Make the training like Europe then!

While some see Pim’s comments here as damaging to the A-league. I like it, I applaud it and I want more of it.

What a bitch fight! And you can thank Pim Verbeek because he started it!

The Australian football community seems to have taken the comments personally; it reflects Australia’s insecurity about their place in the football world.

Pim Verbeek is perhaps playing the character of the hard and uncompromising father who uses the parenting technique of criticism and never showing approval.

This is what Pim’s messages are:
Australian training standards compared globally are so low that

a) Training in Europe is actually better than playing a full A-league game

b) Any player whether they are a returning or potential Socceroo will not be able to maintain a fitness level that is required for International football.

The first comment is what a lot football people got upset about and if you dig a little those same people disagreed with Pim Verbeek’s initial appointment as national coach.

The second statement has caught the wrath of some A-league coaches. The clubs in question Perth Glory, and Nth Queensland Fury are trying to lure current Socceroos Mile Sterjovski, Chris Coyne and Scott Chipperfield to come home.

And in their eyes comments made at the FFA annual coach’s conference like this one by Pim Verbeek are turning players off coming home:
“If you play as open as some games I've seen here, you do it against a European or South American team, you would get slaughtered,"

So the 64 thousand dollar question is:
Why can’t you just make the training like Europe then?

The reasons why it isn’t at the moment:
· The A-League can never match the intensity of a European League. The scrutiny by fans and media does not place the pressure on player’s shoulders the same way it does overseas. We are still infants in world football terms.
· At this moment in time players have to go to Europe to learn the tactical side of the game as well as learning how to be a true professional.

How we can make training like Europe:
· Lifting the intensity is the most obvious. The A-league is getting there; eventually we should see 14 teams, with a regular home and away season of 39 games
· Your team will play13 teams x 3 times in the regular season. Add cup games and Asian Champion leagues games and you may have some teams playing 50-60 games a year, just like your Man United’s etc.
· After the TV deal is up some in 2013. Football could get 100 million a year. That means a higher salary cap, and clubs if they are smart will invest in better coaches more physios’ and more support staff.

Perhaps we have to find out ourselves and teach ourselves these training methods with the help of the best coaches at the beginning then use what we have learned.

Like the dutch master Cryff said: “If I wanted you to understand it, I would have explained it better.”