By John Brandon.
David Silva, Ya Ya Toure, Carlos Tevez, Roque Santa Cruz, Kolo Toure, Nigel De Yong, Robinho, Caicedo, Patrick Viera, Vladimar Weiss and Emmanuel Adabayor. You have to admit that is an impressive list of players. Sorry my apologies, an impressive list of foreign players. All These players will all play some part in the Manchester City onslaught to the Premier League title for the new season.
Whilst all of us will welcome a challenge to the notorious top 4, I am sure you will agree this is not how it should be done. We all have to admit it was fun watching Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson sweat when he felt the Italian Mancini breathing down his neck for a while last year but is this really how we want the English game to continue?
There was a match last year where Arsenal played Bolton (I may be mis quoted) and only one player was English. Theo Walcott, who warmed the bench that night, as usual. This could be a common theme this season with many teams probably able to field complete sides that have no English blood parading the hallow turf. I am using Manchester City as an example because it annoys the hell out of all of us that players are being scouted from around the world to be a short term fix in their pursuit of glory.
The sheiks that own the club could not care less about the tradition of the club. They just want to see a return for their substantial investment. Actually they probably don’t need to see a return, they have that much money. What happens though when they get bored and pull the money? It will be Portsmouth all over again.
The wages are astronomical at Manchester City and only the new Sheik can sustain it financially, if he leaves, it could be very dangerous territory for the club. Whilst they are bringing quality established players for us to watch on a regular basis, it is killing, sorry, absolutely murdering our international game.
Why buy David Silva when you have Adam Johnson? It’s Simple, Silva is an established La Liga player whilst Adam Johnson is not established. Johnson will now probably be loaned out to another club, like Jack Wilshere was this season, to gain, ‘first team experience’. Well he should be getting first team experience at his own club. This is wrong and although we keep talking about it, the rule for 6 home grown players in a team has to come in to play NOW. Or in 10 years time, there will be no new, emerging English talent able to cut it at the top level.
Take a look at the Manchester City website. From an official list of 36 registered players. 10 are English. 26 are foreigners, many of who you won’t have a clue who they are. I didn’t. It’s Disgraceful. England will never win the European Championships or The World Cup in a million years, if we stand still, do nothing and let foreign coaches, managers, players, agents and owners abuse our game for personal financial glory. The Premier League is a great product, that is obvious. But like the English economy, we can’t produce anything anymore.
Do you feel that quality foreign players can work with our emerging English talent to create an environment where everyone is a winner?
