Liverpool FC Forum

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Lennart Johansson UEFA president and FIFA vice president today said that the reason for Englands failure in the world cup was due to there being too many foreigners in the top teams in the premiership, resulting in the stifling of young home grown talent. He says he prefers a maximum of five players from abroad and that he will be looking into this. Source ITV teletext.
             My question is IF this ruling ever came into being (not that I believe it ever would)which five foreign stars would you keep?
My five would be
Alonso
Sissoko
Gonzales
Agger
Bellamy

I decided against keeping Reina as we have Carson/Kirkland

[LFCFan4Life]

The G14 will never let this ruling pass through. Brazil's starting 11 all play in Europe and their talents have been developed by European clubs. Despite not playing in their own league, they have one of the best teams in the world.

England just don't know how to use their players correctly

[Anfield Kop]

Have to agree !

The English failure at the World Cup is due to the fact that the manager didn't know how to use his players and not because we have too many imports in the premier league.

[RedWolf35]

Eriksson is a complete numpty!!

Anyone else would not have played Shrek upfront alone and even if they did would have the common sense to see he was getting frustrated!!!

Then what do we do replace him with Mclaren (another muppet)

Nothing to do with the structure of our league why we had a poor world cup!!!

[metalhead]

Lennart Johansson is talking sh*t!

England have a great squad with talented players, its up to the manager to use them in his tactics, but sven made so many mistakes and can't get his tactics right.

[Red Soul]

I don't think a ruling limiting the number of foreign employees in an organisation, which is all footballers are at the end of the day, would be enforceable in today's politically correct climate. If a company was told it could only have a maximum of five people of foreign descent working in their office, there'd be a f*cking uproar, and I see no reason why football should be any different. At the end of the day, it's corporate racism.

[tubby]

Lennart Johansson UEFA president and FIFA vice president today said that the reason for Englands failure in the world cup was due to there being too many foreigners in the top teams in the premiership, resulting in the stifling of young home grown talent. He says he prefers a maximum of five players from abroad and that he will be looking into this. Source ITV teletext.
             My question is IF this ruling ever came into being (not that I believe it ever would)which five foreign stars would you keep?
My five would be
Alonso
Sissoko
Gonzales
Agger
Bellamy

I decided against keeping Reina as we have Carson/Kirkland

This would never happen becasue there is too much money to be made.

And if it did I think by foreign they mean as in "needs a work permit". Not players from countries in the EU such as Alonso.

[dawson99]

It should be swapped, there should be at least 5 home grown in the squad, with at least 3 playing in each match, that would make everyone happy you would think

[tubby]

It should be swapped, there should be at least 5 home grown in the squad, with at least 3 playing in each match, that would make everyone happy you would think

Im sure that somthing similar to that will take into effect in the 2008 season.

They mentioned it last year and said in the next 3 years English clubs have to have at least 5 homegrown players.

Not sure what Arsenal are going to do then! Especially if Cole leaves.

[ConnO'var]

This probably won't be very popular but he may have a point.

I agree with everyone else in that the primary reason for us being out of the WC is the bleeding idiot Eriksson...

But Johanssen's point has some truth to it IMO. Look at our starting eleven.

Goalkeeper -   Paul Robinson. Good, steady but not world class IMO. Best GKs in the premiership are all foreigners. Cech, Reina, Lehmann, Van der Saar. And I don't see a world class talent on the horizon.

Right Back  -   Gary Neville?? I don't think that anyone in their right mind will have the nuts to say that this idiot's world class. Who do we have in reserve or coming through the ranks. Luke Young. Once again steady but nowhere near world class.

Centrebacks - Ferdinand and Terry. Even though I hate him, I have to admit that Rio is world class even though he is prone to stupid errors. Terry is very very good but not quite world class. Waiting in the wings... Carra is excellent too but who else do we have coming through? Anton's not gonna be quite as good as his brother. I would say that this is one of the few positions where Englishmen can be safely said to be the best players in the position in the Premiership.

