There has been alot of talk this week about the lack of English player getting their chances and its harming the England national side. Gareth Southgate is proposing putting a limit in the championship but the FA and the Premier League are sure what to do with the Premier League as it could ruin the division as a global product. So yesterday I was looking at our team and the vast majority or our team is English. I think most teams in this division are the same aswell. Watford I think are probably the only team where the majority of the squad isnt English Of our first team squad we have Paul Konchesky, Danny Drinkwater, Dean Hammond, Matty James, Jamie Vardy, Lloyd Dyer, Martyn Waghorn, Neil Danns, Liam Moore, Gary Taylor-Fletcher and David Nugent all available for the English national side. With Paul Konchesky and David Nugent already playing for the England team in the past Wes Morgan, Sean St. Ledger and Andy King are all born in England but represent other countries Kasper Schmeichel was eligible for England aswell before his call up for Denmark and im pretty sure Jeff Schlupp could have played for England So the only players we have that was never available for the England team are Ritchie De Laet, Zak Whitbread, Paul Gallagher, Zoumana Bakoyogo, Ignasi Miquel, Anthony Knockaert, Conrad Logan, Marcin Wasilewski and Chris Wood So are the FA right about the lack of English players in the championship? I think the problem is purely the coaching standard and setup isnt as good as it is in other countries. It will take time to change that and the FA will need to start it at grassroots level and work their way up
Nothing will really change, the raw materials are just not there anymore...the culture of going down the wreck and playing day and night is not what the young un's want to do these days...that's how natural players emerged, not by trying to hot house kids in "acadamies", we have become a country of watchers not do'ers.. xbox and laptops rule.. the blazered powers that be at the FA can have a talking shop 24/7 but they can do fook all about it
But also the FA have stupid rules for kids. My lad plays under 10's although he qualifies for under 9's. He's been with the team for 3 years. He did play a tournament last year in his age group where he just run past everyone and scored loads of goals. Might be a bit of fun but not developing the player. Under FA rules he has to leave his team this year because he is not allowed to play 9-a-side. So he has to leave his friends and find another team.
I think Gallagher could have played for England to be fair but I'm not too sure. Not that he was ever likely to bother any England managers. I don't remember us ever having a massive number of non home-nations players to be fair. With Sven we had a few, but the core were still from the British Isles. With O'Neill we only had two or three at a time.
The england team don't have anything to worry about, in a couple years time they will have some world class players playing in there midfield (Byram and Mowatt ) running the show
It's going to be very difficult to impose restrictions, particularly in regard to players from the European Union, under legal 'restraint of trade' and 'migration of workforce' rules ... IUTBJF hits the nail on the head - when I was a lad we used to play football in the street dodging around and in between parked cars and with the double doors of a carpet factory as goals - taught you how to control a football in a confined space - those still wanting to play are 'over coached' if anything but the real problem is 'alternative entertainment'.
Both Gallagher and Whitbread would have qualified for England but opted (sensibly) for different nations.
