It just means that the EPL has the resources to pull the best players from around the world. There are a great many Latin baseball players in MLB...Therefore, baseball is dead in America.

subby is a big bowl of retarded cereal, capped off by a cup of hot retarded and a side of retarded bacon.

Roger Danish: It just means that the EPL has the resources to pull the best players from around the world. There are a great many Latin baseball players in MLB...Therefore, baseball is dead in America.

subby is a big bowl of retarded cereal, capped off by a cup of hot retarded and a side of retarded bacon.

This

White Men Can't Dive.

This means that Chelsea has had some major progress over the last few years, from the era when Chelsea and the Italian national team were almost one and the same thing, to a mere 70%.

Yes, I know, Liverpool isn't all that much better, but one scouser still counts as two englishmen, right?

Gerrard, Carragher, Pennant and Crouch are English. Finnan is Irish. For a starting 11, that's not half bad for the Premier League.

Oh, and Kewell is from Oz, not a big difference, is it? Tends to suck less at cricket and says "Mate" more often, but still theoretically close to english.

Roger Danish: It just means that the EPL has the resources to pull the best players from around the world. There are a great many Latin baseball players in MLB...Therefore, baseball is dead in America.

subby is a big bowl of retarded cereal, capped off by a cup of hot retarded and a side of retarded bacon.

There is more to it than that. When you take a close look at the national team it isn't so clear. England, when playing internationally, is uninspiring at best. McClaren has been no better than Erikson in tactics, and perhaps worse in results.

The English love to be xenophobic, so moaning about foreigners in the EPL isn't going to go away until they are all gone. It is louder, however, because the national team consistently disappoints. It wouldn't be as loud if England could point to honorable defeats in the Euro or World Cup, instead of mediocre play followed by a collapse.

McClaren's (and Erikson's) problem is that they won't pick a side with purpose, they choose an all star team. Neither can pick between Lampard and Gerrard. If Rooney is supposedly the best player on the team they should build the team around him, but they can't pick a formation that gives him good service.

Rio Ferdinand launching balls up the field all day, bypassing the midfield doesn't help either. (I'm also looking at you, Ashley Cole). Stop placating players, make tough choices and build a team that can win.

/also, English people are the most athletically untalented in the world
//which might explain why few play in the EPL

Cornwell: Oh, and Kewell is from Oz, not a big difference, is it? Tends to suck less at cricket and says "Mate" more often, but still theoretically close to english.

Maaaaaate!

/all i have
//Haaaa-rryyyy, Haaaa-rryyyy, Haaaa-rryyyy!
///mate!

angie-p: //Haaaa-rryyyy, Haaaa-rryyyy, Haaaa-rryyyy!

Socceroos! Socceroos! Socceroos! Socceroos!

its should be a fun season
although, talent never won a championship.
it takes teamwork, determination and Drogba!
Go blue!

So then its like the NBA here in the states?

Case in point is that a couple of years ago Arsenal became the first 'English' team to beat Real Madrid in Madrid. Out of the 11 starting players and seven named substitutes there was not one single Englishman. Over the two legs not one English man played. And the manager is French.

Is Arsenal and English team? How exactly do 16 foreigners and a French manager represent one half of North London? If English players aren't playing against the best in Europe how can the national team beat the world's best?

The article is spot on (surprising for the Sun). The national team will suffer. Last year a player from the championship played for England. Where's the next goalie goign to come from? All the top teams have foreign players in the top two spots for goalkeeper!

Isn't Ben Foster next in line for the keeper shirt?

I think most of this is horseshiat anyway. England has the players required to win it all, they just lack the manager.

And how many games will Ben Foster play against world class opposition? He's on load at Watford for a second season and is out for up to eight months anyway.

The other problem is the price of English players. Thierry Henry cost Barcelona 16 million quid, Darren Bent cost Spurs the same. Bent is not as good as Henry but is valued the same... English players price themselves out the market. Why would anyone buy an average English player for 10 - 15 million when they can get a quality Spaniard or Agentinian for half that?

