Another glory night for our David
Another glory night for our David
Oh dear. We have reached the end of another qualifying campaign, under-performing our way into a play-off situation (subject of course, to Sweden doing us a massive favour against the Poles) that we should be embarrassed to take up.
Kevin Keegan has labelled himself a failure. The cynic has taken the opportunity to point out, once again, what is wrong with the setup of the English game.
We do not have the best league in Europe. We like to think we do, because of the incredibly high level of skill and ability constantly on show in the Premiership. But the truth is (as ventured by this reporter only a few weeks ago in The Final Word) the top 25% of the players in our top flight division are basically foreign.
Ask yourself the question - if you had to pick the best eleven players in the Premiership at the moment, how many English players would make the line-up? Possibly one of our goalkeepers, Beckham maybe? One for the teenyboppers, Michael Owen?
It is not all bad news. The insurgence of this imported skill, has changed our perception of the coaching techniques required to nurture home-grown talent. For our own players to be able to compete with the likes of Zola, Petit and Stam, they have had to become very good indeed. This is the upside.
Where it seems to be going wrong is that the imports are holding out for a first team place, far from content with an appearance in the reserves. With squads looming ever larger, how on earth will Keegan get to watch new English players when starting places are dominated by expensive prima donna foreign nationals.
When an English youngster breaks into the first team at Arsenal, Liverpool, or any number of British clubs who think the recipe for success lies across the Channel, he will have to be brilliant. Keegan should pick him immediately!
The inference after the draw with Poland (and I think the Daily Telegraph pundit championed the theory) was that, despite Manchester United’s Euro success last year, the only players worth having on the international stage, were Stam, Keane and Yorke. All fine players, yes, but the strength and appeal for me, was the blinding success story of Ferguson’s youngsters, now 23-ish and coping with the best players in Europe.
We have proven time and time again that we would all pick the same England team to within two or (at most 3) players. A bar room analysis of any England performance generally ends with the fans picking their teams - who they would and would not have picked had they been in charge, and blessed with that perfect hindsight that everyone except the England manager seems to enjoy.
I could, for a laugh, name the squad I would take into the next England match - but you don’t care what I think. You, along with everyone else can pick your own England team.
So where are we going wrong? Let’s take a brief glimpse at some of the issues raised, again, by England’s mediocrity, and some of the favoured solutions.
The famous one is about reducing the size of the Premiership, thus distancing the lower leagues and their potential stars of the future. Perhaps to sixteen clubs. Or even fourteen. Fine. With all due respect to the teams and their supporters, let’s overnight, dump Sheffield Wednesday, Coventry City, Southampton, Watford, Bradford and Sunderland (or if you think the latter choice harsh, take your pick from Wimbledon, Newcastle or Leicester) and that should leave us a pretty impressive clutch of sides at the top.
By my very rudimentary calculations, the remaining Premiership clubs average 6 foreigners in their starting XI last weekend. More than half.
By reducing the size of our league, we are increasing the concentration of imports. This cannot be good. The only rationale behind such down-sizing, is the reduction in the number of matches our stars are expected to play. If you will excuse the expression, bollocks.
Because of squad rotation, and foreign imports, OUR international players are barely getting regular first team football. The likes of Hendrie, Barry, Morris, Dyer, Brown, Joe Cole etc can’t impress because the best they can hope for is place on the bench.
If the F.A. want to do something positive, then place a restriction on the foreign players on the team sheet. Team sheets should contain only three foreigners in the starting line-up, and a maximum of two on the bench. My ultimate dream, whilst complicated, would require a foreigner to leave the field of play before another non-Brit could take part.
Clubs now wield even more power when it comes to releasing players for international duty. In the likely event that Poland will get a draw against Sweden, Kevin Keegan will be given time (as no other coach has been before) to build a team capable of winning the World Cup in 2002.
But he will have to do it with non-competitive internationals. Friendlies! Stadiums like Goodison Park playing host to coachloads of pre-pubescent school boys and girls screeching "Come on England".
Clubs will require their players for vastly more lucrative and "important" domestic (or European) duty. It is a huge risk, for example, for Alex Ferguson to release Beckham, Butt, Scholes, The Nevilles, Brown, Sheringham and Cole, to play potentially bruising encounters against other non-qualifying sides, or Cameroon.
It is only a huge risk because his closest rivals have squads full of international players, from around the continent, whereby losing one player through international duty could hardly be termed disaster.
The nineties have been great for football. It went abroad to Italy and Spain in the eighties, came home in 1996, and we have celebrated by stifling our own growth to accommodate imports.
As the new millennium approaches, we should thank the big names and send them on their way. Ask each manager to keep a handful on each. Foreigners hate being sub - Benito Carbone, Pierre Van Hoojdonk etc.
Non-qualification for Euro 2000 could be a blessing in disguise. It will give us a chance to get our house in order for the World Cup.
Oh, okay, just for the exercise. Here is my squad for the first Spring friendly against Columbia. Martyn(Leeds), Neville, Butt, Beckham, Scholes, Brown, (Man Utd) Woodgate, Bowyer, Huckerby, Smith (Leeds) Morris (Chelsea) Cole, Ferdinand, Lampard (West Ham), Owen (Liverpool) Hendrie, Barry (AstonVilla) Dyer (Newcastle) Campbell (Spurs) Jeffers (Everton) Heskey (Leicester).