There is so much to be upbeat about English football. A foreigner view

As part of the investigation on English football that I am doing for Yahoo all season, I decided to talk to Edu Rubio, head of academy coaching at MK Dons

With so many people lining up to take pot shots at the Football Association for its policies on youth and academy training, support for the much-maligned organisation comes from a rather unlikely source.

In July of 2015, the 32-year-old Catalan, Edu Rubio, took over as head of academy coaching at Milton Kenes Dons.

It is the latest step in the ever-growing career for the Lleida born UEFA Pro Licensed Coach since his arrival into the UK just over 10 years ago since which he has gone from Sports Science university student to academy chief in the Championship

It also marks his return to the MK Dons where he first cut his training teeth with their Under 13 side before moving to Chelsea’s Academy and then to a position as assistant manager at the Nike Academy at St George’s Park.

“When I first came to this country I could hardly speak a word of English. I had to volunteer with a grassroots side to try to learn and also to improve my English as well as get a better perspective on life and a wider education.”

“I have always loved football and always wanted to be involved in it but also knew that I was never going to be good enough to make it to the top, so I decided to go down the coaching road.”

And as someone immersed in the training of young people in the world of football the highly articulate, fluent and erudite Edu is swift to spring to the defence of an organisation that he not only feels has been the sufferer of too much unfair criticism, but has also not always received the credit he feels it deserves.

“I love this country and it gave me the chance to work in the game I love,” he says.

“In many ways it has been much kinder, and given my many more opportunities than my own country.”

“Don’t misunderstand me, I’m as ambitious as the next man and if I was given a chance to work with a major club in a coaching capacity somewhere abroad, of course I would consider it. But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel a great debt of gratitude to this country that has given me so much, because I do.”

And he adds the notion that English football comprises a world of outdated tactics, overseen by a group of fuddy-duddies at the FA and a host of under-skilled, untalented youngsters, could not be further from the truth.

“It’s so easy to criticise but actually you really can’t generalise here. I have been here 10 years now and over the last six or seven years the FA has done a lot of amazing things like the Youth Award courses because they realised there was a yawning gap in areas like psychology, education, environment and atmosphere that needed to be addressed both at grassroots and at higher levels.”

“They were courses that were started with a view to educating not merely the footballer, but also the individual.”

While admitting that there are basic differences between the English system and that of Spain, his country of birth he adds, “the main difference is not between nationalities but between individuals who have different backgrounds, different family environments, different personal circumstances; where they come from is irrelevant.”

Loth as he is to generalise, when pressed he will however admit that there are perhaps some basic differences in the approach to coaching between the two countries.

“In Spain perhaps there is more emphasis on training on the basis of plays that occur in the course of games and this is important because the player has his mind focused on something that is real.”

That said he adds that in his opinion, and although this is another generalisation, “English youngsters of 13, 14 and 15 have a greater tendency to demonstrate effort – physical and mental – and are more prepare to make the necessary sacrifices, to do the work.”

“If we mix that with the new coaching methods that we have been using in Spain for so long then in the long run we could really begin to feel the benefits of it.”

The flip side of that however is, he says, “In England in the past there has perhaps been too much emphasis on the analytical, the physical and an over emphasis on the importance of the result.”

“I believe however that this is changing in many academies thanks to the new training ideas set up the FA. The problem is that it will take time, probably around ten years or so, before these ideas have filtered down to all the clubs in the system.”

“Changes in football, are like changes that occur in society and they don’t happen in two years. That’s why I love football so much, because for me it is in reality an extension of what occurs in society.”

The ‘win at all costs’, ‘fear of failure’ attitudes adopted by even some of the youngest teams and their coaches in the English soccer system is now seen by many as some of the major reasons why so many believe it has been overtaken by its continental competitors.

While Edu concedes this may well be the case, certainly in the past, it is not as simple as that and things are also changing.

“Certainly perhaps as a result of their upbringing, culture and education there would seem to be more of an emphasis on efficiency and performance, and in that respect the English are much more critical.”

“Of course to that end, the committing of an error prevents the player from achieving that level of perfect efficiency that they are looking for.”

“But don’t be fooled. I have also come across many clubs in Spain where, for them, winning is everything.”

Today he feels that there are many clubs and academies in England who have now realised that learning by making mistakes is just another part of the process.

“In many academies, including here at MK Dons, we look upon the error in a very positive light because it is fundamentally one of the first and greatest weapons you have at your disposal to learn.

“With learning comes development, and that development will eventually take you to victory. The path to victory is not about learning how to become more efficient but rather about becoming a better student that learns more, develops better, has greater confidence in his game and consequently strives more to win.”

What he does concede however is that in the past at many English clubs, the ‘fear of failure’ philosophy has inhibited growth by creating an environment unwilling to take risks or set challenges.

“If you set out your stall purely on a results driven basis, then the club will not be successful because sometimes the fact is you have some terrible results.”

There are steps along the way, he adds.

Firstly is the player developing according to the key targets and challenges set out to him. Secondly he need to be playing to the philosophy of the club and developing an understanding of the game.

If theses two objectives can be achieved, winning says Edu, is a bonus. Victory, without the first two criteria is, he says, pointless.

“One of the main reasons that some players never make it right to the top is because they dedicate themselves purely to winning at the expense of the first and second objective.”

The key to everything whatever the country, is that there should be in place a model from top to bottom, within a culture based on the fundamental notion that everything is done with a view to making the players better.

“For that reason,” he says, “I will always tell my coaches that I am all ears for any ideas that you may bring to me that will be for the benefit of the players, otherwise don’t waste my time.”

“I was fortunate via the Nike Academy to train players from all over the world, of all colours and religions and they all had one thing in common, which is that if they see that you are prepared to work, not with them, but for them, to make them better players then you will get a better response from them.”

“The moment they believe that you are there not for their benefit, but for your own, is the moment you will lose them.”

Ultimately Edu is upbeat and positive about the future of English soccer.

“I truly think that in England at the moment there is a great opportunity to develop some really great footballers because they have better economic backing, better training facilities than they have ever had and because they have also realised that it is necessary for them to change their methods of training.”

“Sometimes I get the impression that it is difficult to get the English to take on an idea, but as soon as they wake up to it, then suddenly they put everything they have into it and see it to the finish.”