England has not won a World Cup since 1966 and the current FIFA Rankings have the one-time World Cup winners at 10th place.
They are the definers of the sport, but at the moment the Three Lions are just a pawn to be defeated by powerhouses such as Uruguay and Italy at the latest major tournaments.
This might be just hyperbole, but England’s national team has been poor for many years now. This disease, known as ‘Foreign Signings Syndrome’, has affected the Premier League for a long time and Stoke City is only one of many victims. Only four players of the Potters’ senior squad are English and just seven are from other countries in the British Isles.
Good, young English talent is in high demand in the Premier League, with Manchester City notably paying £50 million for Raheem Sterling’s services. If the playmaker was not home grown in England, he arguably would have gone for less than half of that amount. Clubs like Stoke City do not have enough in their bank accounts to afford home grown players, so they go for cheap men at a speed bump in their career, like Xherdan Shaqiri or Ibrahim Afellay.
The story of Michael Woods is a great example of this. Who you ask? Well, he did move to Chelsea for £5 million in 2006. Still not impressed? He was 16-years-old at the time. The Englishman (or boy) moved from Leeds to Stamford Bridge and was hyped to be the biggest thing to come out of London since the Rolling Stones. However, due to injury, he is now at fourth tier side Hartlepool United after impressing at the Semi-professional level.
“I was flying for the first two years. I was enjoying my football and felt confident. That’s when the injuries struck,” Woods said in an interview with the BBC.
Even he thinks that there are too many foreign players in the Premier League.
“It comes to the age of 19 or 20 and Premier League managers can buy an Eden Hazard with 100 French league games under his belt for £30m. He’s going to play and the young lads aren’t – it’s as simple as that.”
These international players are so readily available and cheap, that trust is given to them over a loyal English youngster who has been at the club since he was just a boy.
READ MORE: Jose Mourinho’s issues stem from a lack of faith in non-superstar names
Oliver Shenton is one of those players. The 17-year-old has been at Stoke since 2004 and has appeared in just one Premier League game. Names like this need to be given more of a chance in the first team. Of course, Steven Gerrard is another example, as Liverpool gave him his chance and he proved to have a legendary career.
This strategy would definitely be hard to implement, as the international players make the league stronger all round. The Premier League and its clubs are a business that needs to make money and would not risk playing English youngsters instead of their best foreigners. What if the FA were to intervene and set a limit on foreign talent? One would think that having at least three English nationals on the pitch at one time should be a good rule to put in place.
[interaction id=”561fbfee637aef9860857738″]
England is the birthplace of football and hosts arguably the best league in the world. Names like Alexis Sanchez and Sergio Aguero bring in the fans and the money, but what about those experiences that only happen once in a limetime, like the World Cup in 1966?
For the country that created the sport, these things should not be once in a lifetime occasions and the Three Lions should be favourites to win almost every international tournament. The only way to treat Foreign Signings Syndrome is with patriotism. International players may be able to take the spotlight in the domestic league, but they will not help win a World Cup.
English clubs, give your home grown youngsters a chance. Tottenham Hotspur did it, and now the Three Lions has a new star striker.
What are your thoughts? Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Make sure you follow us on Twitter @Outside90 and like us on Facebook.