Wrighty would be the one to harp on about this, he was an arsenal player and there are no english first team players left there thanks to wenger - Arsenal are the only reason those stats rise to 70% in the top four

Liverpool is basically half Spanish thanks to Rafa, but we like him a lot more than the French one and he has a load of english players - Gerrard, Crouch, Pennant, Carragher, Carson

United have Rooney, Carrick, Rio, Neville and Scholes and some english youngsters, Giggs is a manc who plays for wales

Chelsea have a lot of the england team - Lamps, Terry, Cole, Cole, Wright-philips

I just named 7 out of the england first XI and a load of major squad members, all of whom play for the big 3

There are a load of players in the league who i'd like to see in the england squad but mcClaren is a tool and refuses to drop players like lampard or rotate the squad a bit to find a better overall team, there is nothing wrong with the team on paper, most of them play for 3 of the best clubs in the world - it's all about getting the team to 'gel' which is hard to do when the players only team up a few times a year and please note we havent won anything as a nation since 1966 and the foreign influx is pretty recent, under Sven we had one of our most successful periods and a very strong looking side - our failures have nothing to do with the amount of foreigners in the league

I would rather it didn't get too much more foreign because that would be at the detriment of our own national side but we have the top league in the world so it's going to attract the best from all over and as football improves in asia/africa as well as europe and south america there's a load more to pick from globally meaning that clubs become very multi-national so the biggest minority of players is usually english (except the arse) with a variety of other nationals, if we ended up with whole teams filled with italians or portuguese i might be slightly worried but english players remain the biggest single nationality within the league, even if they are a minority these days

I hope it doesn't get any worse, we need less foreign managers using their own contacts abroad to scout players - we need more good english ones rising up like Steve Coppell and Reading, who are one of the most english sides and we need to keep the academies producing good young players, and most importantly we need to give mcclaren the boot before he does some serious damage

There's also the small matter of the quality of coaching kids are getting. FourFourTwo magazine just did a three issue feature on youth development both in England and Europe and the main difference was that kids in Europe were being given intensive skills and technique coaching from a very young age compared to in England, hence you can get a player like a Fabregas or Ronaldo who is pretty much the finished article and ready for the full international squad by the time they turn 18, who also happen to be cheaper to buy than English players of the same age who are not as polished in the fundamentals. Until there is a complete overhaul in the mindset of youth coaching across the whole game in England, the national team is going to continually suffer. I mean look at the England squad now and where it will be in five years time? Micah Richards, Wayne Rooney, Theo Walcott and who else?

Bullshiat, bullshiat, bullshiat.

Soccer/Football is becoming more and more tied to athleticism and pasty-faced Brits are a collection of some of the most unathletic, uncoordinated people in the World.

It happened with tennis.
It happened with Olympic sports.
It's now happening with football/soccer.

My advice...stick to golf...the only sport where a fat guy with man tits can be ranked 2nd in the world

Balls I say!

The problem is not that England is dead as a football nation, it's that English (and to a lesser extent British) players command massively inflated transfer fees and wages, so clubs look elsewhere (Europe / Latin America / Africa). You can blame the players and agents for hiking the wages so much.

you only need to look at the £9 million Sunderland allegedly paid for Craig Gordon, a British record for a keeper. If he had been from, say, Russia or Latvia or even France he wouldn't have commanded such a fee.

I'm in Scotland and we make our clubs have a certain amount of young Scots in their squads.

And nobody calls it "soccer". It's "football".

FourFourTwo magazine is in the middle of a series about this topic, and it's a very good read.

I would actually like to see ALL leagues worldwide do something similar to what MLS does, and limit the number of foreigners per team.

I think it does a lot more to build soccer in that specific country.

Swiss Colony: Is Arsenal and English team? How exactly do 16 foreigners and a French manager represent one half of North London?

Well, I do have to travel to London to see them. So, yes! Plus, they were the first and only team honored to tea with the Queen, who is a fan. Of course your Queen is French too. Hell, her MOTTO IS IN FRENCH SLOBBER SLOBBER HURRRR.

