A former Queens Park Rangers fans favourite, who’s now back at the club as assistant academy manager, has banned the youth team from wearing coloured football boots.
If you’ve got a pair of these, best not ask QPR for a trial!
The man who’s made the decision says he can back up his call by science but insists that the real reason is far more basic saying:
It has been proven that if a winger wears coloured football boots it is easier for a full-back to pick them up than if they are wearing black boots.
No surprise there you might think. A sensible decision that he believes will give his youngsters the edge while also keeping them on the straight and narrow. However the irony won’t be lost on many Super Hoops fans that the man behind the ban is none other than Marc Bircham – the former club skipper who used to play with highly noticeable blue and white hair. Full backs had no problem picking him up!
Hair to match the kit – Rangers legend Marc Bircham in his playing days
No matter. The former Canadian international is a huge favourite with the Loftus Road favourite after playing there for five years between 2002 – 2007. Now, having been forced in to retirement because of a series of ankle injuries, he’s set up a formidable coaching partnership with Steve Gallen, brother of former R’s striker Kevin, and has seen his young charges make a storming start to the season.
However, back to the boots ban, Bircham insists that while he firmly believes that coloured football boots actually hand the advantage over to the opposition, there was a more fundamental reason for not wanting to see them on the pitch.
Bircham said:
From under-nine to under-18, coloured boots are banned. You have to earn the right to wear them at our club.
Bircham more than ‘earned the right’ to wear his coloured football boots'
Apart from banning flashy boots, Bircham revealed he is also adopting an old-school approach to his players’ development.
Academies have stopped doing that sort of thing, but we think it gives players a sense of discipline.
We have some old-school ideas – like punishments for lateness and insisting they do jobs like cleaning – backed up with state of the art coaching techniques.
We have a great bunch of lads here and there are a few players who will make it professionally.
But I can’t name any names, because I don’t want anybody sniffing around!
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This isn’t a new idea. I know most academies won’t let the youngster wear coloured boots.
At Man Utd Fergie makes sure that all the youngsters wear the same boots – Nike Air Legend in black and white.
Its exactly the same rule at most academys.
thats cool. i think making them clean can stop them from being primadonnas
I’d heard other academies had got similar rules but I think his idea that it gives opposition defenders an advantage is an interesting take.
hmm interesting article, i too found the bit about it giving defenders adavantage interesting.
i have always been mildly annoyed by the flashy colored boots, most notably many of the vapors…mainly for two reasons: it comes off as wanting to grab attention which i find somewhat immature, and most of the more ridiculous colorways not only do not match one’s uniform, but it clashes heavily with the team’s colors. i am a graphic designer and when someone wears neon green or orange boots with a red kit it triggers my aesthetic gag reflex. i mean, i can see wearing green boots with a green kit, or orange boots with an orange kit, or white boots with blue trim with a blue kit, etc…but when the colors dont match or at least arn’t complimentary colors not only does it look god awful to me but it just screams “look at me! im unique and special!” lol
wow thats stupid i love collourd football boots and i live in america. (usa)
well that explains it all then cr7wonka, good on Marc Bircham, coloured boots are useless things used to sell more boots, basic black and white for me,let your game do the talking, not your boots!
colored boots are an expression of personality and individuality. i personally have no problem with black or white boots. science also proves that bright boots improve reaction time of the eye when the foot contacts the balls surface. same reason goalies wear bright shirts, it attracts the eye for a better chance of the ball being shot at them instead of around them.
aajahaahahaha Fergie and his rules