ALMOST 19 YEARS ago to the day, a hugely talented but injury-hit Newcastle side found themselves 3-0 down at Anfield with 56 minutes played.
Enter 23-year-old midfielder Jim Crawford to make his senior debut. At the time, he was considered one of the most promising prospects in Irish football. Born in Chicago, he had grown up in Ireland and caught the eye playing for Bohemians in the early 90s, earning the PFAI Young Player of the Year award in the 1993-94 campaign.
Crawford’s League of Ireland form convinced then-Magpies boss Kevin Keegan that he had the potential to make an impact in the Premier League.
The Irish U21 international’s move for £75,000 in March 1995 coincided with one of the most memorable seasons in Newcastle’s history, as the club were in the process of throwing away a 12-point lead at the top of the table and getting pipped to the title by Manchester United.
In the aforementioned Liverpool game during the following campaign — at which point Kenny Dalglish had taken over as the Magpies’ manager — Crawford replaced an injured Les Ferdinand, who himself had only come on for Peter Beardsley at the interval — a sign of the ill fortune that seemed irrevocably associated with the Newcastle side of that era.
Nonetheless, the inexperienced Crawford must have done something right, as within 32 minutes of his arrival, Newcastle had scored three goals and seemingly rescued the game.
However, Robbie Fowler intervened with a dramatic 90th-minute winner, meaning for the second successive league fixture at Anfield between the two sides, the match ended 4-3 in Liverpool’s favour.
“There was a real buzz around Newcastle that I don’t think has been (there since),” Crawford tells The42. “You only had to look at the players in the squad. David Ginola, Alan Shearer, Tino Asprilla, Les Ferdinand, all top-quality internationals.
It was great training with them every day. I picked up so much from them. The manager around that time was Kenny Dalglish, who was an excellent manager. I picked up a lot of stuff from Kenny — the way he conducted himself, the way he delivered sessions and what have you.
“The game itself, we were going through a horrendous time, Liverpool were outstanding, they were 3-0 up and being honest, it could have been 6-0. We had a serious injury crisis. Alan Shearer was injured. Les Ferdinand came on in the game and he came off with his hamstring injury.
I was put on, although we were 3-0 down at the time. I’d no assistance in any of the goals, but I just remember thinking, we’ve got out of jail with this 3-3 result and before the final whistle, Robbie Fowler outdid Robbie Elliot to score the (winning) goal. I’d never heard noise like it anywhere before in my life.”
For all that Newcastle side’s immense talent, they ultimately failed to win any significant trophies. Crawford subscribes to the commonly held view that the team’s unconvincing defending ultimately proved to be their Achilles heel.
“If you look at a lot of Champions League-winning sides, you only have to look at the numbers on their goals-against column,” he says. “They’re always impressive.
Maybe Newcastle at that time would have leaked more goals than they should have in terms of a team that’s going to go on and win a league. But one thing’s for sure, with the group of players involved in the squad, they put bums on the seats with their attacking prowess.
“During training, it was just mind-blowing some of the things that were going on. But if you want to go on and win leagues, you’ve got to be watertight at the back. Sometimes, we conceded silly goals and it did cost us.”
Despite his helping to nearly rescue the game, Crawford would go on to make just one more appearance for Newcastle. Injury problems and a struggle to adapt to Premier League football meant he never fully lived up to those heady early expectations. He had brief loan spells at Rotherham and Dundee United, before a similarly short-lived permanent stint at Reading between 1998 and 2000.
Crawford moved back to the League of Ireland following the turn of the millennium, and ultimately enjoyed greater success, featuring regularly and winning four league titles with Shelbourne.
After finishing with football as a player, a career in coaching beckoned. Since retiring, he briefly was interim manager of Shamrock Rovers when Pat Scully stepped down in 2008 and having gained his Uefa A License coaching badge, he is currently the assistant to Paul Doolin for the Ireland U18s and U19s.
I think it was a logical step to go from a playing career. I’d been playing professional football for 14 odd years,” he explains. “I took my badges and enjoyed it. I wanted to learn, that’s for sure, and probably my biggest learning moment has been working with Paul Doolin with the U19s.
