Andy Gilder wrote:
Not sure how feasible it is from a legal standpoint, but I'd like to see some sort of quota to prevent PL clubs stuffing their academies full of kids from overseas.
If a large percentage of your kids aren't England qualified, then that is going to feed through into your first team.
Problem is that the clubs are - by and large - responsible for developing the next generation of players for both themselves and the country at the same time. There's always going to be a conflict, and self interest is always going to win.
So you would rather see a mediocre English player play at an academy over a talented foreign player?
Talent shines through at any level, regardless of place of birth. IMO you can't blame foreign youngsters on this nation's complete inability to consistently produce footballers of any decent quality. You watch other nations at youth level and you see things like tactical discipline, composure, decision making and versatility, and then you see the English, a bunch of grunts, double decker buses at centre half, strikers and wingers that have pace and can shoot, centre midfielders with a good long effort and full backs that sh*t bricks the moment a winger stares them down.
I used to watch a lot of reserve and academy level football and never at any point did blaming the foreign players come into mind. If anything, the foreign players elevated the English lads to greater levels and pushed for a greater quality of play in the matches. It would often be the foreign players running with the ball, or looking for the pass, or the 1-2, or to carry it for a few extra touches to create separation from defenders, whereas the English players always seemed rushed, uncomfortable and determined to be direct, rather than clever and composed. I remember watching Liverpool's academy team with Suso and Raheem Sterling playing out wide. Sterling was/is a fantastic talent, but Suso was by far and out the more rounded footballer. Raheem has pace, can shoot and glides past defenders at academy level, but Suso could pass, Suso has body feints, he has end product and his awareness is far superior to Sterling's. Suso was one of the ones that 'slipped through the net' of Barcelona and Real Madrid, it scares me what level their academies must be at if players like him can be missed, and I don't think Real and Barca have solid youth teams because they keep players based on their passport, I think they have solid youth teams because they coach and scout quality.
at the "future" of English football.
