A question that has probably been asked many times before.?

Question

1. Do you think that there are too many foreign footballers in the premiership?

2. If there wasn't so many foreign footballers in the premiership, would we have a better national side?

Answer 1

1.No.
2.No, because when there weren't many foreign players in our league we still sucked or didn't qualify.

Answer 2

(1) Yes that is for sure! The time when foreign players outside of England, Wales, Scotland and N Ireland came in was probably the 1980's. When the Premier League started, there were only 40 foreign players. Compare that to the current figure nowadays whereby 350 foreign players are in the Premiership! Ridiculous isn't it? But, comments in the past about foreign players have led to accusations of xenophobia(racism). Alan Pardew criticised Arsenal for not fielding one English player in their 1-0 win over Villareal in 2006. Arsene Wenger then hit back at Pardew by labelling him a racist for his comment.

(2) If there weren't so many foreign players, we would have a better national side. Also, it would be more fair. All these foreigners that come in are extremely talented and World Class. Just look at the likes of Henry, Bergkamp, Van Nistelrooy, Van Persie, Florent Malouda, Santa Cruz, Claudio Pizarro, Henry and many more. They have graced the game with such precision and care. As you know, there aren't many talented English players. But because they are all rubbish at least then there would be more competition. That would push the likes of Walcott, Bentley, Wright- Phillips, Huddlestone, Jenas and Dyer to play more and work much harder.

Answer 3

1/ Yes, I do think there are too many foreign players in the Premiership, blocking the path to promising young English players.

Don't get me wrong, TOP QUALITY foreign players have brought a wealth of knowledge and ability to the English game which we can only benefit from. The players I dislike are the mediocre mercenaries (ie Ravanelli, Emerson, Ghaly, Boogers etc) who only come along for the ride and then vanish when the going gets tough. They are the ones impeding the progress of quality English footballers.

2/ Hard to say, I think young English players have benefited a great deal from foreign imports such as Bergkamp, Zola, Schmeichel, Hyypia and so on, and the national team has also flourished at times (though in 1992, we only had 11 foreign players in the league, but the national team was rubbish).

They have a saying in the Arsenal Academy: " if it's going to be, it's up to me " but it must be so disheartening for a young English player to train so hard to improve his game, only for Wenger to go out and buy an unheard-of French-African etc, and then plonk him straight in his place.

If more and more English players were playing and getting match practice, Steve McClaren would have a wider pool of players to pick from, and thus a wider pool to unearth talented youngsters like Micah Richards, or even a quality back-up striker.

Answer 4

I think there is too many foreigners in the premiership..All our home grown talent have to go to smaller clubs and tend not to get noticed,and when they do get snapped up by the big premiership clubs they are only fringe players because the big money foreigners have regular places in the team...I think mclaren wants to start looking at the smaller clubs because we have some good individuals even though the team they play for have'nt or never will win the Premiership.

Answer 5

There needs to be more British players playing here but if they are not as good a foreign players then the premiership might suffer. Gerrard and Lampard etc would get into any team in the country. So they are not suffering i just think there should be more money spent on youth players.

Also people need to remember to look after the lower league teams as that is where a lot of talent lies

Answer 6

there are far too many foreigners in the premiership no doubt about that.they have brought a lot of quality to our league and some special talents - Berbatov,Cantona,Klinsmann,Henry,Ronaldo etc. so it would be a shame to have missed out on watchin these had they not joined the premiership.even as a Spurs fan its been a pleasure to have had Henry in the league. there definitely needs to be some sort of restriction on how many foreigners teams can play or have in the squad as a whole.but i doubt it will ever be addressed.

I dont think it really affects the national team though.your thinkin that by having foreigners its keeping English players out of their club teams.but if the english players were good enough in the first place then they'd be in the club team instead of the foreign player.and hence they would be good enough to get into the national team.hope that makes sense!!

Answer 7

1. Yes without question.
2. Possibly but not definitely. It's only in the last 5-10 years that so many foreigners have come into the Premier League. Before that England still performed poorly. We've never won the Euro Championship and only once won the world cup over 40 years ago as hosts. And we've never won a competition overseas. So the jury's out..

Answer 8

1.) No, because in order to improve the standing of the league as a whole, it is necessary to find the best players. Many of the best clubs at least have a base of players (one or two) who are local and homegrown with other players (many of which happen to be foreign) filling in the positions and other roles. A lot of loyal local players are still there, so I think that it is okay. There will never be a day when England is not represented in the EPL.

2.) No, that just has to do with the football in England. The players and fans are more interested in their local derby than winning Euro and the WC, which would require more camps and time from the players from each club to get used to each other's style's.

Answer 9

This agument will never be resolved. Foreign Players have helped English players (Cantona for United) is one example. Man Utd have a good Youth Academy and have produce lots of Top Players. If more clubs did this then that would be the solution. Foreign Players are not the problem, Football Clubs are!

Answer 10

No and No, the foreign players in the premiership can bring a more competitive nature to the english players, so when Italy plays Brazil, they know what to expect when they see Adriano and Kaka, so on and so forth

Answer 11

1. No. Why wouldn't you want to see the BEST players in the world instead of just the best players in England?

Your logic is reversed - you think that because of the foreign players, English footballers aren't the best when in reality if England had the best players, there wouldn't be so many foreigners.

The best foreign players grow up in favelas and ghettos and are hungry, scrappy kids willing to sacrifice. The best English players grow up pampered in the shadow of an organized FC.

2. It'd be a far, far worse league but the richest clubs would continue to be the best clubs.