With all of the transfer talk predictably revolving around the big-money moves to Champions League-level clubs by players such as Alexis Sánchez, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Aymeric Laporte, there was one loan deal involving an overseas club in a Champions League place that really caught my eye. Ademola Lookman took a brave decision – seemingly against the wishes of his Everton manager, Sam Allardyce – in leaving the comfort zone of staying in this country and joining the Championship side Derby and instead pushed for a move to RB Leipzig, who are third in Germany’s Bundesliga.
For years I have looked at the number of young English players whose footballing intelligence and education could be much greater advanced by sampling a different footballing environment in a top league while coming to terms with learning a new language and culture, assimilating a different style of play and adopting different tactical approaches and principles that are being taught to them on the training ground.
Because of the fact that our Premier League is the most wealthy – and therefore most able to pay players the highest salaries – it is seen as illogical for our most talented players to leave the comforts of home and the good money they are earning here to really push to play in the Bundesliga, La Liga or any other league of a similar level.
If you look at our outfield England squad preparing for this year’s World Cup, only Eric Dier, who played for Sporting Lisbon, has had more than one year’s experience of playing abroad and learning his trade in a different footballing environment. I would also argue this about Dier: his versatility as a central defender and a tactically adept and positionally sound defensive midfield player means he is the only player of his type who will be a part of our squad in Russia and therefore a key component in our team.
The positioning and tactical awareness he exhibits for Spurs and England are qualities that, when I was growing up in the game, coaches in this country did not preach, teach or encourage as much as they did on the continent. When I speak to players from abroad who come to England, each of them has explained to me how much they have to improve as footballers. They do it without the benefit of speaking their native language or understanding the different principles of play that they have to acclimatize to here in England, and they have to adapt and improve their footballing abilities to be able to deal with the completely different rhythm and tempo they find in the Premier League.
They also have to grow up and improve as young men. A lot of them come with young families to a completely different culture and way of life, and have to quickly learn the language and way of life. Forsaking their comfort zone, they say, when they finally overcome these initial problems, has very quickly made them better footballers and professionals. This is nothing but beneficial in the long term for their development as players on the pitch and human beings off it, and I sometimes wonder how much better our national team would be if we had more players exposed to solving these problems on and off the field of play.
It’s interesting that one of the major accusations of our players when we were knocked out by Iceland in the European Championship in 2016 was that they looked like they couldn’t find their own tactical solutions to the problem on the field of play or that token argument that comes out in every big defeat that we seemed to “lack leaders”. We also speak about the need for our young players to come out of their comfort zone in order to grow as people, especially within an industry where thinking for yourself is not on the top of the agenda for a young, gifted player.
Being a professional footballer for more than a decade and also only playing in this country, I cannot really remember a time in my life where I felt uneasy or unfamiliar with my environment. Every day my schedule was set, I’m told what to do on the field of play and I know exactly where to go if I ever have any problem on or off the pitch to be sorted out for me by either my agent, adviser or a player liaison officer employed by a football club to enable me to concentrate on my job on the pitch.
With age and hindsight, one of the biggest regrets of my career was not experiencing football abroad, so I credit and applaud Lookman for taking his step to advance his footballing education – he is a young player who has always impressed me whenever I’ve seen him play. The fact he scored on his debut is great for him personally but whether at the end of season the loan is seen as a success or a failure by his parent club, fans or the media is immaterial from my point of view.
He will be learning lessons every day on and off the pitch that he wouldn’t on our shores and I’m sure they will stay with him for years to come. I hope his move is the start of more young English players being brave enough to leave home and their comfort zone behind.
