HARRY Redknapp is a genius. Not for what he’s done to Spurs but because he’s brought something to my attention that should be addressed.

During the week, controversy reigned supreme in English football. It isn’t making headlines in Australia but England’s youth system has been heavily criticised of late.

And Mr Redknapp has been at the centre of it.

Harry said that young English players aren’t playing to their potential because they are “lazy and obsessed with money”. Many talented young English players have been courted by several clubs and offered hundreds of thousands of dollars to sign with them. Not the way to keep some 17-year-old kid level headed.

Which made me think – are there these glaring flaws with our handling of youth development? After watching the youth fixture between the Mariners and Adelaide, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are.

When the NYL was unveiled FFA CEO Ben Buckley stated, “talented young players will have an opportunity to play regular, quality competitive games”.

Which is completely false.

The Mariners had three overage players in their starting line up – Andre Gumprecht, Andrea Merenda and Chris Tadrosse. Merenda and Tadrosse played 60 minutes while Gumprecht played the full 90. Meanwhile, three Mariners youth players started on the bench and only got 30 minutes game time each.

The influence of Robert Younis and Kristian Sarkies, Adelaide’s two overage players, was noticeable. Their combination up front proved to be the deciding factor of the match. Meanwhile, there were three youth players who managed just over half an hour on the pitch each.

While I understand that these older players bring a wealth of experience to the team, it’s unreasonable to have this policy of all youth players getting at least 30 minutes on the park. When every player knows he has guaranteed pitch time, how is there going to be competition for spots?

More to the point, why include overage players when you have perfectly good youth players?

The solution to this problem is simple. We need to review our youth development.

Teams need to have larger youth squads. At the moment, clubs are only allowed 10-12 players. This number needs to be increased to around 15 players per club.

There has to be no guaranteed game time. More competition for spots = more determined players.

Overage players should only be included if there are spots not filled by a youth player. Right now, we may as well call it the National Youth + A-League Rejects League.

All this could lead to a fairly impressive youth system.

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It’s been a funny week for football.

Take the ACL final. Cristiano seemed to think that shoving your elbow in someone’s face is a sign of affection. And Adelaide can play really, really brilliant football... at the beginning of the second half when they’re down 2-0 (they did it twice against Gamba and once against the Mariners)

If it weren’t for Mark Birighitti, I may have gone to sleep before the end of the game. What a keeper! At just 17, he became the youngest goalkeeper ever to play in an ACL final. And he’s pretty hot too…

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For reasons unknown, every time Adelaide scored in the youth fixture, MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This” was played. This wouldn’t have been that bad if Adelaide hadn’t scored six times.

Someone needs to get in touch with whoever plays the music at football matches. If I have to watch Alex Wilkinson warming up with the Pussycat Dolls singing “Don’t cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me” in the background one more time, I may scream.

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At the Mariners game against Adelaide I heard some funny things.

Upon one foul by Cassio, this guy turned to his mate and said, “What was the team they played on Wednesday?” His mate replied “Gamba”.

So the guy yells out to Cassio: “GO BACK TO GAMBA...”