England World Cup winner Gordon Banks blames the rise of foreign managers in the domestic game for the dearth of good goalkeeping talent.
The former Telford United manager believes Premiership coaches are stifling the production line of young, homegrown goalkeepers because they are only interested in results and don’t care about the future of the English game.
He accuses the foreign bosses of looking for “quick fixes” rather than nurturing home grown talent - and admits he is sad about the state of the national team.
“Our goalkeepers just don’t get a chance,” he said.
“I’m sure there is plenty of young English goalkeeping talent out there in the reserve teams and youth teams, but unfortunately there are just not the opportunities for them at the moment.
“Managers in the Premier League are not prepared to give them the chance and that is because most of them are foreign.
“They have no vested interested in bringing young keepers through and because the game is so results-driven they’d rather sign someone than take a chance on a rookie.
“That has meant that the pool of available talent has dried up, which is very frustrating for us all.”
It is all a far cry from Banks’ hey day in 1966 when England had three fine goalkeepers who would all have been capable of stepping into the legend’s shoes.
He was backed up by Peter Bonetti and Ron Springett in an era when virtually every club in the top division had an English goalkeeper putting pressure on the No 1.
By contrast you can count the number of English stoppers on one hand most weekends - a real cause for concern for incoming England manager Fabio Capello.
But Banks believes the homegrown talent is there - it just needs to be nurtured properly.
“There must be good goalkeeping talent out there - in fact I am convinced there is - but they aren’t given the chance to prove themselves at the top level.
“In my day managers would not react to a bad game by dropping you. And there were plenty of times in my career when I had a bad game.
“You learn from those mistakes but our young goalkeepers are not getting the chance to.”
Banks met up with Bert Williams at a recent book signing for A Cat in Wolf’s Clothing - and he delivered the ultimate compliment about the Molineux legend who now lives in Shifnal by revealing the 85-year-old was his inspiration during his playing days.
“Bert was brilliant - I admired him and I remember standing behind the goal watching him play. I watched what he did and learned from him.
“Bert was a huge inspiration. I remember seeing him on Pathe News when I went to the cinema and thinking ‘I want to play like him’.”
One Comment
It is not just goalkeeper’s that we are being deprived of due to the influx of foreign player’s into the Premiership, even though they have made the league exciting, but it is certainly depriving the local talent from gaining the required experiance of playing in top class soccer.
I loved to watch the games when Sunderland played the Wolves, in the time Trevor Ford and Bert Williams. Bert would collect the ball on one knee and look up to see where Trevor was, as he knew he would be baring down upon him to give him a crushing shoulder charge, but those days have gone for ever, as the goalie’s are now wrapped up in cotton wool! Those were the day’s.