I was flicking through player profiles on all the premier sides and was shocked by what i seen. I always knew the premiership had alot of foreigners, but i was amazed by how many. Almost every team in the prem has twice as many foreigners as they have English. In some cases like arsenal, it is so extreme that the only first team Englishman is Theo Waltcott, with the rest being youth players(and not many of them at that) I believe this will be the downfall of the English game. The premiership is arguably the best in the world, if not now, it soon will be. Whilst the clubs get richer and take great benefits of this, the national team will verge on collapse in 10 years time, maybe sooner, as the league will be so flooded by foreigners that no talent gets through. And it doesn't help that the social lifestyle is changing so much in this country, where kids would rather play footie with there thumbs than actually kick a ball. Many people laugh at jimmy hill, but i agree with him, he says week in week out that foreigners are ruining the game. Its time people started realizing this, or face the consequences. I guess it will take england to fail to qualify for the world cup or euro champs to realize, but when that days comes, it will be too late they will be 10 15 years behind the other country's. Look at Scotland 10 years ago, the league was in similar state. but now youth has been encouraged and Scotland are reaping the benefits, thus securing there future. i know Scotland will most never be world champs or a considered a major force, but if they continue this progress, who's to say why not. Holland do it, France did it, Portugal do it. grass roots football has be looked at seriously, its the soul and life of the game.
If a player is good enough they play, especially in arsenals case. so that will mean the english players that do make it will be even better. Look at Italy in the 90's Milan dominated by northern europeans, yet they have managed to play in 2 of the last four final's. so its not a case of forigners ruining the game in this country just making our youngsters sstep up a level.
The problem with emerging English/British players is the media hype surrounding them. Look at Micah Richards for an example. Chelsea were told to stump up £35m for him last summer. £35m for a teenager? The media really does play a big role in bumping up the price and massively over-rating young English/British players. They flock to the player in the negotiations process and really hype them up as the next big thing to ridicuous proportions. Theo Walcott's move to Arsenal was an example. He was all over both the front and back pages of the newspapers when he was bought by Arsenal, Sven knee-jerked by picking him for the WC and then the media heaped blame on him for taking up a spot in the team that could've been used for another more experienced striker. I don't think there is anything wrong with the English system. We possess some of the best players in the world in all positions at both full senior level as well as U21s level and some very bright prospects at youth level. The media seem to be falling over themselves to heap praise on players like Drogba, Rooney, Ronaldo etc becasuse they're the stories that sell newspapers or generate hits on a website, not some unknown kid still learning the next stage of the game toiling away in an academy somewhere. I think England's future, both as a league and as a national team, is very bright indeed. You only have to look at the performances of some of the U21s players to be excited.
