Frank Lampard's claim that young players are given far too easy a ride by their clubs have been dismissed as a "misconception" by the England Under-21 international Nedum Onuoha. Lampard had complained that teenage footballers were more indulged now than when he was younger, allowing them to fall into a comfort zone.
The England and Chelsea midfielder said clubs should return to the days when youth-team players were made to clean boots and perform other basic jobs, and that the absence of such a disciplinarian regime meant "lads are forgetting the hard work that needs to be done to earn the lifestyle."
"What Frank said he used to do still happens at a lot of places," Onuoha, the Manchester City defender responded. "Even at City, it's very hard at the academy. You don't just walk into a professional contract, you always have to work hard, whether it means cleaning cars or something like that. People say that's gone from football, but a lot of it still goes on.
"I think it's a misconception. Maybe he knows a few people out there. But in terms of our team [the under-21s] and the players I know, they don't get too much too young. They have a grounding.
"The majority of us at City used to clean the coaches' cars and that was only four or five years ago when some people thought that sort of thing had all gone. It was [the youth-team coach] Alex Gibson's car and it was quite a big car so it took quite a while. You can still go to some places now, like in the FA academy league, and see a lot of players doing groundwork there.
"Some players might not have that, but they have something else. They may have to train even harder as opposed to just walking in, training and going home. We were at Derby this week and we weren't sure if one of the players there had to cut the grass. It's not something people are aware of. They just think, 'He's a young player, he's got this, he's got that'. It's not like that at all but people don't see a lot of it."
Onuoha, who is known for his considered, intelligent views, was part of the Under-21s side beaten 2-0 by their French counterparts at the City Ground, Nottingham, on Tuesday night.
"It is a lesson, but we take something out of every game," he added. "We take the game in isolation. It's not the end of the world. We've let ourselves down over certain things, but this is where the character of the team should come through and in the next game you should see a team that is even stronger."
Nonetheless, the manager, Stuart Pearce, was sufficiently unhappy with his players to remonstrate with them after the game. "I've heard him shout before because I've had him as a club manager," said Onuoha. "There have been times when we've been 2-0 up at half-time and he's come in and given us the same. Some of us have seen that side of him before, but it may be a good thing for those who hadn't. He does get very angry, but we were angry ourselves."
