by Leody » Sun Mar 16, 2008 7:25 pm
I really can't understand how having foreign players in the league is detrimental to the English national team...
If you've ever played sports you know that playing against better competition makes you a better player... So having the best players from all around the world should make the English players playing in England better than they would be w/o them. Now, granted there will be fewer English players to draw from for the national team as a result of having more foreign players, but the players that are drawn from for the national team should be BETTER than if the foreign players weren't are around. This does make one assumption though, that the foreign players are playing in the league because they are better players... With the inflated cost some of the young English talent that may not always be the case. Some clubs may have turned to the foreign market in order to get players on the cheap, not just for better talent.
Either way you want to look at it, I really don't think that the struggles of the English national team have anything to do with the way the domestic league is run. What I think is the problem is the English players themselves. They seem to have an arrogance about them and a sense of entitlement. They remind me of the the USA basketball team over the last few years. The USA basketball team is w/o a doubt the most talented in the world. However, they thought that they could just show up and they would win everything. Over the last few years they have found out the hard way that is not the case. England thought they could just show up against teams like Macedonia and walk to a win. Didn't happen though... THAT is what cost them. That has nothing to do with there being foreigners in the EPL.
According to my calculations there are 76 foreign players on the books at the top 5 clubs in Italy. They won the world cup 2 years ago and finished top of their group for Euro 2008. Foreign players don't seem to be holding them back much.
The foreign players are not the root of the problem for the English national team. The problems with English football come down to youth development and coach development. Another problem is England is a well developed, intelligent and wealthy nation. Most star athletes do not come from wealthy well to do backgrounds. Most of the people that make it in the world of sport, do so because they have a pressure on them to succeed and what is a better pressure than being stuck in a life of poverty if you don't? Those sort of people will work insanely hard to get out and if football provides them an opportunity to do so than they will. Look at Brazil for example... the average person living in Brazil makes $6,800 a year... or £3,400 which is 61st in the world. Compared to England where the avg is $38,000, £19,000 and 6th in the world. Kids in Brazil are going to work till they drop because they know football is a way to a better life. Kids growing up England are going to know that if they don't make it in football, they will still have an education and opportunity to make a good living and live a comfortable life. Now I'm not saying this is the case for every kid growing up in each country, but I doubt you hear parents saying to their kids in Brazil "I want you spending more time on your school work than you do on football" as much as you would hear that in England...
Ok, got a bit long winded and more than I wanted to get into on this... but I think you all understand what I'm getting at.
This space used to be more fun...