The 'I should have been scouted' myth

I find it really annoying the amount of men who go on about how good they were when they were younger and really should have been picked up by a scout. The usual excuses for not being spotted and scouts failing to pick up they were the next Maradona are:

'I was amazing technically but was small/lacked strength, if I was born in Spain I'd have been picked up'. Now don't get wrong the English game does often overlook technical ability in favour of more physical players but not to the extent these people make out. Also being able to do 20 keeps up in a row isn't 'amazing technical ability'.

The bottom line with these kind of guys is they weren't effective enough. If they were really good they would dominate at whatever level they played until people took notice, like Vardy has done.

If you are a talent who gets missed and are playing at a level below your true ability then you will outplay your peers and stand out. Now their excuse will probably be "well lower down the leagues it's all about power and strength so small technical players don't have a chance". Well when England next get knocked out of a major tournament ask these geniuses their diagnosis of the problems in English football and they will say its because all we have is big fit guys who can run and they can't match technical teams like Spain. So which is it, does size and power dominate technical skill or does technical skill come out on top? Because if technical skill comes out on top surely they could have skinned their amateur/lower league opponents. If Barcelona played an English conference side do you think Xavi, Iniesta and Messi would get overwhelmed by the physicality, lol.

i seriously should have been scouted- I just didn't get notice because I was small.

That's not nearly as bad as the "I'm really smart, I just didn't get good grades because exams don't test intelligence" brigade.

And these people will always say 'but Messi was scouted by a Spanish club, he'd never have been picked in England', to that I'd say Dennis Wise was even shorter. All this 'but could Messi do it on a cold Wednesday in Stoke', well yes, easily, because he's so technically gifted the bigger defenders couldn't get near him and he'd skin them.

Yeah it always makes me laugh when people talk about Stoke City like the Britannia is some unbreachable fortress. Many teams beat Stoke when its cold. If Barca played Stoke they would have 90% possession and probably win 4-0.

If all you had to do was be physical and play long balls to nullify Spain and Barcelona then teams would have done this long ago.

You get a lot of small and technically talented players coming out of South America and people try and claim its because their scouts value technical ability not just people being big. If any 5ft 6 skinny kid emerges through the Argentinian or Brazilian leagues he will have been playing against some real hard nuts who would knock the crap out of the hardened English lower league pros, with referees that will turn a blind eye to a lot of fouls.

Now this isn't to say that physical attributes are irrelevant. The "Inverting the Pyramid" book talks about this and shows how the physical, direct approach in the English game became overtaken by the superiority of the technical approach in other countries as generally a superior technical approach is always going to win. But the question then comes to what happens when you get players of high technical ability and lesser physical attributes coming up against players of high technical ability and better physical attributes. There the physical attributes do matter. So a few years ago it looked like Spain and Barcelona were going to monopolise football but then emerged challengers like Athletico and Real in Spain and the rise of the Germans on the domestic and international scene. The Germans played a more physical direct game but they are technically in a different universe to the old style British one. Look at players like CR7 or Bale, when they came through they were technically brilliant but lightweights but now they are terrific athletes and this is the direction the modern game is going. As that happens, then no longer will technically average players be able to use their athleticism or size to compensate in any way.

A similar thing has happened in tennis. In the 1980s Ivan Lendl dominated and was ahead of the game because of how far he was ahead of his rivals in terms of diet, training, fitness, when he was in a tight game he knew that the longer it went on the more he would have the advantage as his rival fatigued. But now all the top players, Djokovic, Federer, Nadal, Murray are all training like that AND are amazing technical talents.

The bottom line with these kind of guys is they weren't effective enough. If they were really good they would dominate at whatever level they played until people took notice ,like Vardy has done.

Granted there are some aspects of the continental game that I think British football should adapt if we want to match Spanish and German technique. For example not using full sized pitches until players are 16 and playing futsol based games played with heavier balls forcing players to keep it on the ground. It's ridiculous when you see 11 year olds running up and down full-length pitches on a Saturday, and it does create a more hoof it and run mentality. However it's nonsense to say this means technical players will not get their chance because of this. If a players good enough they'd still dominate even with tactics that don't suit their style of play.