Steven Gerrard, Liverpool and Englands star player, has added his voice to the growing number of players, managers and officials concerned at the effect the increasing number of foreign players is having on the England national team.
Of the 220 players who started in last weekend`s ten Premier League fixtures, only 74 (roughly a third) were qualified to play for England and the likelyhood is that the number of foreign players will continue to grow.
Asked if he was in favour of the quota system, Gerrard said: “Yes, definitely I am all for there being a rule change.
(It has been suggested that each premier league side fields a minimum of six English qualified players)
“Something has got to happen otherwise there will be more and more foreigners and they will take over. There is a big danger that we stop producing quality young kids because of the amount of foreigners in the game. If foreigners do take over completely, it will affect the national team even worse than maybe it is now.
“I can proudly say I am playing in one of the best leagues in the world, but the important thing is to have one of the best national teams as well. It`s pointless having the best league in the world if our national team is going to suffer in the long run, so it`s important to keep bringing quality players in, the likes of Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen. Otherwise the national team will struggle.”
Gerrard is the first senior England international to raise concerns about the growing overseas influence in our Leagues.
The plan put forward by Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, and supported by Gerrard could be doomed, as the European Commission, has reiterated that sport will not be exempt from the EU Reform Treaty and that footballers like all other European citizens will continue to enjoy freedom of movement.
What is your view, is Gerrard right, do you care about the National team ?
Even if you don’t care about the England team, do you agree that a poor National side will ultimately undermine the premiership ?
Arsenal are currently Englands (term used very loosely) best side, but they rarely if ever include an Englishman or any other British National in the starting line up.
Are English players not good enough or is it that they now cannot get signed on at pemiership clubs because of the large number of initially cheaper foreign imports and foreign managers favouring their countrymen ( Wenger of Arsenal and Benitez of Liverpool, Gerrards own manager ! both cases in point).
Football lovers, let us have your views ?
Article submitted by regular Vital Huddersfield poster, patriot, X Arsenal fan and football lover “tonytime”, whom we thank.
Link to Trevor Brooking article on this subject HERE
Link to Stuart Pearce article on this subject HERE
LINK to humorous look at the foreign future HERE
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Tumbleweed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amos, some of us have to work, at jobs which means no access to the internet.
In the Michael Winner esure stylie, Not seen any questions from Amos on this, but if he wants to post them here or on the forum, no problem. And please calm down dears its only an article
You have seen them Tonytime – Wingston posted the links in the thread you were following yesterday. Get yourself over there, follow the rest of the thread, and show us what you are made of. Now you are here though any response to the points various gooners have made here? Isn’t that what your article called for?
In fact just to help you further, and so that you can follow the train of the earlier posts here is the link again: http://www.arsenal.vitalfootball.co.uk/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=6159&posts=79
See you in a mo’ then.
Cheers Amos like I said if you want to post them here, no problems, ill be back (arnie style) in a while.
tonytime, they were posted in teh thread you were calling everyone sheep in ,you seem to like to frequent our forums. Why did you decide to not come back for two months after these questions were posed to you? No way of justifying them, perhaps? You will find them in the Arsenal News & Media forum, ‘another VF article’ thread… do drop by and answer them, and pose your own… »»Arsene Knows««
What the bejaesus has gone on here, are gooners all on speed or crack or something, man tony they don’t like you, Come on England.
tonytime, once again, buggers off when he’s faced with real questions.
This, Vital Huddefield readers, is the esteemed writer and thinker of this article – a man who bails out and runs away from the comments and challenges posed on the article he himself submitted, and why? because he really doesnt have any way of covering his baseless utterances with anything resembling clear, composed and well thought out counter-arguments, for he does not have any to the questions he is answered back.
