John Giles believes the modern philosophy of some underage coaches is harming the development of players in this part of the world.
He was reacting to some of the points emanating from the Off The Ball interview with Stephen Bradley and how vital hunger and drive are to make it to the top.
"Most of the players I knew who made it didn't have anything to fall back on," he said, highlighting Roy Keane a positive example.
"For a sportsman, hunger is a huge thing. In other words, I have to do it. I don't have an education. If I don't make it as a footballer, I'm not going to do anything else. That's the drive that you're talking about."
But he also gave his take on the coaching side of things and the proliferation of coaches relying on badges and results.
"If you look at the standard of the English, Irish, Scottish in producing players, it's gone back a long way. We are not producing the players we used to produce," said John, who believes that an emphasis on results is harming development.
"For too many of them, it's about them being a winning coach and what you'll find is that creative kids will make more mistakes than anybody else and instead of living with them and encouraging them, they say 'off!' They put a big lad on, win 2-0 and win the league. After four years of that, the creative kids give up playing. There's too much emphasis on the coach being a winning coach."
Meanwhile, John believes Tottenham's Harry Kane is "the top English striker at the moment" and described him as having a "terrific touch for a big lad".
He also wondered whether Spurs can get into the Top Four and praised Ronald Koeman's work at Southampton.
John also gave his take on the Lionel Messi situation at Barcelona and whether Luis Enrique has handled things well.
He does not believe the manager will be victorious in a battle with the four-time Ballon D'Or winner.
"I can't see him winning it. The only way he can win is if he leaves Messi out of the team and the team continue winning and that's unlikely because he's been such a great player."
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