“I’ve been Paul’s assistant for a number of years and it’s been excellent. I’ve learned an awful lot from the qualifying campaign and the elite campaigns that I’ve been involved with.”
Crawford cites West Ham’s Josh Cullen, Blackburn’s Darragh Lenihan, Man City’s Jack Byrne and Watford’s Tommie Hoban among the players he has worked with that he has high hopes for in the future.
“All it is is players with potential,” he adds. “There’s a long road to go in terms of hard work and implementing good information from good coaches. But I would say the future is bright because the players we’ve had at U19s have done well in their campaigns. For a large portion of the games, they’ve boxed above their weight — we’ve had some excellent results.”
As one of those tasked with helping young Irish footballers progress, Crawford is well aware of the criticism levelled at the underage structure in recent years. Like Niall Quinn and many others, Crawford feels that, in the majority of cases, promising youngsters are better off ignoring the temptations of English football and staying in Ireland to develop their game. Moreover, as someone with first-hand experience of the difficulties that face a young Irish player moving to England at a young age, Crawford’s words have a particular resonance.
With the U19s national league, I think it’s going to get better. My advice to young players going over to England is that sometimes it’s probably better to stay at home, play in your national league, get an education and then think about going over. There are different ways of skinning a cat and I think a lot of people — parents and young players — get caught up in the idea that you’ve got to go over at a young age, which isn’t true.
“There have been players that have gone over to League One, League Two clubs and I think, for their own selves, it’s probably better to stay in this country and get your education and play with a national league club. I’ve no doubt the U19 league over here will get better.
“There’s talk about the opportunity of getting a couple of clubs who do well in your league into the U19 Champions League. It will stimulate the league, it will get it more attention. In an ideal world, you like to see a lot of your players that are selected at U18s or U19s to be home-based.”
Speaking of which, Crawford recently managed an entirely home-based XI of U18s players in the John Coughlan Memorial International Cup, as they drew 3-3 on aggregate against Wales over two matches, before losing out on penalties.
The team comprised of players picked out with non-League of Ireland clubs hoping to potentially get picked up by a top team. At the recent interprovincials in Sligo, a squad of 33 was chosen out of players from all four provinces.
The meaning behind the international fixture against Wales is to give players a springboard or to put them in the spotlight. It’s for them to have the opportunity of being picked up by an Ireland U19s club,” Crawford says.
“I’ve no doubt that there were a couple of players who were involved in it a couple of weeks ago that will get signed up by a national league club.”
Crawford admits it can be difficult persuading promising players to stay in Ireland, but certain studies (one of which can be read here) claim that of the players initially considered good enough to earn a deal with an English club, only 6% progress and are awarded a second contract, while 75% of those who return home after failing in Britain never even play at League of Ireland level again. The former Shels star cites these figures as an indication that short-term success may not necessarily benefit Irish youngsters in the long term.
It’s very difficult to stop children who have had this ambition since they were very young of going to England. When a contract is offered in front of them, it’s very difficult for them and they see the bright lights and what have you.
“But if you measure the percentage of players who end up coming back and giving up football because they lost their love for it, they found it a huge letdown. They come back here uneducated and not really prepared for the real world — it can be alarming.
“So that’s what my advice would be to youngsters — education is key because you never know what’s around the corner in professional football, whether it’s an injury or you’re let go because somebody doesn’t fancy your style of play or what have you. Those things happen in football.”
Moreover, coaching and the philosophy being implemented at Irish underage level has encountered plenty of criticism in recent times.
In an Irish Times piece during the week, former Ireland international and ex-Arsenal youth player Graham Barrett was severely critical of the status quo.
“I believe there are huge issues at grassroots/underage level within Irish football — issues that are either not given enough recognition, underplayed or glossed over to give the impression that the powers that be are doing enough to see us kick on,” Barrett wrote.
“As things stand, I believe the simple truth is that the technical and physical standard of the majority of young players in Ireland will continue to steadily decrease unless we act and tackle these issues dramatically.
“It’s imperative that we open our eyes and recognise that we have drastically fallen behind our rivals.”
