Are there too many foreign players in the Premier League?

[Luc]

Not too sure but Arsenal are pushing it.

[STM]

To add.

 

The reason why foerign players are cheaper is because our clubs have so much money. It's almost impossible to buy good players from one prem team to another. Simply because the clubs don't need the money as much as they used to, therefore hang for a bigger prices.

 

On the continent alot of clubs are quite happy taking 1m for their star players because 1m to them is BIG money.

[Dragon55544]

Not too sure but Arsenal are pushing it.

 

Why are Arsenal pushing it? Because they refuse to pay £16.5m for a player like Bent? When they can get a better player for fraction of the price.

[Luc]

Not too sure but Arsenal are pushing it.

 

Why are Arsenal pushing it? Because they refuse to pay £16.5m for a player like Bent? When they can get a better player for fraction of the price.

 

It's ridiculous they only have like 3(?) English players. Wouldn't be too happy if it was us.

[Guest michaeljbuck]

I said no

 

there probably is but for me it comes down to do you want a good england team or good prem

 

 

For me Newcastle Utd and the prem over england

 

Why is it impossible to have both? Everyone knows that most fans would choose their club over England, hence my sarcastic OP.

 

I disagree. Most fans, me included, would pick England over their club. Especially armchair fans. The "hardcore" fans that go to most club games is probably a little harder to call, but I'd say that it could be 50/50 on who they would rather see win a major trophy.

 

I don't get why some English people don't support England. I know it's the hip left-wing thing to do ("omg i culdnt' choose 2 be born on dis rock"), but doesn't anybody else like the feeling of unity within the nation when England win an important game (not that that's happened much lately)? I love it.

[Guest elbee909]

I said no

 

there probably is but for me it comes down to do you want a good england team or good prem

 

 

For me Newcastle Utd and the prem over england

 

Why is it impossible to have both? Everyone knows that most fans would choose their club over England, hence my sarcastic OP.

 

I disagree. Most fans, me included, would pick England over their club. Especially armchair fans. The "hardcore" fans that go to most club games is probably a little harder to call, but I'd say that it could be 50/50 on who they would rather see win a major trophy.

 

I don't get why some English people don't support England. I know it's the hip left-wing thing to do ("omg i culdnt' choose 2 be born on dis rock"), but doesn't anybody else like the feeling of unity within the nation when England win an important game (not that that's happened much lately)? I love it.

 

No, as it all seems amazingly false.

[Shearer9]

I'm infuriated by this.

 

To suggest that the England national team's shitness since McClaren took over is to do with the number foreign players in our league is ridiculas. The england national team has a plethora of talent and almost matches any team on the national stage in terms of quality and depth of quality.

 

The reason that england aren't successfull is because we hire poor managers and we hire these managers because they are english. Foreign managers are lightyears ahead of ours.

This has really started to boil my piss as well, people talk about all the problems in the game in England now.  Fair enough, I think there are problems at the youth level, how young players are developed, English player's inflated value, etc.  But don't blame the national team's poor performance on that.  It's entirely the fault of McClaren and the people who appointed him.  It just drives me up the wall that he's England manager in the first place, but when people try and lay the blame elsewhere, it really pisses me off.

 

If young English players are ever going to be good enough to play for the national team, then they'll make it through the youth ranks into Premiership clubs.  I would get worried if only, say, 5% of the Premier League was English or if the English national team had 10 or more players from the Championship in a squad.

[Optimistic Nut]

Nothing to do with too many foreigners. If you look at last season's top 5, Robinson, A.Cole, Dawson, King, Terry, Bridge, Carragher, Neville, Ferdinand, Lampard, Gerrard, Hargreaves, J.Cole, Lennon, Defoe, Crouch & Rooney all regularly make the squad. Not the clubs' fault if they're not good enough at international level.

[Guest NUFC4]

NO NO NO NO NO that's what makes the EPL the best league in the world because the different qualities and fantastic ability the foreigners bring in.  imagine the EPL with over 50% brits...would be shit to watch

[Optimistic Nut]

NO NO NO NO NO that's what makes the EPL the best league in the world because the different qualities and fantastic ability the foreigners bring in.  imagine the EPL with over 50% brits...would be s*** to watch

 

Exactly. Look at how much better the league is now compared to when the Premier League first started. The Premier League was full of English players then, yet it was around that time England had just finished the 2nd worst side at Euro 92, while not even making USA 94.