This is just typical English xenophobia. If you want Arsenal to buy some English men, prevent Chelsea and the like from outbidding Arsenal. Every time Arsenal is in for a player, like Shawn Wright-Phillips, Chelsea outbids them by DOUBLE. At Arsenal SWP would have been a starter, at Chelsea, he's a £16m bench player. And his game has taken a serious dive since then. He was absolute shiat in the community shield.

Further, Arsenal don't have, and don't want, a foreign billionaire ruining their finances. Wait. What's that? The other clubs have foreign ownership? Well, I'll be god damned. Arsenal is one of a handful of English owned clubs. And actually, they are the only successful English owned club. And they stay financially viable by NOT BUYING OVERPRICED ENGLISHMEN. Arsenal's transfer policy, team policy, fan policy, winning ways, all contribute to keeping Arsenal an English team.

Also, what about Arsenal's youth team? How many young Englishmen have some out of Arsenal's youth policy? You don't know because you only listen to announcers at matches decry the starting XI. The facts are that Arsenal has a robust youth policy that starts, trains, and gets jobs for tons of young English players. In Fact they're one of the best in the country.

To sum up, stop listening to announcers who decry Arsenal's starting XI and get on the band wagon. In two years time Arsenal will be the ONLY English owned club in England. Then who will you root for?

Glasgowsfinest: it's that English (and to a lesser extent British) players command massively inflated transfer fees

this is only possible due to the foreign ownership

if there were fewer foreign billionaires overpaying for English players, the English players would command smaller transfer fees.

timmy_the_tooth

you make no sense - so in your book an english team is more english just because it is owned by an englishman regardless of how many players are english? - i don't know any non-gooners who would consider Arsenal more english than any other premiership team just because they have an academy and english ownership, and they generally know more than 'what the announcers say' and how long do you really think Arsenal can avoid a takeover? i'll give them 2 years

Most football fans appreciate that Arsenal has a great academy set up but they sell all the bloody players!! There's a reason in the Carling Cup tottenham meeting the commentator kept accidentally saying 'France' instead of Arsenal

Of course your Queen is French too. Hell, her MOTTO IS IN FRENCH SLOBBER SLOBBER HURRRR.

What's that about?

Lt. Col. Angus: I would actually like to see ALL leagues worldwide do something similar to what MLS does, and limit the number of foreigners per team.


Even if this were desirable (and I'm not sure that it is) it would be virtually impossible for countries in the EU to do this. Just look a the struggle English cricket is having in enforcing its quotas (and Cricket has limited interest in mainland Europe) due to EU emplyment law, it would be even harder for football.

tarquinrainbowtrout: What's that about?

you Brits deny your French heritage.

timmy_the_tooth

the monarchy is related to pretty much every other european monarchy, so true it isn't strictly British but it's biggest influence is from the German/Danish lines and it's pretty British if you look at william's ancestry

'you Brits' - so you're not even from the country, go support someone in your own

The "worlds games" richest league attracts players from all around the world. Incredible!

tarquinrainbowtrout: in your book

in my book Arsenal is an English team. I didn't say "more English."

they sell all the bloody players!!

of course, as long as Pompey will pay though the nose for them, why shouldn't they?

There's a reason in the Carling Cup tottenham meeting the commentator kept accidentally saying 'France' instead of Arsenal

Yes. Because he's probably a Spurs fan, who fielded majority foreign teams for both meetings as well.

Go ahead, hate Arsenal. It's all you've got. That, and 5th place, will get you bankruptcy in 4 years. Remember, Leeds United uses mostly English players too.

/liverpool fan, not a yid

Hey, in other news DaMarcus Beasley actually put a ball in the net yesterday in Rangers' Champions League game. Color me amazed, that guy misses open nets more than anyone I've seen. Well, anyone except Landycakes.

tarquinrainbowtrout: william's ancestry

William the Conqueror?

Guillaume le Bâtard?

That's a stretch. He was descended from Norman and Franks and by the time of the conquest was French.(p)

The house of Plantagenet was rife with French ancestry. It isn't until Richard II that you have a king born in England of English ancestry.

so you're not even from the country, go support someone in your own

Perfect. At least you're up front with your xenophobia. Arsenal has a lot of black players, does that bother you as well?

Why would I want to support a team in here when I can support one of the best, most diverse teams on the planet?

