kierandelaney.net

Football’s Foreigners

January 2008 - Of all the clubs that signed players in the January transfer window and that play in the premier league which club signed only English players? Arsenal.

Now as an Arsenal fan it really begins to great when Arsenal Football Club are used as a yardstick by the English media to prove that English Football is being ruined by the influx of foreigners. Last season Birmingham consistently fielded an English first 11 and they did really well they ended second from bottom. Its hypocrites like Ferguson that don’t help either by perpetuating the myth that ManUre are an english team with homegrown talent. Only Gary Neville and Paul Scholes are currently first team players that came through the youth team system. Giggs is Welsh. Rooney, Hargreaves, Ferdinand, Carrick and Foster all cost in excess of £50m between them. So really what Arsenal are at fault with here is not choosing to spend ridiculous money on english players just because they are English - instead prefering to buy Fabregas, Henry and the like for a great deal less!

Chelsea are exactly the same, £23m for Shaun Wright Phillips? Lampard, Cole, Johnson, Wright-Philips and Bridge all bought in because their previous clubs were desperate for a slice of the Russian pie. If clubs like United and Chelsea insist on buying every English player that performs well at any level at any cost, it doesn’t seem fair to penalise Arsenal for stepping back from bankruptcy and purchasing from more sensible markets…

On that subject Ferguson recently commented that “the English league should limit the number of foreign players to stop them getting out of hand”, clearly refering to Arsenal who fielded a full non-english first team. Good one. Whilst we enforce that lets get rid of foriegn managers shall we? No point having a foreign figurehead for an all english team is there? Thats right Ferguson, pack your bags and fuck off back to the riches of your own league in your own country. Hypocrite!

Football is a worldwide game… Manchester United themselves hope to embark on a pre-season profiteering training trip to India and have already hit Asia, the US and Africa in the last three years. So… what I think Ferguson and his club are saying is that we should take other countries money, and then tell their players to do one? Generate interest in or league and then shut the doors? Nice.

At this point its probably worth mentioning that Ferguson now has good form as a hypocrite.

Ok - remember my first point? It would probably choke Ferguson but Arsenal signed 6 English players recently including the rather fantastic Angela Henri Lansbury (pictured left). 6 of the most hyped young players in the country (15 - 17) who could just be playing for Ferguson’s (and you know thats inevitable despite his protests) 2012 GB team.

And thats where all this gets interesting… Richard Wright, £6m English goalkeeper, punched the ball into his own night and then cried when he got the chance in Europe against Deportivo. You can’t say Arsenal didn’t try. Francis Jeffers made Arsenal a £6.5m loss after signing for £9m and then leaving for £2.5m. Not even as illustrious as Wright I can hardly remember what he looked like but he’s apparently still good friends with Arsenals medical team. Jermaine Pennant? Unfotunately the pissed up car criminal never really fulfilled his early ambition as an Arsenal player and helped Birmingham achieve relagation in 05/06. I’ve even kept media gobshite and all round tosspot David I’m God Bentley for the end. This is a player who believes he is so good, he is better than Arsenal, better than Blackburn and better than England. In reality he’s a jumped up little prick full of his own hype.

Never mind Cashley Hole and Sol “I’m Off To Europe” Campbell.

You see, Arsenal have a history of being burnt by their English purchases. They either fail to live up to their hype and promise, they can’t keep their traps shut or they go on uninsured drink driving sprees. Is it any wonder that Arsenal won’t buy English?! Even Nicolas Anelka was good enough to leave us a profit of £23m after burning down every bridge in North London.

So what the media will decry at every oppurtunity is the fact that Arsenal only buy first team foreign players from abroad - which is correct and unsurprising given the above points. What they don’t tell you is the abundance of youth talent coming through, including tosspots like Pennent who spent 4 years training with Bergkamp and Henry two of the worlds greatest players. Do you think he benefited from that experience? I’d say so.

Players like Bentley could be in Arsenals first team now if they weren’t arrogant and full of themselves, rather than playing at the wrong end of the table.

Much aside from that, you only have to look at the Premier League which is now the most televised football league in the world in contrast to Italy’s Serie A, which is not. Although 80% of the Italian football league is Italian. Which would you prefer? The equivelent of Oxford vs Wimbledon every Sunday or the international drama and skill showcase that Sky currently pipe into your goggleboxes?

The point is we have some of the best footballers in the world playing here in England and forcing them to play alongside David Bentley and Jermaine Pennant along with a bunch of second rate no hopers would see them packing up and queing anxiously at Gatwick/Heathrow.

Trust me, as Arsenal fan who’s seen the likes of Ian Selly, Eddie McGoldrick and Steve Morrow I know what I prefer. Its great when teams produce homegrown talent or manage to assemble largely English teams (Dixon/Adams/Keown/Bould/Winterburn for example being the epitomy of English defence - oh look they played for Arsenal), Ian Wright, Ray Parlour and the like, but lets not force it, please?

Filed by Kieran at July 26th, 2008 under Blog, Complaint!, Football