David Seaman told Goals on Sunday that more must be done to bring on young, English goalkeepers.
More must be done to encourage young goalkeepers
David Seaman told
Goals on Sunday that the Football Association must try to combat the dearth of young English goalkeepers coming up through the ranks.
None of the top four goalkeepers at Arsenal - Manuel Almunia, £ukasz Fabiañski, Vito Mannone and Wojciech Szczêsny - are English, a state of affairs reflected to varying degrees in the Premier League.
"It worries me for the England No 1 spot," admitted the 46-year-old, who won 75 caps for England and played in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups.
"Look at how many English goalkeepers are playing (in the Premier League). The other worrying thing is you look at how many No 2s are foreign as well so it's not going to be good for the future.
"I think something should be done (to bring on English talent). Maybe a specialised goalkeeping school through the FA; we've got the coaches, we just need to put something in place so we can really lift it.
"Tony Roberts is working on something along those lines at Arsenal to try and get more goalkeepers into the game.
"What's happening with the kids is that a lot of them are coming up to me and saying 'I'm a goalkeeper but I want to be a striker as well'.
Confidence
Arsenal are currently just six points behind Chelsea in the Premier League title race and Almunia, 32, believes the Gunners are capable of mounting a strong title challenge in the second half of the season.
It's a view echoed by Seaman himself, who revealed that the Spanish goalkeeper increasingly feels at home between the Arsenal sticks.
"I've coached him (Almunia) a little bit," said Seaman. "He's realised that he is no 1 now. He's had a little lack of confidence. He and (Jens) Lehmann weren't the best of friends.
"He was in sometimes, sometimes he was left on the bench when he thought he should have been playing.
"Now he has become the No 1 he is slowly realising that and when you see him on the training ground he has got a bit of an aura about him. For me he's doing ok.
"He's got three top-quality international goalkeepers above him in Spain, so he's not getting international experience but the experience he is getting at Arsenal is invaluable."
Single-minded
Seaman, making his debut on
Goals on Sunday, paid tribute to the impact Bob Wilson had on his career and went on to explain how he is trying to pass on some of the lessons he learnt from the former Scottish international.
"Bob was great because he would build your confidence up in training, which doesn't always happen," said Seaman, who made a total of 564 appearances for Arsenal.
"He'd do certain drills where if you made two or three 'worldly' saves he'd say 'you're done' so you'd finish that session on a real high and full of confidence. That was his secret.
"I go down to Arsenal once or twice a week and I coach the young goalkeepers there along with Tony Roberts. We try to give them confidence in training because they are not always playing. Two or three of them probably play about 10 games a season which is just weird.
"You've got to be single-minded as a goalkeeper because you can play great all game and then make one mistake but you've got to deal with that mistake.
"If you make that mistake in the first five minutes of the game are you going to let that affect you? The mental side of it is massive.
"It's only experience that gets you used to it. That's how you learn. For young goalkeepers it's a really hard thing for them to learn."