Left-back. Ashley Cole and Wayne Bridge. Good, steady but hardly the best in the premiership. Heinze is tops for me closely followed by Gallas.

Wingers - Forget about it.... no englishmen even comes close. Best in class are Duff, Robben, Faggot Ronaldo, Ljungberg etc etc.

Central Midfield - Gerrard is our only world class talent. Fat Frank? No fooking chance. Fleet street has overhyped him so many people out there think he's the bees knees but IMO he's good at best. Alonso, Fabregas, Makelele, Essien are tops in the prem.

Strikers - Shrek? I know a lot of people rate him but world class? Not in my book.... he's too dumb. Owen? Crouch? The great hope Walcott? All of them simply don't cut it for me with the exception of Theo who is still unproven.... These guys cannot hold a candle to the Henrys, Van Persies, Drogbas and Crespos in my book.

Look at it this way, how many of our squad would get into a world XI right now? If you take Gerrard out of the equation...

The answer is a big, fat NADA, zilch, zero.

Anyone exciting coming on the horizon?  See answer above. All the academies of the top english squads are inundated with foreign youngsters... ours included.

So I do see Johanssen's point.

However, I don't agree with him in restricting 5 foreigners per club only. Smacks of xenophobia and protectionism to me. The premiership is more exciting to watch when the best players available are playing.

The root cause of the demise of world class english players is not the influx of foreign talent.
I believe the blame should be placed on the foot of the FA's door due to poor training, backward coaching techniques, naive tactical methods and the junior level. We need to upgrade these if we are gonna develop world class talents in the future.

Oh.... and a disclaimer here before all on the forum rip into me....   All names mentioned above do not mean that they are players I support. Just acknowledging their talents.

[kunilson]

i disagree with some of that ^

I think Owen has a great goal scoring record for an international striker.....and we of all people know that he can do the job up front if he does not get injured or whatever. Owen on prolific form along with Rooney would be deadly. Look at how Podolski and Klose made an average German side look good....

In the midfield, Beckham giving up the captaincy is basically signalling the end of his career, and i think Lennon has the right qualities to be world class in the future....downing,carrick,jenas can go either way...but they have the bonus of being groomed by the likes of Gerrard in the England midfield, and they have potential to be "good enough" internationally. I do think we need another Gerrard-in-the-making for future England success.

I think Dawson can be a competent centre back in the future, and i dont see many others that look that great at the moment. Ashley Cole needs to get his form back, and dont forget he was considered one of,if not THE best left back in the world at one point......he'll be around for a while.

The world cup after the next one is when we should worry about the upcoming players....cos most of this "golden generation" will still be there in 4 years hopefully. Euro 2008 is a realistic target for a major trophy, depending on whether mcClaren will make this England team his own...

Sven got it tactically wrong from the start, but the players on the pitch lacked a captain who led from example. And i think becks has lost his influence on the team for quite a while now.....the team never looked like having that fighting spirit we have seen from a certain team we know in Cardiff and Istanbul.....

[kunilson]

and i think foreigners can help or hinder the success of a team.....u can either take the good qualities from a different style of football, and use that in ur own national team, but u have to have a manager who knows how to incorporate that into team correctly or u get a bunch of players too used to playing around certain qualities from their club side they dont have in their national team, and will end up running around being confused because they dont link up well.

[48-1119859832]

How about sending out English players out to the leagues like La Liga and Seria A to work on their techincal abilities and then England might do well. English players need to learn how to mix up play, be more creative and further their intelligence and techincal ability as well as learning how to use the football to full effect.

[tubby]

How about sending out English players out to the leagues like La Liga and Seria A to work on their techincal abilities and then England might do well. English players need to learn how to mix up play, be more creative and further their intelligence and techincal ability as well as learning how to use the football to full effect.

This is true but very few actually want to go there and even fewer suceed.

In fact out of the last 3 English players to go to Spain only Steve McManaman can actually claim a sucesfull carrer.

I can still remember his first goal for Madrid in that final now!!!

[corsocomo]

So do I...McManaman's brilliant!