DEJECTED: Dele Ali and Daniel Sturridge after defeat to Iceland

**Monday June 27, 2016, England 1 Iceland 2.**

A date and scoreline that will haunt England fans, players and coaches for years to come.

Another tournament, another early English exit. As failures go, this was about as inglorious as it gets. One tof he world's richest footballing nations humiliated by a country of only 330,000 people.

The fallout was fierce and manager Roy Hodgson inevitably paid the price with his job, confirming his resignation immediately after the match.

Former players, pundits and supporters all carried out their own postmortems on another summer of disappointment and one recurring conclusion emerged.
English players are mentally weak and the academy system is to blame.

Jamie Carragher used his newspaper column to launch an outspoken attack on England's "Academy Generation", a collection of players he branded "too soft" due to a pampered football upbringing in modern professional set-ups.

Legions of frustrated supporters across the country were quick to echo the Liverpool legend's claims.

It is easy to understand why Carragher's opinion struck a chord with so many people. Today's academy players undoubtedly have more provided for them ever before.

Better facilities, more coaching time and all manner of off-field support to allow them to focus on their football.

Yet the current crop of England players couldn't beat Iceland- a team of unheralded underdogs who came together as a solid unit when it mattered most.

Surely this proves that Carragher et al are correct? Academy football has produced a generation of players who may well be talented but lack the necessary grit, determination and composure to deal with the pressures of tournament football.

When you scratch below the surface however, you realise he is painting a simplistic picture. The reality is far more distorted.

If England were Euro 2016's major under-achievers, then Wales were- alongside Iceland- one of the stories of the tournament. A team which did their country proud, upsetting the odds to reach the semi-finals and displaying limitless character and team spirit.

All 23 members of the Welsh squad came through the academy system at English league clubs.

Gareth Bale - a genuine superstar who thrived under the pressure of being Wales' star man - came through the same Southampton academy which produced England internationals Adam Lallana, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

An academy upbringing didn't stop Chris Coleman's men from surpassing expectations, so why blame academy football for England's failure?

Hard-working academy coaches across the country would have every right to take issue with the popular characterisation of professional academies creating players not fit for purpose.

While Carragher in fairness claimed to be targeting academy culture not coaches with his comments, plenty of other observers made no such distinction. In any case, any criticism of the academy environment is surely a slight on the coaches in charge.

Surely a fairer benchmark for judging an academy system would be the quality of players produced rather than the performance of the senior national team.

A well-functioning academy system develops good players for the national team to select from.

Success at a major tournament depends on a coaching team getting the best out of what is available.

Belgium were arguably as disappointing as England at Euro 2016, yet the blame has been placed squarely on the shoulders of manager Marc Wilmots rather than their youth set-up which has produced the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Eden Hazard and Kevin de Bruyne.

In England's case Delle Ali, Harry Kane and even the much-maligned Raheem Sterling are all living proof that English academies produce good players.
England fielded the youngest team at the tournament and their youngsters haven't become bad players in the space of four games.

Ali, Kane, Danny Rose and Kyle Walker are all members of the "Academy Generation" who impressed in the Premier League for Tottenham last season.

Would these players have flourished under the famously demanding Mauricio Pochettino had they been the soft, pampered prima-donnas they are being made out to be?

Recent history proves that an elite football education is no barrier to developing hungry, hard-working players.

The Spain team which swept all before them from 2008-2012 was heavily influenced by players developed at Barcelona's fabled La Masia academy, where facilities are immaculate and young players want for nothing.

A privileged football upbringing didn't prevent Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Gerard Pique and the rest striving for success, year after year.

Likewise, Germany overhauled their youth system after a finishing bottom of their group at Euro 2000. Academies were created across their top two divisions to focus on developing more technically skilled players.

Fourteen years later Germany's own "Academy Generation" were lifting the World Cup.

State-of-the-art academies aren't just for the big boys either, as proven by England's Icelandic conquerors.

Iceland's remarkable run to the quarter-finals in France was actually over 15 years in the making.

The crop of players who captured the imagination of the continent are often called the "Indoor Generation", in reference to their development in new indoor facilities built at the turn of the century.

The Icelandic FA (KSI) implemented a massive investment in youth football as whole.

Many of this year's senior team where part of Iceland's 2011 Under-21 Euros squad- a generation of players who benefited from the KSI's investment in all-weather pitches, indoor training arenas and coach education (Iceland has 629 UEFA B licened coaches from a population of just 330,000).

Top-class facilities and an abundance of highly qualified coaches resulted in Iceland producing the best team in their history- no softness or weak mentalities in sight.

Perhaps detractors from the academy system are yearning for the way things used to be.

The good old days when aspiring young players cleaned the seniors' boots, played and trained in the mud and wouldn't have dreamed of having an agent.

The logic goes that previous generations of England players who had a less comfortable experience in youth football were mentally tougher and therefore performed better on the big stage.

If that was the case then why haven't England won anything since 1966?
Academy football didn't exist when England failed to qualify for four consecutive tournaments from 1972 to 1978.

Most of the so-called "Golden Generation" which failed to live up to its potential in the early to mid-2000s came through in the pre-academy days.

Simply put, England have underachieved at major tournaments since long before the days of academy football. Many supporters and former players who are blaming the academy system for this year's failure are perhaps being led by a misplaced sense of nostalgia.

England's Euro 2016 campaign was an undeniable failure. As a result, Hodgson and his coaching team are no more.

But the academy system is here to stay.

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