You know, most British people I've met are very unlike you. Somewhere along the line they left the island and got a little perspective. Maybe you should too. I hear Mallorca is nice, plus they have British pubs so you can feel at home.

tarquinrainbowtrout: liverpool fan

I have a lot of friends over here who are Liverpool supporters, would you rather they stay home?

Also, now I know why you're upset about my ownership comments. Enjoy the higher ticket prices and all the Englishmen rotting on the bench (you think Crouch is going to play above wunderkind Torres? HA!)

It's only taken the top teams 5 years to catch up to Arsenal's transfer policy. That's yet another way Arsenal and Arsene Wenger have revolutionized English Football: training, stats, health, and transfer policy. Next up? Total Football. Some clubs are already trying to play it. In 10 years every club will be. Full backs will be overlapping, central defenders bringing the ball forward, defending from the front, the game will be open, beautiful.

Also, as far as a takeover. Arsenal is estimating that they will be reaping profits of £100m annually once they pay down a portion of their debt with the sales of the Highbury condos. The board would be fools to sell now. If they sold, Kroenke would have to borrow heavily to obtain the team, which means, like Liverpool and Man U, lumping the debt back into the team and onto the fans.

In two years, Arsenal will be the most profitable club in English football, without some rich guy adding debt. fark Kroenke.

The Italians banned foreign players in Serie A between '66 and '80 to improve the quality of the national team. No way in hell that happens these days with the TV money being so critical to the EPL.

It is funny to see old FA Cup games from the late '70s and early '80s on Fox Soccer Channel. Sooooo pasty, so many horrendous hair cuts.

timmy_the_tooth:

"Total football?"

I'm not familiar enough with Arsenal's play to get a good feeling for what you speak of...

Any other club/national sides preach this philosophy?

Lt. Col. Angus

it was a famous football system mainly used by the Dutch, Johan Cruyff is probably the most famous player of it - worked well but they ended up losing to Germany in 1974

the basic premise of it is that each player can play in each position, ensuring that formation is held when someone moves out of position

can't say i've noticed Arsenal doing it recently, either way they came 4th last season

sure they lost the world cup as Netherlands because the team wasn't all familiar with "total football" (also Beckenbaur is god incarnate) but Cryuff and Ajax won Europe the three years in a row '71,'72,'73
/and also...wasn't the total of all the Arsenal v. LPool matches something like 12-5?

correction....15-7

Total football is what you call the beautiful game without success. That's exactly what the Dutch did in the 70s.

Anyway, since the ownership is slowly approaching 0% on the island, who cares about the EPL? Right now it's the place to be if you want to strike it rich as a footballer, but it won't help much to the national team.
200,000€ for John Terry??? How ridiculous is that?This is inflation at its finest.

Personally I think that the English sports press is to blame as well. Every other sucker is hyped to the moon if he can only do free kicks. These guys have totally lost their perspective.

Paddy: Personally I think that the English sports press is to blame as well. Every other sucker is hyped to the moon if he can only do free kicks. These guys have totally lost their perspective.

Absolutely they have. Every single time England goes to the World Cup the press gets into a frothy mess and declares that this is the time. We have the coach, we have the personnel, etc. etc. Then the superstars look average, you rely on Crouch to get the goalscoring done, and somehow those cheating diver nations put together good teams who beat you.

timmy_the_tooth: Next up? Total Football. Some clubs are already trying to play it. In 10 years every club will be. Full backs will be overlapping, central defenders bringing the ball forward, defending from the front, the game will be open, beautiful.

I just don't see this happening. Some teams play this kind of football, and I support that decision. I like the way Arsenal, Barca, Sevilla, have been playing the past few years. I don't think it is the most successful way to play the game. Interestingly, there was an article on SI http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/tim_vickery/07/24/brazil.reax/1.ht ml (pops) about the Copa America final, in which the author expresses his preference for Argentine football over the new (not old) Brazilian style. But look, the cynical Brazilians who played counter attacking football won the game.

OMO: Soccer/Football is becoming more and more tied to athleticism and pasty-faced Brits are a collection of some of the most unathletic, uncoordinated people in the World.

