The local lads though talented don’t get to make the first team regularly in EPL coz the EPL managers bank on foreign players whom they find more reliable. Hence despite their potential they are not selected in national team to represent in international tournaments just coz they are second string in their very own clubs.

There are very few English stars in EPL teams much less in the top 4 clubs. They happen to constitute the bulk of the national team. Without them we have no viable alternative.
Against Russia and Israel too we fielded players who were not the mainstay but were fringe players and got results.

Now compare ourselves with Brazil who in the recently concluded Copa America fielded barely known names (Except Robinho) and still managed to reach the finals and beat a full strength Argentina who in contrast had fielded all their stars. Can England do a Brazil and win.

Argentina won the FIFA Under20 world cup with players who regularly figure in the domestic league games and had the requisite matches to develop as players. There is some Argentina kid 6′ 4″ tall who is being touted as the new Maradona and Cheslea and other big clubs are running mad after his services. Yet this kid could not find a place in Argentina’s cup winning squad.

Jose’s boss Roman wants instant results so you see Chelsea picking up all the 30 odd years players for inflated amounts. However Benitez and SAF have no such constraints and they wisely build for the future and so does Arsene Wenger. But whom are they bringing into their teams.
In the name of building for the future Benitez brings some 18 year old Hungarian striker and another non-english midfielder. SAF gets two Brazilian kids who are brothers who play as fullbacks on either side.
English kids do not figure even in their future plans.

What has happened to the erstwhile famed youth systems of Liverpool and Manchester United which churned out great English players like Gerard, Owen, Paul Scholes, and Beckham? Now even the youth teams of the clubs take in only foreign players.

It’s a sad site to see England play in world cup matches and come away with nothing but more controversy. With each passing season the 1966 world cup triumph seems all the more impossible to repeat.

the link to local communities is loosening because of the influx of money and the vicious cycle that generates. When you’ve got rising ticket prices and advertising shoved in your face not everyone wants to buy your product.

And when local football is marginalised for the cause of that regional club in the Premiership, TV wins every single time.

the ‘Product’ is great, yes it needs to be more in tune with local needs but it’s not hurting the national team.

What about number of court appearances… Bellamy, Woodgate, Ferdinand, Bowyer… other nationalities don’t compare.

In all seriousness, if you are looking at the “Product” in terms of entertainment then the Prem is probably the best at present.

if you look at the impact on the national team, the loosening of the link to local communities, fragmentation of society etc… it has a negative knock-on effect. I don’t give a monkeys about competing in Europe and therefore would prefer more English players as it re-establishes a link between the community and teams.

In the long term with such a reduction in any form of link between teams and local communities there will be no locals attending anymore. That’s fine as long as football is still trendy. But when all the jonny-come-latelys go to some other pass-time, then the game will be ####ed.

So its just like the way managers are from the more international managers come the more international players will come

Anyway, surely you realize it’s spelt F-L-A-I-R? As in a certain Boy from the Nature?

Woo.

- Manchester United = 56.6% (17 out of 30)