The 12-year-old grandson of a friend of mine has just had some bad news. After four years in Chelsea's Academy he has been declared surplus to requirements, redundant, not much use. For four years he and his parents have trailed three times a week from their home in north London to Chelsea's training ground at Cobham, in Surrey. Now his fantasy future as Chelsea's star striker in 2016 is over.
Among his contemporaries at Chelsea was one of Gary Lineker's sons, but I don't know if he's been kept on or not. Over 90 per cent of those who join a Premiership academy will fail to make it into the first team. Most won't even become professional footballers. How has he taken it? "Surprisingly calmly," said his grandad. "The day he heard the news, he took his dinner into his room and ate it on his own, playing with his computer. No scenes so far."
Aged 12, he still has time to recover. Aged 14 or 15, he might have trashed his bedroom, burned down the house, and then gone into a deep depression for the rest of his life.
England took their defeat by France very calmly, while Fabio Capello pronounced himself "happy". A draw, presumably, and he would have been very happy. A win, against the might of France, who had only nine regulars missing, and he would have been ecstatic. I still don't understand why players play so badly for England when they are stars of their own clubs. Nicolas Anelka and Florent Malouda played excellently for France, while they are lucky to make the starting line-up at Chelsea. It's a mystery.
Capello is not being blamed, so far, but I think soon he will be, when the players turn against him. They don't like being treated in an offhand way, like numbers, dummies, idiots, which, of course, they are not, dear me no. They are all galactic superhumans who deserve utter respect - if not servitude - from the rest of us. The players are being blamed, but only a bit. They've been excused because all four of our big clubs were about to play in Europe, and that's what matters most.
Naturally, they couldn't be arsed, poor things. Most fans now recognise it must be a drag, turning out for England, just to get stuffed. The finger has been mostly pointed at our training methods; clearly our coaching must be rubbish compared with the really world-class countries, like say Croatia or Côte d'Ivoire. So few English lads have any technique, something must be done, send for Sir Trevor.
That is the bit that really mystifies me. The Premiership and leading Championship clubs have academies. The rest have schools of excellence, which are only a minor degree less well equipped. In all, at this moment, there are around 9,000 youths attending these highly professional places. Millions are being spent. The world is being scouted. Competition is intense, as my friend's grandson has just found out. So what is going wrong? Aren't we a wealthy, modern, technologically advanced country compared to, er, Côte d'Ivoire and Croatia (no disrespect)? Who gave football to the world and has been training likely lads since 1888? Surely we've learned something? It seems not. While our clubs are world-class, we can't produce any decent English players.
"Yeah, it is a shame," so his grandad said, "but Chelsea will look good on his CV. There's a lower-league club interested in taking him on, and their training ground is very near his home. So it's not all gloom." Wish I could say the same about England.