Yay! Someone else recognizes it! I love how none of the English have even tried to refute this.

Paddy: Total football is what you call the beautiful game without success. That's exactly what the Dutch did in the 70s

*ahem*

spittersRquitters: Cryuff and Ajax won Europe the three years in a row '71,'72,'73

I'm not worried. Arsenal are a young team. Already they are showing signs of life. Hell they won two trophies already this seas.

/well if Crazy Mourinho gets to claim the Community Shield as a "trophy"...

Groy: I like the way Arsenal, Barca, Sevilla, have been playing the past few years. I don't think it is the most successful way to play the game

they needed a goal poacher and they got one.

too bad he's not English. he'd have cost thrice as much, scored half as many goals, and coonted off to Chelsea while claiming Arsenal treated him poorly.

or, he'd have just simply packed up shop in the middle of a game and bogged off to Brussels for a weekend of party and play.

timmy_the_tooth: *ahem*

Of course, they won the CL three times in a row. Plus Feijernoord the year before. But what does it matter if you blow two World Cup finals in a row just to tell your friends at home: "They won, but our game wa more beautiful!"

I totally adore what Wenger has been doing in the last 10 years and I was a bit surprised to learn about their fame as boring Arsenal and so on cos that simply is ridculous given the speed of their game. But what will he be able to do against these money-crazy folks at Chelski and other clubs who have money beyond any measure. I don't really give a shiat if another English team is going to be in the CL finals. Same goes for the Italian football mafia and the tricks the Spanish are pulling out of their asses in order to get their balances clean. (Ciudad deportiva, just an example).

I stick with the Bundesliga. Great action, great players. It's not as powerful in Europe at the moment, but that's that's not going to stay this way.

Paddy: Of course, they won the CL three times in a row. Plus Feijernoord the year before. But what does it matter if you blow two World Cup finals in a row just to tell your friends at home: "They won, but our game wa more beautiful!"

If you click on my link, that is what it is all about. The Brazilians complain that when they play jogo bonito they lose, but when they play cynical football they win.

timmy_the_tooth: too bad he's not English. he'd have cost thrice as much, scored half as many goals, and coonted off to Chelsea while claiming Arsenal treated him poorly.

Berbatov is a case in point there. The best thing about him was that no one in the press thought he was a good buy at all before they actually watched him play. (Not a spurs fan, just saying)

/well if Crazy Mourinho gets to claim the Community Shield as a "trophy"...

Crazy like a fox!

Groy: Berbatov is a case in point there. The best thing about him was that no one in the press thought he was a good buy at all before they actually watched him play. (Not a spurs fan, just saying)

He wasn't that bad in Leverkusen, but it's pretty surprising to hear the praises he's receiving at the moment.
He seems like a humble guy, so I hope this stride keeps going on for him.

Groy, 'no-one like us, we don't care'

and why would you want to read anything timmy writes anyway ?

mr.erkle: and why would you want to read anything timmy writes anyway ?

Because I'm starved for football banter out here, that's why.

/We're going to get Alex and Alves and we're going to be totally sweet this year...

well that season was fun!
only 2 days old, and over!

blue in 2008!

anyways Glasgowsfinest:
Gordon is worth ever quid
and you forgot that the MidHearts recruit/exploit Lithuanians only.
thought about you during the NASAL vs Celt all star game last month. The Rangers look very good this year.
(i give them until December to conceed the division too!)
Timmytehtooth
jeez did i miss you this summer!
the quip about teh queen erecting a statue of ronaldo was priceless, as these replies!
the rest:
looking forward for insults and farking about!

Roger Danish: It just means that the EPL has the resources to pull the best players from around the world.

how do you spin chelsea and man U's ownership?Roger Danish: There are a great many Latin baseball players in MLB...Therefore, baseball is dead in America.

Actually MLB is pretty much dead in America outside of a corridor running from Boston to DC. Latin players are also the baseball equivalent of the eastern european defender- reliable and cheap.

Groy: Yay! Someone else recognizes it! I love how none of the English have even tried to refute this.
We didn't feel the need to rise to his vicious racial stereotyping.