You need to “wake up” and stop talking racist crap. Stick to the football and football issues.

Lash has made a very important point and shouldn’t go unnoticed, it’s true teams develop all at once such as the Henrys, Heinzes etc all going through their countries youth ranks and becoming some vital players for their national teams. It’s all down to the English players themselves, not being good enough to play, giving foreigners a chance to take their spot and not give it back.

Almunia I don’t think has played once for the national squad (Doesn’t suprise me, he’s behind Casillas and Reina by a long shot) so he has the option which he gets his Citizenship I think also in 2009, maybe 2010. All Im saying is England shouldn’t be relying on foreign talent getting a passport into the England National Team, they should of got hold of the oppotunities they had, 2 lifelines were given to them and they still failed to impress, typical England.

Also something else is, if Arsenal were 3rd or 4th, I guarantee Blatter or Gerrard won’t be chatting shit about Foreigners, they’re just failing to see the fact it’s the foreigners who’ve made the prem what it is today.

Also if we’re talking Midfielders as a whole then Gerrard definately isn’t up there, Kaka, Ronaldo, Ribery? But Im gonna assume you mean just Center Midfield since them are mostly Wingers and Attacking MFs. Ceedorf is a player I consider BETTER then Gerrard, prime of his life, scoring spectacular goals and has won the Champions LEague with at least FOUR different teams, that’s much more impressive then Gerrards résumé.

Also Limkins, the point being made was that there are players who are clearly better in other positions, I mean the finest midfield players on the planet as you mentioned, Pirlo Gattuso, are probably on par with Gerrard (or they are on par with Gerrard..whichever way you look at it)

Point no.1, its SPIRAL Architect, not SPIRITUAL Architect. Limkins also made the same mistake & i don’t want it to be a trend. While i like the connotation, that’s not the name i go by in these posts.

Point no.2, did you even bother to read my previous 2 posts properly? If you did & you still didn’t get the humour in them then maybe its not your kind of humour eh? I was joking, even in the second post if you read the last line.

Geez! You lose a qualification bid on your home ground & suddenly everyone gets touchy!

This is the reason, why developing young talent has become secondary – it is a business decision! England has already fallen into the trap that Italy was in a couple of years ago. Unlike England, the Italians have at least partly rectified things by retaining their veterans in their national team (Del Piero, Panucci, etc.), – look at the English, leaving the world’s best crosser of a football on the bench, while you have the tallest man on the field in your side.

The bottomline though is that the English do not have continuity in their youth set-up. Even though not the best individuals players come out, it is important to keep a core group of players together. Example, Argentina’s youth teams usually come through the ranks together. The Argentine team that won the World U/20 Youth Cup in 1997 was made up of Battaglia, Cambiasso, Riquelme, Heinze, Milito, Demichelis, …. and they are still playing for Argentina. The French team that time was led by Thierry Henry with Trezeguet, Saha, Anelka, Jerome Rothen, Silvestre, Sebastian Frey, Boumsong, Sagnol, Escude, Gallas, and most of them are still in the reckoning for French National team places. The English team had a young Michael Owen, and Jamie Carragher, Andy Johnson, Phil Neville, Jonathan Greening, Danny Murphy, Luke Young, Heskey, Shepperd,Upson, Humphreys, Kieron Dyer, Jon Macken, Jody Morris … and only Owen, Johnson and Neville are still in the reckoning for the full national team. What happened to the rest? While Owen, Johnson and Phil Neville went to compete for first team places at their clubs, the rest had to wait in the wings to allow senior foreign players to play. Eventually they ended up in the lower divisions.

It was all tongue-in-cheek. I put 3 emoticons in there!

But hey, if ya wanna get serious about it lets take the case of Manuel Almunia. Spanish goalkeeper, right now Arsenal’s numero uno goalie AND has expressed the wish on numerous occasions that he is willing to play for England WHEN he gets his citizenship (which i think is not far off). Now, given his current form, wouldn’t he be a good replacement for Robinson at the moment? Debatable yes, but AT LEAST its another option.

I’m sure there have been other players. Alfredo Di Stefano is one that comes to mind. But of course with whatever current rules there are nowadays i’m not sure of any other cases.

My serious point, if you want, is that there are still plenty of good up and coming young players in the EPL who have never played for their country (and maybe a few older ones too like Almunia). Denilson from Arsenal is one good case in point. If the FA wishes, why not ‘tap up’ these youngsters if they so dearly want to have more talent to choose from?

Ok, can you tell if i’m kidding yet or not? I’ll let you decide that one for yourself now.