You wouldn't believe what I saw and read last week. A lad who used play alongside my boy last year joined his team, he came from Congo and his father was studying engineering at a local University. They arrived here around a year and a half a go, he joined the team and began playing. Now let me make this clear, this kid is tall and very energetic, but he cannot kick a ball to save his life, has no tactical awareness what so ever and cannot speak a word of English. About 4 weeks ago I was watching a game with him involved, on the sideline was a scout from Middlesbrough and Newcastle, following the game I went home and to later find out the scout approached his manager and father and both teams want him. Since then he has trained at both teams academies and the fight is on for him it seems. Now I am not for one minute dismissing the fact these coaches at Newcastle and Boro cannot work with him to get better, but he's played football for 4 years, and still cannot kick a ball but his athleticism and size is the key factor he was chosen, I was told that by both scouts. Is this where we are it? Is this the sort of thing this country/scouts are looking for, athleticism and size being factors that kids are chosen over technically brilliant ones? It fucking boggles my mind so much I cannot figure it out. And this is exactly my point, the starting point is one that is so blatantly wrong that the foundations are already set before a balls is kicked. In that team in question was 3/4 unbelievable kids, and I mean incredibly talented in every department and not one has been looked at or even approached yet all of them on another level of footballing ability compared to the kid that has been scouted. So from Grass Roots level, this is exactly where we are at. Make your own assessment.