Why did the practice of youth/ academy/U23 players cleaning senior one's boots end
 

I felt the boot cleaning tradition of the youngsters kept them grounded and not too prima Donna esque. Now we see big time Charlie types at under 22 year olds with bad attitudes and bad bling. Rather than cleaning the boots of senior players they get boot line deals. Januzaj's attitude is ridiculous, he thinks he's Messi the way he carries on. A bit of boot polishing humility would not do any harm, even if he's OLDER than Luke Shaw.

I don't like that idea as that could see the senior players mistreating the younger players at the team, which I'm assuming used to happen a lot in the past.

Imo the best thing to give all players a kick up the backside on is to give them all a contract that if you play well you'll be paid really nicely, but if you play **** then you only get paid the minimum wage.

You would soon get the players to play well then.

As long as it does not lead to bullying of physical harm I don't see the issue. It kept young players grounded. Now we get Memphis Depay types with MD7 brands thinking thinking they are Ronaldo, rocking up to training in a Rolls-Royce. This would be slightly more OK if they played like Ronaldo, but they don't.

Memphis will be a good player barring any injuries, but I do agree with you that he needs to sort his attitude out because it's getting him nowhere the way his behaving at the minute.

Article on youth development experts Double Pass

http://sports.vice.com/en_us/article...ing-to-america

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...-a-soccer-star