More power to Manchester City midfielder Joey Barton. Two years ago he looked destined to be another in the long list of very good British footballers who possess the interpersonal skills of a rabid rattlesnake and the word view of a myopic microbe. But after various much publicised alcohol-fuelled incidents he has had the guts - unlike many people from any walk of life - to face up to himself and make some changes, not least through attending the Sporting Chance clinic for sports people with addictive illnesses.
This season his accomplishments include some top performances on the pitch for City and some unusually direct analysis of the world of football, including a trashing of footballers 'my story so far' literary efforts, a straight admission from the inside that many footballers are out of touch with the real world and - possibly with just a touch of self-interest - a claim that Gerrard and Lampard just cannot play effectively together in the centre of England's midfield.
Whether this comes with a sub-text of pleading for a game or not, he is only stating what many have come to realise anyway and McClaren could do a lot worse than playing Barton next to Gerrard in the centre of the midfield when England play Spain in a Friendly on February 7th. Well, an all-Scouse central midfield pairing is sure to get plenty of support from the locals in the Old Trafford crowd.
This season Barton has played in the first team at City alongside a crop of around half a dozen former youth team players who have featured fairly regularly. The development of the City youth system is arguably one of manager Stuart Pearce's biggest successes - cynics might unkindly say only - since taking over from the destroyer of reserve teams, Mr Keegan.
City have usurped their much loathed neighbours in Red in this regard. United used to be famous for giving youth its head but as the goldenballs crop of Beckham, Scholes, the Nevilles, Butt and others are facing up to less hair on the head and more sprouting from the ears and noses, it is City who are giving young talent a go in the first team.
City are not the only club that has placed an emphasis on having a good youth policy recently. Over the last few years, Leeds United, Nottingham Forest, Ipswich Town and Aston Villa are all clubs which have brought through a number of players from a talented youth squad and made them into first team players.
Unfortunately for Leeds, Forest and Ipswich, most of the players they developed moved on to Premiership outfits. In the case of Ipswich, goalkeeper Richard Wright went on to Arsenal and then Everton, while Kieron Dyer, Titus Bramble and Darren Ambrose all could not resist the bright lights of Newcastle, though Ambrose subsequently moved back south to his current club Charlton.
However the general trend in the game has become the opposite of carefully nurturing a youth squad and developing talent from the grassroots. Instead many teams keep up a constant whirl of both loan signings and sending their own players out on loan. The situation needs to be addressed, as it has started to go too far.
Recently, for example, only a few days before the end of his successful loan period at Stoke was up the manager there admitted that he had no idea if Lee Hendrie would be staying on. This annoyed fans who expected management to have at least some kind of forward thinking in place, given Hendrie's positive impact on the club since his arrival.
Not too long after having produced such a talented youth team, the once mighty Leeds United, now struggling near the bottom of the Championship, listed six loan players on the team sheet, when losing 2-1 to Burnley on November 28th 2006. This led to a fine for Leeds as it broke Football League rules, which allow a maximum of only 5 loan players on a team sheet for any one match. While Leeds had extenuating circumstances - defender Mathew Kilagalon had been a late withdrawal from the squad with injury - they could have added an up and coming young player to the squad rather than another loan player on finding out about the problem.
Most of the writing on the extensive use of loan players is uncritically in favour and is based on several commonly stated reasons. Firstly, it provides the chance for players not in the first team at clubs to get experience elsewhere. It also allows smaller clubs to avoid relegation or to get themselves out of a bad run by bringing in good loan players when they are struggling. Thirdly, it is cheap, as only the upkeep of the players terms and conditions is needed rather than paying out a transfer fee, and so benefits poorer clubs. Finally, loan players can be brought in and sent out quickly.
But the other side if the coin is less discussed. Firstly, squads get disrupted by the constant coming and going of loan players and the situation can become chaotic, as the case of Hendrie at Stoke illustrates. Furthermore, it is not the great leveller as claimed, since it is only relatively richer clubs than can afford to pay the wages of decent loan players anyway.
The claim that it is a benefit that loan players can be brought in and sent out quickly is also dubious. Why is it good for a loan player to be loaned out, recalled or even dumped at will while he has no say in the matter? Finally, the loan system allows the bigger clubs that inevitably dominate the loaning out in each division to have undue influence over clubs taking players on loan.
A look through the squads in the English Championship reveals that most sides have a significant number of players both out on loan and at the same time are playing several loanees from other teams. At the time of writing Derby and Ipswich have six players out on loan and Birmingham five. Of course some kind of loan system is needed, as teams can be hit by an injury crisis and the transfer window system precludes buying outside certain periods.
But at present clubs are over-relying on loans as short term solutions to problems rather than putting in place a sustainable long term strategy of developing their own youth and reserve squads and creating closer links with the local community in doing so. Players that have come through the youth system at clubs and made it to the first team are usually popular and more thought should be put into creating viable youth and reserve squads than is currently the case.
Finally, when loan players arrive or are lent out somebody at the clubs involved should keep a close eye on the details of the contractual arrangements to avoid mangers, team mates and fans wondering whether loan players are going to be there for the next match.
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