Football: Francis fears for young generation: Wednesday's guiding light wants power play to be replaced by a passion for passing. Joe Lovejoy talks to a manager with a mission

Trevor Francis invites football's square-eyed audience to savour the dish of the day tomorrow, when Sheffield Wednesday are at home to Norwich in a match he is billing as the satellite delight. Enjoy it while you may is the Wednesday manager's disturbing message. Power play, the Great Leveller, is fast replacing the passing game in all bar a few civilised outposts.

The decline in standards is of deep and increasing concern to the aesthete who, as a player, was the most exciting prodigy of his generation. Two decades ago, Francis was bigger news than Gazza is now, rattling in First Division goals for Birmingham City as the most precocious of 16-year-olds.

Like Max Miller, there may never be another. Today's youngsters are the despair of managers everywhere, lacking the basic skills once required to bring them to the notice of professional clubs.

Francis tells the tale of neglect and decline with a sad shake of the head. 'I started as a 15-year-old at Birmingham with a group of kids from all over the country, and we all went in there able to bring the ball down with the side of the foot, to control it on the chest, to pass it and chip it. What we had to learn was how to apply those skills in team situations, how to play in systems and formations and so on.

'These days, lads come to the clubs at 16 years of age, and coaches are having to teach them the lot. You should be able to take it for granted that if you chip a ball at a young player he'll know how to control it on his chest and lay it off, but they just can't do it now.'

Wednesday, in common with most clubs, can no longer rely on their youth team for grass-roots renewal. They are reduced to buying rare gems unearthed by others, like Chris Bart-Williams, signed from Orient at 17, and Mike Jeffrey, the young Doncaster Rovers striker, who moved to Hillsborough on trial this week.

That their squad is in need of reinforcement has been obvious, failure to cope with a sudden spate on injuries leaving the dark horses of last season, when they finished third, treading water in 14th place.

Francis accepts that his team are not doing as well as they should be. 'We haven't lived up to expectations, but I sense there's a lot more to come from my players in the second half of the season.'

The loss for long periods of key men such as John Sheridan, the playmaker, David Hirst, the team's principal goalscorer, and Phil King, an adventurous and coveted left- back, had a debilitating effect, but results are improving as the casualties return. Wednesday have won two and drawn one of their last three games, have lost only two in 13, and are through to the quarter- finals of the Coca-Cola Cup, where they are away to Ipswich Town.

Injuries apart, they have also lost the element of surprise, which served them well on their return to the old First Division. Opponents who had expected to beat them last season, and played accordingly, were now treating them with more respect. Suddenly, it was acceptable to play for a draw against one of the most attractive sides in the Premier League.

Wednesday's own attitude had changed, too. Francis said: 'Our approach last season was what we are seeing from Blackburn and Ipswich now. Because we were new to the division, and had tremendous respect for the big boys, our aim was to ensure we didn't get beaten. I think Leeds went about it the same way. When you win something, or in our case have some success, the expectations become much greater the following year, and you have to go a stage further. Now, we are going out to try to win every game. Like Leeds, our approach has changed slightly, and we are suffering for the extra ambition.'

The problems and shortcomings were not all collective, of course. Individuals had been found wanting - notably Chris Waddle. The England winger has scored just once in 25 appearances since Wednesday brought him home from Marseille, and that was in the 8-1 annihilation of Luxembourg's Spora in the Uefa Cup.

Not enough, Francis says. 'If you were to analyse the number of goals Chris has laid on, it would be a very high proportion of our total, so in that regard I'm pleased with him. I'm disappointed, though, in his own scoring return. David Hirst and Mark Bright have got 22 goals between them, which is OK, but we haven't had enough from other areas - especially midfield. Waddle has got one, Carlton Palmer two, John Sheridan three and John Harkes hasn't scored.

'I'm disappointed by that, but we had three good results over Christmas, against Manchester United (3-3), Southampton (2-1) and QPR (1-0), and we are improving.'

Essential to their continued improvement is the retention of Hirst, the dynamic England striker, whose prolonged and unwelcome courtship by Manchester United had Francis reiterating his old plea for a ban on transfers during the season. 'David is very important to us,' he said. 'All that speculation probably unsettled him, and it coincided with him not scoring for a while, but he came back with a bang over Christmas, and is back to what he was. In England form.'

Some of us have said the same about Waddle; Francis is not so sure. 'The game has got much quicker over the last few years, and I feel sorry for Chris. He is a marvellously gifted player, but it has been a big surprise to him, coming back to discover how different it is. He is finding it difficult to adjust, but he's not alone. You could name any player in the world and he would struggle here because of the way the game is played.'

Eric Cantona? Ouch. Francis, a keen student of European football, had been the first English manager to show interest, when Ooh-aah was just plain Who?, but had allowed Leeds to steal him from under his nose. True, Trevor? Not quite.

'I had Eric over for a trial which I had wanted to extend, but after two days I was put under pressure to make a decision. I was asked to pay pounds 100,000 for his wages for three months and, when I looked at what my best players were earning, I couldn't justify paying him that.

'I wasn't concerned by what happened. He's a very gifted player, but I think the majority of managers here would always have doubts about whether he will perform consistently well, week in, week out, in English football. If you rely on the Cantonas, they'll be lovely to watch, but after a few months you probably won't be around as manager to watch them.'

Francis accepts that for touch players to survive, and prosper, it is necessary to shift the emphasis away from stamina and back towards subtlety. The outlawing of the back-pass had accelerated the descent into chaos. He would redress the balance by amending the offside law.

'I played in America in 1980 when they experimented with a 35- yard line, and that stretched the game. Here, we have 20 players compressed into a small area around half-way. Terrible to watch. You couldn't do that with a 35-yard line, and its something we should seriously consider.'

With fresh talent in such short supply, the oldest striker in town intends to play on as long as possible, and the fresh-faced lad from Plymouth who became Birmingham's youngest debutant at 16 could yet eclipse old Tom Brittleton who, at 41, is the oldest Owl on record. 'I'm 39 in April, and if I can still offer something, why shouldn't I play on? The last time I played was at Norwich on 19 September, when I damaged my groin, but I'm training again, and I may be making another comeback soon.'

After a distinguished career, at home and abroad, Trevor Francis has nothing to prove as a player. In management, on the other hand, he acknowledges that he has it all to do. His first job, at QPR, ended in tears, the players having rebelled against an authoritarian style which made his old mentor, Brian Clough, look like Julian Clary.

Painful lessons had been learned. Pride and principles gave way to pragmatism, the carrot more in evidence than the stick since the tyro-turned-tyrant moved out of the dressing-room and into the manager's office, 18 months ago.

Martin Allen, notoriously refused permission to attend the birth of his son, would hardly recognise his old sparring partner. 'I learned from my mistakes,' Francis said. 'I came out of management, and had a short spell playing under Ron Atkinson here before taking over from him. He'd had a happy dressing-room, I saw the benefits of that, and I wanted to carry on the same way, which meant changing from how I had been at QPR. Having been regarded, in the eyes of most people, as a failure there, I want to become a manager of repute. I get a great deal of pleasure out of the way we play, and the nice things people say about us, and I think we can win things here playing good football.

'At 38, I've still got a lot to learn in management, and I've just signed a new contract for another three and a half years, so I'll be learning it with Sheffield Wednesday. After what happened at QPR it gave me tremendous satisfaction to finish third last season and get into Europe. It's a side of my character which may not show, but deep down I'm very determined to succeed and be recognised and respected as a top manager. My ambition is to be a winner, playing good football.'

Not a bad one, either. It could well take him back into familiar territory when England come to replace Graham Taylor.

(Photograph omitted)