Jens Lehmann believes the German national soccer team has improved vastly compared to early 2006 and wants to qualify swiftly for Euro 2008.

The Germany goalkeeper also told Kicker, a German sports magazine, this week that that young German soccer stars need a better education and the clubs a more professional management.

"We are at least one class better than 12 months ago," the Arsenal goalkeeper said. "The most important thing is that the players know exactly what they are supposed to do on the pitch. Of course we want to make sure that we qualify for the Euro 2008 tournament."

Germany won their first match of the year, a non-surprising 3-1 victory in a friendly against Switzerland on Wednesday. The next Euro 2008 qualifier is on March 24 away to a much stronger team, the Czech Republic.

Germany started poorly in 2006 but then rose to the World Cup occasion in the summer by finishing third under coach Jürgen Klinsmann. Germany are now unbeaten in the seven games since Joachim Löw took over as coach after the World Cup.

Bundesliga mainly animosity and sackings

Looking at the state of soccer in Germany, Lehmann called for improvement.

"You get the impression that the attraction of the Bundesliga mainly consists of who is at odds with whom and which coach is sacked next," he said. "Soccer aspects are rarely mentioned, like whether a team is playing well."

In order to raise the standard -- also manifested in mediocre showings in Europe -- Lehmann called for a better soccer education and more professionalism in general.

"Werder Bremen probably have a philosophy and maybe Schalke 04 are building one, but everything else looks like patchwork," he added. "Whenever I talk with presidents or general managers I get the impression that they know they must find a new coach sometime, but not by which criteria they need to choose him.

"The Bundesliga needs more quality in the positions of president, general manager and coach," Lehmann said.

Development in Germany lagging behind

Development of young players also needs to get more attention, the Germany No.1 said, pointing out that current English Premiership leaders Manchester United have done a good job in raising Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo to the status of star players -- with Rooney far ahead of German Lukas Podolski, who is mainly benched at Bayern Munich.

"Rooney wasn't good at first," Lehmann said. "But Manchester formed him; he is getting better and better, the same with Cristiano Ronaldo. I see the same at Arsenal, the way young players are built up. You don't see that very often in Germany."