More English youth players should buck the trend and go abroad

England fans were pleasantly surprised by a favourable World Cup draw that has grouped them with Belgium, Tunisia and Panama.

Surely the Three Lions can negotiate their way out of this with relative ease…?

But it has not been the England senior team that has been making all the noise recently. Instead, it has been the youth teams, who have been achieving unprecedented success over the course of the past 12 months.

England’s youth teams, over the summer, achieved the following:

U17 European Championship – Final

U17 World Cup – Winners

U18-20 Toulon Tournament – Winners

U19 European Championship – Winners

U20 World Cup – Winners

U21 European Championship – Semis

England have certainly put their names on the youth map, and now more and more European clubs are taking an active interest in these players.

In an interview last month with The Times, Borussia Möchengladbach’s Sporting Director, Max Eberl, opened up about the vast array of talent in England at youth level.

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“They are developing great young players in England,” Eberl says, “But normally the player has no chance to be in the first XI or even the first 18 of a Premier League team. English clubs, they will buy another player.”

There is a vicious circle for an English club and manager. Football is a results-based business but there seems more emphasis on the Premier League with very little time to impress and keep the fans and upstairs management happy.

That is why younger English players rarely get a look in, least until they have completed various youth spells away from the club. Yet, many stay in England and slip down into the Championship or go on-loan to another Premier League club, as has Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham.

If you look at Andreas Christensen’s career path, it follows: Bröndby U17, Chelsea U18, Chelsea, Borussia Möchengladbach (2015-17), Chelsea.

Those two years away in Germany are the two most crucial and pivotal in his career so far in terms of his development. If Christensen was to stick around Chelsea, he would have rarely played any minutes and not have kicked on at all.

Playing German top-level football is what separates Christensen’s development compared to a player like Lewis Baker, once hailed as England’s next best player in midfield.

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Baker has had a variety of different loans in England, with one two-year stint at Vitesse, but has failed to fulfil his potential. The English midfielder is now 22, an age in which Chelsea expect players to be fighting for first-team opportunities – not continuously on-loan.

As a talented youngster, especially playing and winning trophies for England, it is very easy to be sucked into the glitz and glamour of some of the top Premier League academies. They are more like hotels in how they operate and look after you, with more than generous remuneration packages, but the pathway to first-team football is clouded.

Jadon Sancho quickly realised the truth of the matter at Manchester City and rightly opted for a move away from the Etihad, against City executives’ wishes. Everyone can see how talented Sancho is, but the player himself thought the only way to improve and push on to the next level was to go out in search of first-team football.

Sancho ended up at Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga, where he has made two appearances so far for the first-team, as well as playing in seven other games for the youth team. At just 17, it is rare for a player to be awarded the same minutes in the equivalent club to Dortmund.

On a less permanent basis, Reece Oxford of West Ham has also moved to Germany, on a season-long loan at Möchengladbach. While it has not been plain sailing for the England youth team player, he is learning a new way of playing and taking onboard a different culture – something that is only going to benefit him down the line in his career.

There is no reason why others cannot follow Sancho and Oxford’s brave moves away from England and garner valuable experience playing in a foreign country.

Eric Dier is a prime example of the benefits it can have on a player’s career. Dier grew up predominantly in Portugal, to where his family emigrated, and came through the youth ranks at Sporting. He was sent out on loan at Everton, for a year and a half, but came back and spent the rest of the time at Sporting until Tottenham decided to purchase him.

Having the understanding of Portuguese football, as well as speaking the language, has allowed Dier to understand different managers’ philosophies quicker and integrate into a squad compiling of a vast number of Portuguese-speaking nationalities. It is no wonder that Dier is tipped to be a future England captain.

Incredible

There are plenty of incredible academies around Europe, to just name a few: Atalanta, Sassuolo, Torino, Inter, Monaco, and Nice. They all pride themselves on nurturing young players, no matter where they have come from.

The tide is starting to turn ever so slightly, with more European teams now looking to find and source talent in England. The problem they will face is whether they can beat off the competition of the super financially-backed elite teams, but they will have a unique selling point against the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea.

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That selling point is simple: There is a clear project and pathway to first-team football that the club will put you on. The player will be valued at the club and, slowly but surely, will be trusted to play at the highest level very early on.

English players should not see it as a risk going abroad but as a chance to express themselves and absorb a different culture at a younger age. For when they are older, it will be hugely beneficial in the dressing room and out on the pitch.