ENGLAND ARE out of the World Cup. Expectations were
low from the beginning, and there was no false expectation of England winning
it, as there was in previous tournaments. The pool of English foot balling talent
has been diminishing ever since the Premier League was formed in 1992/93. The
league's gravitational pull on foreign players is immense, thanks to Sky and
the billions they have poured into the premiership. Our top ranking clubs,
especially with their new billionaire owners can afford to buy the very best
from abroad.
Figures
for 2013[1] tells a sad story. The
number of home country players now represent a third of all premiership players
at 32.26%. In other parts Europe the figures are vastly different; in Spain,
Spaniards account for 59% of those playing in La Liga; in Germany's Bundesliga
, Germans make up to 50%. While in the Scottish Premiership, the figure is
57.19%.
We
can either have the finest football league in the world; or we can have a first
class national side -but we cannot have both; it is as simple as that. But is
it? Why do the Spanish and the Germans have such a large percentage (comparatively
speaking) of home country players in their Leagues? Could it be that they
produce more talented players than we do and therefore rely less on buying from
the world market?
It
is probably all of the above. But one thing is for sure, no English manager,
and certainly not Roy Hodgson, can be blamed for our latest failure. We are
simply short of home grown talent and whomsoever is the English manager; they
has to work with what the premiership (or the Champion's League) provides them
with.
Sir
Alex Ferguson was the last manager to create a sufficiency of home grown talent
to represent the country. When he began his management of Manchester United in
1986; he was give the time to create a thoroughbred side. The club knew they
had a talent in their midst and the United nursery produced the likes of Paul
Scholes, Ryan Giggs (and yes, I know he is welsh), David Beckham, and Phil and Gary Neville.
Ferguson
was no overnight success, but the club understood that it took time to create a
talented side, and they, and the fans gave Ferguson the time he needed. But
today the premiership demands immediate success as David Moyes found to his
cost last season. For clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City
and Arsenal; the billionaire owners and the fans demand immediate success.
Just
as there is a market in football talent in the premiership; then so there is in
talented itinerant, and usually foreign managers. All of this vibrant commercial activity aimed at buying success at
club level must surely negate any kind of flourishing of English talent. Of
course, there will be the Rooney's in the future, but they will not be enough
to transform the mediocre talent they will have to play with at national level.
Ryan
Giggs and Gareth Bale both play for Wales. They are both internationally gifted
players; but they are restricted in expressing it at international level by a
lack of international talent in the Welsh team - and the same can eventually
happen to England.
IN MODERN PREMIERSHIP football time is at a premium.
It is not a languid environment of the kind Sir Alex was allowed to enjoy in
his early years at Manchester United. It should be, but it is not; club owners
who may invest, as in Chelsea's case nearly a billion pounds, and rightly demand
a return on their investment.
This
is the stream of consciousness that modern English premiership football
follows. From the administrative top, to the proles who turn out every Saturday
to become passionate about their clubs in the Premier League, I say this.
Expend all of your emotion on your club. There is nothing wrong with this. But
please do not expect England's national side in the future to even qualify for
the World Cup let alone pass the group stage into the quarter finals.
The
English fans wear two shirts; their club's and their nation's - but, perhaps in
the future they will have to choose between the two; for if it continues along
on its present trajectory of overt commercialism, which produces excellent
premiership football; but to the disadvantage of the national side; then
perhaps the fans must choose.
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