We have responded to the points laid at us, and countered them well, with reasoning and justification. Tonytime will not, and indeed, cannot do this. An empty vessel be he, and one that leaks too. »»Arsene Knows««
Hudders, it’s because he cuts and runs. He comes on our forums to throw mud about, ans whever we try to engage him in a meaningful debate, he announces ‘I’ve got to go’, calls us sheep, and buggers off, because he knows that if he statys he’ll be shown up for the hollow thinker that he increasingly reveals himself to be. »»Arsene Knows««
An empty vessel indeed – you have the link Tonytime and all the reference points for the questions are contained therein – we have seen your Michael Winner style and your Arnie style – now lets see you respond like an adult – big boys style in fact.
Winston, Amos, I repeat, (a la broken record, bryan adams – run to you ) like I said if you want to post them here, no problems.
Tonytime, you seem to like coming to our forums, do so now. Answer said questions, amos posted you the link. And tonytime, you started sounding like a broken record some 2 months ago… »»Arsene Knows««
I recognise that you are just trying to find an excuse for not tackling this in the proper forum. It can’t be down to coyness because you have been only too happy to create new threads yourself on our forums so I’ll post the text of the questions here. You and everyone else attending this forum will recognise that you will need to refer to the thread at http://www.arsenal.vitalfootball.co.uk/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=6159&posts=79
that you are suddenly rather shy to revist despite having been only too happy to contribute to it before the questions were posed so here is the text “””””TT?s main obsession is nationalism and the impact on the English game of the gooners strong contingent of mainly European players to, he claims, the national teams detriment. This is an issue that has been debated extensively, with good points made robustly and articulately in gooners defence over a number of threads on this forum, but to keep it simple let?s ask TT to respond to the two considered points raised in this thread by FAB4 and Niko on the 30/7/07. To those I will add a third point which is why if the issue is not important enough for the FA to continue with the planned College of Excellence in Burton along the lines of the French Clairefontaine academy should it be incumbent on any professional football team to take the development of players for the national association seriously?
The other stick that Tonytime looks to beat gooners with is the spurious claim of disloyalty. Gooners that have posted their views on figures such as Ljungberg and Dein which have not accorded with his own (insofar as he has one) have been accused of disloyalty for daring to express an honestly held opinion. As he claims to be a former gooner who was unable to remain loyal to his club how would he defend the hypocrisy in his stance?
Finally, given his claim that he doesn’t make personal insults , how would he defend his post yesterday in the ‘Disrespectful Dein’ thread?””””” So there you have it TT. Once you have overcome this crippling bout of shyness you may find it easier to retrace your steps and answer on the forum itself.
No excuses, I decide when I attend forums or not, not you, I will not play along with what seems to amount to attempts to cast me as a naughty schoolboy disobeying rules, who has some questions to answer to the staisfaction of the haedmaster, with yourselves as headmaster, judge and jury by summoning me to attend at your office.
My offers to debate these issues here as highlighted by this article here, have not been taken up. My opinions have not so far been altered by anything I have read and which some seem to have tried to misinterpret and misrepresent, are as valid as the next man’s. I do believe this could be one of the first examples of internet bullying I have come across. For England and St George, Vive La France, Viva Espania etc.
OK – so your bottling it then. I expected nothing more from you. You have consistently failed to engage in any reasonable debate on any of the points you raise yet you continue with your pious, pretentious pseudo-intellectual posturing. You simply engage in mudslinging attempt to justify your narrow, parochial obsessions and when you are taken up on an invitation to discuss your views you cut and run. You won’t engage in debate because you can’t – it’s that simple.
I am interested in our National team, just like the next Englishman, and the articles here highlighting issues are always a good read, but let’s get back to reality here. Not sure what the agenda of all these Arsenal fans is, but their reaction is extreme and out of proportion, so somethings wrong. Anyway….. Come ON TOWN, Get in their Beckett, and don’t mention Glennon !
Repeat, click, repeat, click, repeat, click Broken record, see above offers, unless i’m very much mistaken, the number of posts and posters mean this is a debate here, on an article “wot i wrote” apologies to Ernie Wise. Repeat, click, repeat, click, repeat, click, etc, etc, etc.
That Amos bloke, top name, better than Mark or Tony or Steve and many others, must be a copper, teacher, or some sort of boss type, he sure does not like not getting his own way. CHILL
i m not calming down coz ur toking crap