Where have the English players gone?
Posted by DavidM in Football blogs | 29 March 2006
After dispatching Real Madrid, Arsenal deservedly beat Juventus 2-0 on Tuesday night. As with the Madrid match, Arsene Wenger did not field a single English player. To be fair to Arsenal Campbell and Cole were out injured and Walcott was on the bench.
Even so, the ITV commentator remarked that Arsenal were not representing England but the Premiership. I disagree - they were only representing Arsenal and as long as he wins I doubt Arsene will lose much sleep over the sniping.
But I think Alan Pardew has an important point. His quote after Real Madrid was "We could lose the soul of British football - the English player" and that's true - though I'm sure Scottish, Welsh and NI players would like to be included too. However, it's not a case of forcing clubs to field British players (as the EU looks to apply it's usual protectionist policies to the game) but rather looking at why there aren't more British players good enoough to get in the top teams.
And not just Premiership teams. There seem to be very few British players who play abroad. There's Beckham, Woodgate, Hargreaves, er. Now think how many French and Spanish players there are in other European leagues - or even just Arsenal!
Is it because British players aren't good enough, don't want to go or just become invisible to us when they are out of the country?
We should stop criticising the managers and start the debate about why so few make the grade. Is it natural but something we have only recently experienced? Do we have problems with spotting, developing and promoting talent in this country?
I don't know the answer, but I know imposing quotas isn't going to make our teams better or fix the underlying problems. It's not Arsene Wenger's job to represent England, it's the FA's job to ensure the English game has a future.
Cheers
DavidM