Idealshadesrwrf Once upon a time there were restrictions on the number of foreign players a club could employ. It meant that teams had to invest in and nurture home grown talent, and as a consequence the England manager had a far wider choice of top flight players. These days it's all about making a fast buck. Why spend money developing English players when you can buy in the finished article from somewhere else?
^THIS^
2ndly if you buy the foreign player, he isn't going to have the "English drinking mentality", where he does a Joey Barton/Hughes-the-murderer/Troy Deeney/"insert name here there are too many" while drunk, and is more likely to take tactical instructions, train well, and generally will be easier to deal with.
Why were the scandinavian players in the 90s such a big success in England?
Not first and foremost because they had some exceptional footballing ability, but because they were level-headed people, trained hard, improved their abilities and performed well, they ate healthy food and didn't eat all the pies, and didn't get locked up for GBH/Affray.
Why were several exceptionally skilled players such massive failures during the same time?
Because they drink, have mental issues, eat all the pies, don't train hard, increasing their risk of injury etc.
England need to have a look at:
-how many foreign players should be allowed
-what kind of attitudes towards eating, training, and accepting tactical instructions, that are instilled into young players
-instilling healthy values into their youths so they do not go overboard with excessive drinking, that means ALL youths not just footballers
Also sometimes the best players as kids are not best as adults. In Norway we accept this as fact and do not "sharpen" the competition for kids until they are a lot older than what happens in England. We call this a "broadspan sports" approach.
This allows for people who are serious about their professionalism and training to develop at a stage where they would have long since been dropped by English sides.
It has always struck me that the rule around ‘home-grown’ players fails what should be it’s primary purpose, to develop and promote English talent through academies and youth setups into first team squads, by allowing clubs to assign ‘home-grown’ status to foreign players who have been in the setup for a certain period or from a certain age. Excluding players under a certain age from squad limits does much the same, although I can see it’s value in ensuring clubs can maintain a comprehensive youth and reserve setup.
As already mentioned, there should be a strict and relatively small number of non-British players in a club’s named league squad, say 7 or 8. But what does EU employment law say about that?