[1878]

I would like to see a limit on squad size and, within that, a minimum number of English players

 

Say.... a 28 man squad with at least 8 English lads?

 

Arsenal take the piss really. If every club had a squad like theirs then it would  be a sad state of affairs imo.

[Guest SeattleToon]

I think that there are two main reasons that there are so many foreign players in the Premier League:

 

1) The size and quality of the talent pool. Simple logic tells you that a huge player pool (i.e. from all the other countries in the world) is going to have more talent than a small player pool (i.e. English players).

 

2) Value for money. English players are ridiculously overpriced (because truly good ones are so rare) compared to their continental counterparts. Look at how much Spurs paid for Darren Bent, who is no more than a slightly above average striker. Then look at how many quality foreign players Big Sam was able to sign for roughly the same amount of money overall. If Bent was French or Dutch, for example, Spurs probably would have been able to get him for less than half of what they paid.

 

That said, the bigger issue is why England is not producing more quality players (IMO there are only five truly world-class English players right now, Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard, Hargreaves, and Terry). My take is that this is a combination of poor technique, poor coaching, and lack of exposure to foreign tactics and training techniques. No player should be allowed to receive a senior level cap unless they have spent at least a year playing and training in another country, and the national team coach should also be required to have foreign experience. McLaren is a joke, and everyone outside of England (as well many people inside England) know it.

 

 

 

 

[midds]

If the young English lads are good enough they'll break through and establish themselves regardless. The fact that young English players are ridiculously over priced/rated by their managers means that picking up someone from the continent is always going to be a better option.

[tmonkey]

imagine the EPL with over 50% brits...

 

Itd be the Championship under a different name and with different clubs but with essentially the same players and same standard of football.

[Guest optimistic nit]

its more to do with the bringing up of youngsters in britain than the number of foreigners imo. The youth system in britain isn't good enough, and that is the reason, not foreign players (although they don't help, the main problem is our youth system).

[Guest optimistic nit]

Seattle toon: Hargreaves can in no way shape or form be described as world class. putting him in the same class as gattuso, pirlo etc.. is just insanity.

[1878]

If the young English lads are good enough they'll break through and establish themselves regardless. The fact that young English players are ridiculously over priced/rated by their managers means that picking up someone from the continent is always going to be a better option.

 

That's a lazy assumption really.

 

Look at Liverpool for example. They have won the FA Youth Cup, what, two years in a row now? How many of those lads have got a decent chance in the first team even in cup competitions? None really. A few appearances between the lot of them.

 

Benitez is buying up foreign youngsters like it's going out of fashion  at the minute. Was Gabriel Paletta, one of the worst centre halfs I've seen in the the last few years of the Premiership worth paying £2.5m for? I find it very, very hard to believe that one of their homegrown prospects of a similar age would have done a worse job.

 

Even some of the older foreign players he has brought in have been s****. Nunez, Pellegrino, Kromkamp... these players got opportunities in the first team that English lads on the books won't even get a sniff  of just because they are foreign.

 

Staying with Liverpool, look at Jamie Carragher. For several years he was a decidedly average fullback. It was only with match experience, coaching and eventually moving him into the centre that he became a good player.

 

Would a young defender of the same ilk get that opportunity now? No f****** chance. It's all about instant results so spending a few million to have Jaime Carragino as your 3rd/4th choice player is what tends to happen.

 

It's not just LFC that do this either. Lots of clubs are guilty of it and it tends to be clubs who don't/didn't have massive finances who have brought through good kids in recent years- Boro, West Ham, City and ourselves.

 

I don't think that's a coincidence. 

[Guest Knightrider]

Trevor Brooking is an idiot and should be the last person to point the blame when for a few years now all he has done is talk and talk, meanwhile every level of our game from a grassroots and youth development aspect has literally went backwards. And yes, there are too many foreigners in our game but are they to blame for the national side's failures or are they the brick wall preventing our youngsters from getting games? No, but talent and direction most certainly is. The whole thing needs overhauled from top to bottom.

