's Sam Johnstone (below).
Six players that started the game went out on loan before the transfer window closed.
Shaw, Januzaj and Sterling prove U21 Premier League 'gives players an edge'
Terry Westley, senior club support manager in the youth department at the Premier League, has defended the Under 21 competition:
'The Barclays U21 Premier League is about providing young players with high-quality football in front of a crowd and with a good atmosphere. Clubs play at least two matches in the main stadium and several have agreements with lower league clubs to play in smaller stadia, attracting crowds in the low thousands. It gives an edge so the players can begin to rehearse the things they will be faced with when they go into the first team.
'The technical match observer reports we get for each match demonstrate that, in terms of skill, speed of movement, and pass completion rate, the games we are seeing are similar to first team level. We have seen this season that managers are willing to bring in players who have played in the Under 21s league into the first team with 68 players having featured in both competitions in 2013/14.
'Loans and the U21 League are not incompatible as the system is designed to be flexible enough to cater for the needs of individual players. The likes of Luke Shaw, Raheem Sterling and Adnan Januzaj have made the step up directly, while others have done so via a loan at another club. It is about the environment that is best for a player’s development at a given time and that is exactly how it should be.'