And conversely, while Crawford acknowledges that the current system is far from perfect, he is a little more optimistic in outlook despite the substantial criticism that the set-up has attracted.
“People have slaughtered the type of players that are being developed in this country. I suppose they have a point but we do develop gems as well. Keith Fahey, Wes Hoolahan and Robbie Brady are all technically gifted players.
“We still can develop, but with the whole restructuring of the league and having our new player development plan being implemented, I think that will make a significant difference in players developing technically too.”
One point that Crawford and Barrett agree on is the need for summer football to be introduced across the board, with young Irish teams’ football pitches frequently deemed unplayable during the winter months.
I know a lot of schoolboy clubs in Ireland,” Crawford says. “The shutters do come down around December and January because of the weather and what have you. I’ve no doubt that if you’ve got summer football, players will have more contact and hours with a football.
“During the winter time, it’s not all doom and gloom. I do feel that there’s a window there to play — maybe futsal for the younger kids. It could keep kids active by playing indoor football and football on all-weather pitches.
There’s not enough full-size astro pitches out there to accommodate for every club. But what you can do is maybe play indoor five-a-side blitzes over the winter time. On all-weather pitches, you might have the same five-a-side games, or you may have three matches going at the same time to cater for players. There are definitely ways around it and during the winter time, astro parks are definitely the key for kids to be in more contact with football and more quality coaching sessions.
“I know good clubs in this country that haven’t been able to do anything. Games have been called off, all astro pitches are booked up, so it can be difficult. But I’m definitely in for summer football because then you’ve got coaches who are really dedicated to their jobs that will get kids out three or four times a week if possible. You can do that with the availability of bright lights and grass areas. But there’s just more space available in the summer time.”
And returning to the recent criticism, one figure that came in for a somewhat harsh assessment in Barrett’s aforementioned article was the FAI’s high-performance director Ruud Dokter.
“His credentials are certainly a good indication of his ability but our performances and approach at youth level under his tenure suggest that he has yet to fully understand the Irish psyche,” the former footballer wrote of Dokter in his article.
“He still has to find a way to strike the right balance of implementing his new ideas while also preserving what makes us unique if our young players are to progress under his stewardship.
“Fire, passion and controlled aggression must be the bedrock of how we must approach football matches at every level.”
Crawford fully supports Dokter, however, suggesting his ideas have benefited Irish football.
“I deal with Ruud a fair bit,” he explains. “I’m an FAI Development officer. He has an open-door policy, so if you’ve any questions regarding the Player Development Policy, he’s all ears.
“I see the merit in everything he’s doing with regards to grassroots football to develop better players, a stronger national league with a view to keeping players over here and developing them with our own coaches and that will in turn help our international teams.”
And with the League of Ireland getting back underway last Friday, the former Bohs man thinks the standard of domestic football has improved immeasurably over the past few seasons.
I did feel that the league took a dip for a few years in terms of standard, but there are a lot more young players now. I said years ago that the more young players being introduced into this league the better.
“It may only be a matter of time before the level is very good again. There are young players with unbelievable potential that might have an opportunity of developing themselves further by going over to a Premier League or Championship club. I do think that the league is getting better. It could take time and it could be a bit of a process, but I think that it will get there definitely.”
And as for the young players who do decide to take a significant gamble and make the move across the water?
“For a young player going over to England, it can be a very daunting experience and it can affect their character in many ways. I do think you need some sort of a person that you can bounce off.
“We’ve got (FAI scouts) Mark O’Toole and Gerry Murphy over in England, so that if players need picking up, they can ring them and ask for a little bit of advice.
But I think it’s important a young player understands that they’re only a phone call away from a solution to what’s going on in their heads. It may be a severe lack of confidence and they’re not enjoying training, they’re not having fun anymore.
“Some kids just bottle it all in and they don’t understand that they can talk to anybody. They want to get back to their safety net, which is home. With a loss of form and as their contract runs out, they do come back and you can see a lot of them are happy to come home.
“But they’re coming back without any serious education and they’re starting all over again. I definitely do think that if you’re a young player in England, you need some sort of mentor or guide such as Mark or Gerry to point you in the right direction and to help you out in your times of need.”
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