St.George's Park or St.George's Prank?

St. George’s Park - the new elite training complex in the heart of Staffordshire was unveiled by the FA today. Costing a mere £105million the training facility will house all 24 English national teams from junior level to women’s football. With a replica pitch that matches blade for blade the exact size, shape and consistency of the pitch at Wembley. With such a complex surely we will become the unbeatable force in world football once again.

It makes sense. The players will know the feel of the pitch. Each time they make a pass or a run they will be able to mark the exact place they would be at Wembley. The precise amount of energy will be retained so that they can make that burst forward at the optimum moment to score the winning goal. At Wembley, England will become unplayable.

It almost feels a bit of a shame that precisely none of the matches held during a World Cup or European Championship held outside of England are played at Wembley. In fact, even if one of those competitions was held in England, the national side would still not play every match there. It appears to have been recreated for all of about four international qualifications games and a couple of low key friendly matches played each year. I wonder if concerts will be held on it to give it a more realistic feel.

Never fear though, for the FA has thought of everything for this multi-complex of innovative creation – like an altitude chamber. This enables the players to gain valuable experience getting use to playing conditions up mountains, just in case they draw an away game against Bolivia. By which point they would have no time to use the chamber and would instead be on a plane to La Paz no doubt.

But this is beside the point. The FA Director of Football, Sir Trevor Brooking, wants the centre to create winning teams. Trophies are the long term aim of the project. He wants players to feel “just as passionate when they put on an England shirt” as they would do when playing for their club. There are famous sporting quotes placed on the walls, suites named after former England players and managers, inspiration is a key factor.

The FA wants St.George’s Park to develop coaches throughout England in a bid to challenge the might of France and Spain, both of which have similar facilities. They want the focus to shift at an early age from winning to enjoyment and, therefore, to improvement on a technical side.

The alarm bells are certainly ringing. Clearly national pride, representing your country and the opportunity to conquer the rest of the World is evidently not enough inspiration for these global superstars. They need to know that a room could be named after them.

The first manager to be appointed England manager, Roy Hodgson, got the top job potentially after Harry Redknapp refused to make the journey to St.George’s Park, as it was in the middle of nowhere. A great start too providing top quality coaching.

And the final message, the most contradictory one, is that the centre has been built with the aim to provide winning teams as they announce that they want to make youth football not about winning. How can the FA effectively implement such ideology when opening a £105million training complex focused solely on winning?

The facilities are undoubtedly world-class. Yet is it all a bit over the top? Do professional footballers really need such a complex to improve their game? Will St.George’s Park really help develop the young players of tomorrow? It is clear that club football plays an integral role in the life of a player. Yet, whether the FA have provided a solution for international success will probably be reasoned on the back of the result in Qatar.