posted Feb 19, 2008

few points for you nationalistic types

1. It is the job of the FA to develop the English game. If there aren't enough English players of a good enough standard, they are the ones to blame. Look at France - they were rubbish until the mid-90s, then they reviewed their set up, made the changes that were needed, and the result was two World Cups and one European Cup finals, with two trophies won.


Err but it was one world cup they lost the final in 2006!

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Feb 19, 2008

dread zepplin
i think he was saying they have reached two world cup finals and one euro final, and won one wc and one euro. two more trophys than england in the last 41 yrs and counting.
youre names class tho hope you like the band.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Feb 20, 2008

WORST ARTICLE EVER


Inter last night - 1 italian player featured
Liverpool last night - 4 english players featured

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Feb 20, 2008

Check the bookies to see if Lyon have as much chance as any of the other teams (especially if look at the odds for a british winner over a French winner).

-------------------------

And im sure the bookies can preduct the outcome of every football game - Barnsley v Liverpool springs to mind on this!

Anyway, my "suggestion" was merely a suggestion, and is not the unequivocal answer to the ongoing international problem. What I was doing was comparing the French FA's solution, who identified a similar issue in their national team, and presenting the factual outcome of this system ie winning the world cup and then the euro championship. It may just be pure coincidence that this happened, the likes of Zidane are rare, but the raw abilities of such players are abundent within this country, we just need to nuture it in the correct way.

All that I am saying is that more effort needs to be placed on the youth system, and ensuring that the english clubs enlist english players.

Dont get me wrong, I like watching Arsenal as much as the next person, but I do feel a bit dirty as there isnt one single English player present. Now for me it just seems a bit hollow that an English team can not field one english player good enough, even amongst the reserves!

This is the tip of the iceburg. At the moment we have rooney and lampard and gerard and they are all good players who still have a lot to prove, and I am sure that they will. However, they probably only have one world cup and maybe a euro championship to go before they need replacing in the national side, and at this moment in time there isnt anyone coming through, and to me this is scarey. It could be the case in 4 years time that we cant actually replace the players that we have now.

A point which was proved with the return of Beckham in the last qualifying campaign. Although unfit and out of touch, he still soared head and shoulders above anyone else in the right side of midfield.

Im not saying I have the answer, and I love the fact that we have these great players like ronaldo and drogba, but we need more emphasis being placed on bringing in young English talent into the teams.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Feb 20, 2008

To the chap that said that Lyon werent going to win the champions league because the bookies said so!!

Well at the moment they are 1 - 0 up on man united, oh and guess who scored the goal, thats right, one of the youth French players who also happens to be an international player, and whats more, is being tipped to be bought by one of the "top" european clubs.

My point is proved just there matey, they have it right, they develop the youth team players to the benefit of the national side and their club sides still benefit.

My suggestions is only a suggestion, but it is undeniable proof that it can work.

Every one who supports club football can go on blinkered to the fact that the top teams have sold out to the premier league, but if something doesnt happen soon, well I dont want to think what might happen.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Feb 21, 2008

Perhaps you can't have your cake and eat it. Either you have clubs that are successful in the CL, or you have a strong national team. France have exported most of their best players, which means they have gained invaluable experience, but their club sides find it hard to get to the quarter finals of the CL. So therefore it's a question of priorities.

Another thing is that hardly any English players go abroad to play in Spain or Italy. So if there were fewer foreigners in the PL, there would be very little chance to experience playing against top quality international players. This means that it is very one-sided to only look at the negative implications of the increasing import of foreign talent.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Feb 22, 2008

Reviewing the situation after the european games is handy as it reflects.

Uefa Cup
--------------------Robinson

Jagelkia-----Woodgate------Lescott------Neville

Lennon-----Huddlestone-------Nolan-------Taylor

---------------Johnson-------Bent

Subs
Cahill
Davies
Jenas
O'Hara
Samuel
Hunt
McCann
Hibbert
Lovell
Walker
Aluko

All english men who played at least some part in the games this week in the Uefa cup.

Champions League

Brown-----Ferdinand----Carragher----A. Cole

Scholes------Hargraves----Gerrard-----J. Cole

-------------------Rooney

Subs
Walcott
Lampard
Crouch
Pennant
Carrick
Naylor

37 english men in total - not bad for a country with no players. This only includes the players from european games and not the likes of Man city or Villa despite their success so far this season. Ok not all of these will ever play for england but its not a bad base considering.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Mar 12, 2008

The graph in the original article doesnt seem to support the argument that English players are poorly represented. Perhaps less represented than they should be given that 4 of the 8 remaining teams are English, but overall they are not under-represented. We have comparable numbers to the number of French, Italian, Spanish and German players, isn't that what you would expect ?

Some people seem to think that half the players should be English, or go on as if that should be the case..that is plainly ridiculous.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Mar 17, 2008

I'm sorry, but the article is completely skewed in it's perspective. It's based on the quantity of English players in the Champions League. That's four teams, one of which is Arsenal who admittedly currently field no English starters. So because of the extreme Arsenal situation the statistics are exaggerated. For any English club the home nations exaggerate things further. How many hoemgrown players are actually Scottish, Irish or Welsh? Man Utd alone can field Giggs, Fletcher and O'Shea all of whom came through the United youth team. Arsenal currently have a number of promising English players in the youth team or on loan. Chelsea boast Lampard, Terry, Cole and Wright-Phillips who are England regulars.

Take Arsenal out of the equation, based on the fact that their unusual current circumstances mess up the averages and you've got 11 English players across three teams. Consider British players and the squads are comparable with the Italian contingent.

It's a lot of fuss about nothing and is the product of people freaking out over not qualifying for the Euros. It happened because we had the wrong manager, fielding the wrong combination of players in the wrong system. If we had won the World Cup in 2006 (of which the general populous and media seemed to consider us capable) we wouldn't even be questioning our abilities.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Mar 26, 2008

PEOPLE SAY WE CANT COMPETE in europe

have they got really small memories

that we have achieved 3 top 8's in the last 3 tournys

i love the global league of the premiership- our kids are watching the best players in the world week in week out and wanna be ronaldo or torress as much as gerrard or rooney- which is great and i gaurantee that we will be produceing more joe coles in 5-10 years time!

add comment | complain about this comment