FORMER Socceroos captain Alex Tobin has described the previous youth development system that coincided with the Socceroos ‘golden generation’ as “chaos” and “totally random” and suggested the current system is “much better”.

Speaking on Football Nation Radio, the national team legend, who 20 years ago skippered Australia in the ill-fated 2-2 draw against Iran, said the best ever players produced did not come through as a result of the system in place.

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The likes of Mark Bosnich, Ned Zelic, Craig Moore, Mark Viduka, Harry Kewell and John Aloisi played for the Socceroos during Tobin’s time as captain, with the latter four going on to play at the 2006 World Cup.

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“Thursday will be my last day as Technical Director at FNSW. For the last six or seven years I’ve been involved in elite youth development so I think I’m qualified to comment on most of these things,” Tobin said.

“You can talk about the ‘golden generation’, the 2006 team or even previous teams such as the 1997 team. If you went back 10 or 15 years into those players’ youth development, you would see what I grew up with – chaos.

“What Australian football did with youth development in the past was 100 percent totally random. You’re talking to an ex-professional footballer who could have easily fallen through 1,000 cracks that were provided in the 1970s when I was kicking a ball.

“To say that what we have now is not producing players, and what we had previously did [produce players] I think is an absolute nonsense.”

Ex-Socceroos captain Alex Tobin. Source: News Corp Australia

Tobin added: “We have a process now which is far from perfect. However, compared to what we did in the past in terms of developing youth, we are on a much, much better track in producing players.”

Foxsports.com.au understands FFA have made significant budget cuts to national team and technical programs, which Tobin argues is one of the sticking points as to why young players aren’t coming through the current system.

Tobin also told Football Nation Radio that “critical age groups” are not getting enough chances to play in the A-League.

“Where we miss out is the critical age groups – 16, 17, 18, 19. I made my debut in the NSL at 17 or 18, as a young individual,” Tobin said.

“Most of the Socceroos [golden generation] made their debut at a similar age. When those [young] players don’t have the opportunities to play senior football, we produce [fewer] players.

Harry Kewell was starring for the Socceroos as a teenager. Source: News Limited

“The A-League, do we have enough younger players coming through? Definitely not. Do we have NPL teams to support that? Yes we do, but many of those players, are they playing senior football?

“With the younger age groups, we’re doing things better and with more coaches with qualifications, coaching more players – 9-12 players in Skill Acquisition is clearly many more [players] being coached well and coached more often than 10 years ago and 20 years ago I’d argue we weren’t doing anything.

“I wouldn’t go down the path of saying the curriculum isn’t doing well simply because we didn’t qualify in the Under-17s World Cup. Because the teams we are competing against … Vietnam spend more money on their [youth national teams] than we do. Many teams that we’re competing against in Asia – forget South Korea and Japan because they are miles in front – but other smaller countries are starting to invest in youth which we don’t.

“We need to understand that it’s so critical for our youth development and if we don’t get it right, other countries will go past us and very quickly.”