[Gash]

I dont see the problem with Arsenal and our two English boys

 

we have developed many good quality players and sold them to our premiership rivals so its not like we arent developing them.

 

I think teams need value for money, and if you can get one player of the same quality for a better price because of their nationality, i really am oblivious to ANY problem!

[Guest Knightrider]

I dont see the problem with Arsenal and our two English boys

 

we have developed many good quality players and sold them to our premiership rivals so its not like we arent developing them.

 

I think teams need value for money, and if you can get one player of the same quality for a better price because of their nationality, i really am oblivious to ANY problem!

 

Arsenal do indeed develop talent but they have to look elsewhere to get games, which suggests your transfer policy and preference for foreigners is the cause of that, which is a problem. But it's a double edged sword. Arsenal's main objective is to win matches and to satisfy fans, same with any club really, and today it's hard to justify giving a kid a good run of games to see if he can make it or not, because the money and pressures involved from the media and stands is huge. How we change that I don't know. We can change how we develop players though and if we produce more good players more will come through.

[Guest Johan]

Funny people mentioned Gattuso and Materazzi, both players who took their time to develop. I just feel that the high level in the premier league makes it all to hard on English players to develop. Sure, the big talents like Gerrard, Rooney and Micah Richards will always go through but many others is perhaps lost. Some go to big clubs early and then get hampered by never playing and others go down of the sheer physicality (<- perhaps not spelled like that) of the english game.

 

Look at the team that won the last world cup, Italy. You have the natural talents of Nesta, Buffon and Totti for example. You also have a lot of players that have gone to smaller clubs, developed and then been late developers. Like Toni who really took his time, Pirlo, Gattuso and others. In England you get the feeling that those players just fade away instead.

 

Its also strange that you do not have one decent forward who I feel is capable of playing as a lone striker in a 4 - 3 - 3 formation.

[madras]

i think the SPL has a rule that in every match day squad each team must include 3 players eligible for the national under 21's.

 

should be worth looking at.

[Lazy]

I don't care where players are from. There would be more British players in teams if they were good enough, which they clearly aren't.

[madras]

I don't care where players are from. There would be more British players in teams if they were good enough, which they clearly aren't.

i think many are good enough but the prices asked because they are british are often ridiculous

[Unbelievable]

One of the problems in the Premiership is there is so much money going around compared to other leagues getting proven talent from abroad is much easier and much more cost effective than developing it yourself. This is where leagues like the Dutch Eredivisie or the French Ligue 1 come in the picture, who are at the other side of the same medal. Dutch clubs do not have as large a worldwide audience to compete financially with british clubs, so the lifelihood of these clubs becomes to invest in, develop and sell talent at a profit. Hence a lot of 17-18 year olds are being played in the first teams week in week out. By the time they are 21, the biggest talents relatively have a wealth of experience compared to their english counterparts. Robben was just 17 when he started playing regularly for Groningen, Van Persie 18 when he broke through for Feyenoord, Sneijder likewise at Ajax. By the time these players have proven their worth for a couple of seasons, they get snapped up at a profit for their old clubs, but relatively cheaply by UK standards. They represent a much more sound investment than a squad of promising 18 years olds at Benton too, because in all honesty most of them will never get a real chance to develop in the first team.

 

In our current squad it looks like only Taylot got away, but that was also due to the relative draught of decent centre backs we have had for a couple of seasons. In normal circumstances (i.e. having a few good, experienced centre backs for squad depth) he could well have been another wasted talent.. However, minimising the number of foreign players now will only further increase the prices of average english players and make the Premiership less atractive to a national and international audience, which will in turn cost money.

 

The problem is for real as you are running in a vicious circle, so I don't think there is an easy way out.. The same is happening in Spain I think, where the league is dominated by teams investing in foreign talent at the expense of the quality available to the Spanish national team. Maybe it's just the price of the ticket for having one of the most exciting leagues in the world..