Bruce fears for young talent

Bruce: Has fears

Sunderland manager Steve Bruce fears for the future of English talent because of the Premier League.

"We have created a monster with this Premier League. It's a fantastic league, a very good league, but to actually bring people through, it has been difficult."
Steve Bruce Quotes of the week

The Black Cats boss brought teenage midfielder Jordan Henderson into the first-team last season, and he hopes to do the same next term with Martyn Waghorn and Jack Colback.

However, as the aftershocks of England's disastrous World Cup campaign hit home, Bruce is not overly optimistic that young talent will flourish in the top-flight.

He said: "Waghorn and Colback, this is a big year for them. They will definitely make a living in the game, they have proved that playing in the Championship.

"But as we know, the Premier League is a hugely different ball game, and that's where the problem is.

"We have created a monster with this Premier League. It's a fantastic league, a very good league, but to actually bring people through, it has been difficult.

"We are a victim of our own success in the Premier League. Me, for example, as a manager, I am scouring South America or Europe or whatever because we need them today to go and play.

"I would love to go and sign a 20-year-old from Bury or Rochdale or anywhere, I would love to sign a young English player.

"But unfortunately, we are not producing them and there have to be big questions asked of why, in our society, we are not producing them when we have got something like 42, 43 Academies in this country from eight to 16.

"We are simply not producing the quality of player that we used to produce. That's the debate."

Talent

Bruce was still a player at Manchester United when Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers all burst onto the scene.

But while the Red Devils produced an outstanding crop of young players during the 1990's, Bruce cannot see the same happening in the modern game.

"We produced them [at United], but I don't think we are producing them like we used to," he added.

"I'll give you an example: when do you see kids playing in a field any more with two jumpers down and playing with a football? You never see it.

"They are at home with computers, iPods, iPhones, g-pods or whatever they call them, and the kids don't play anymore.

"That, to me, is one of the reasons as well. There are a whole load of issues, but we are certainly not producing footballers like we used to."