HalfTimePost Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 Gary Neville believes a quota system should be introduced to the Premier League to help the home nations. The Sky Sports pundit fears England's top flight has passed its "tipping point" when it comes to foreign players and is concerned about the direction the British and Irish national sides are heading in. Citing the start of his own career as an example when clubs were limited to the amount of overseas players they could field, Neville has suggested an inversion of that system whereby managers would have to pick players from the home nations. He said: "Last week I looked at a list of players signed into the Premier League. I like to think I'm well-read on football but, honestly, I'd never heard of 50-60 per cent of them. "All right, we might unearth lots of talent from abroad. And some fantastic foreign players and managers have enhanced British football no end. But I used the phrase 'tipping point' last season and I feel we're going too far right now. "We need to protect our English, Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish and Irish national teams by giving more boys from those countries more opportunities." Neville made his name at Old Trafford as part of a side heavily made up of young talent such as David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs. However, the England coach feels that had he been trying to make a breakthrough in this era, he may have struggled. "When I came through in the mid-1990s there was a rule where only a limited number of foreign players could be included in a team during European competition," he said. "We benefited from that because, as young British players, we got opportunities. We need to get back something of that ilk - where each team has three or four players from the home countries at the start of every match. "My chances of making it as a pro footballer at the age of 18 in 2013 would be a lot less than 20 years ago."Neville's co-analyst at Sky Sports, Jamie Carragher, believes that academies should be prevented from buying foreign players. "Academies should be there for our kids and if you buy foreign players they should be in the first team," said Carragher in the Independent. "I don't think it should be made easy for players to get into your first team. The foreign players have been brilliant for this country, but it's at the stage now where reserve and youth teams are full of foreign players. "What chance do young players have if they can't get into the youth or reserve team? Let's give them that chance to show a manager what they can do and then ask, are they ready?" Sky Sports Hard to disagree with the issue itself, teams in our league buying the best young players from around the world and rarely playing them and limiting opportunites of British players. Any rule would need to be gradually introduced though imo. An outright ban starting from, say, next season on the number of foreign players you can play would probably lead to a lot of stupid figures being thrown about for decent English/British players (well, worse than they already are). Bringing it in gradually starting from youth and academy teams could work okay though. Still think if the Academies were doing their jobs properly and British football had a more modern and robust coaching structure from the ages of 4 Upwards then this wouldnt be so much of an issue. If Brazilian, German, Spanish, Belgian, Italian etc kids weren't better than our own then it wouldnt be an issue so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted August 13, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted August 13, 2013 (edited) Don't agree. The influx of foreign players helps British players. The british players have to be better to get into their sides, they play with and against (some of) the best players in the world week in week out. If our league was British players only, I'd wager the National side would be significantly worse than it is now Edited August 13, 2013 by Stevo985 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRS-T Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 "We need to protect our English, Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish and Irish national teams by giving more boys from those countries more opportunities." Why? They have their own leagues and clubs. Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish, and Irish players in England are foreigners in footballing terms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 Yeah, I think he is putting the cart before the horse here. If we start producing better players then they will get into the team. Do they have quotas in Spain, Germany and Italy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HalfTimePost Posted August 13, 2013 Author Share Posted August 13, 2013 No but Im pretty sure around 60% of players in La Liga and Bundesliga are able to play for the leagues national team. I think its about 30-40% for the Premier League. Difference is though that the youth training capabilities of those 2 countries are far far superior to our own. It's all good saying we need more players for our national selection pool and to a degree I agree with Neville. Young British players dont get as much chance in the league any more. For many reasons, foreigners taking their place is one small aspect, but these foreign players are often much better technically AND cheaper. It's not like there is any vendetta against English players it just isnt cost effective to buy them and a lot of the time they aren't as good. If you look at the likes of Tom Ince, who seems to have his head screwed on right and wants first team football can't go to the top clubs who are going after him because he wont get first team football. But then Blackpool are asking for such a high sum (as is their right) that clubs who can offer him that next step up and first team can (and will) find superior or similar players abroad for a more realistic price. Similarly there dont seem to be many scouts properly looking at all aspects of the English game. Cardiff have gone abroad and spent £19m on Andreas Cornelius and Medel. Now they are good players but for a team just coming up that is a lot of money that could have really overhauled their entire squad from the lower leagues. Those 2 players are probably better than players available in the lower leagues but as we've shown there are some real bargains there despite British players generally being over priced There are a lot of reasons for it. And there is no doubt that foreign players have helped the league, our style of play and the money available in our league due to it's international appeal. Foreign players are absolutely vital to the league and trying to force them out would be a totally backwards move. But for the England national team something needs to be done. Clubs buying up the best English talent and the not playing them, pushing their development back by years (Rodwell, Powell and loads more) is a big problem too. One rule change isn't going to sort all of these issues out. And in terms of buying up the best talent and not playing them, the rule change Neville is suggesting will probably cause more harm than good. At the end of the day, imo, if our youth systems were better and players got more game time the issue would sort itself. It's something the FA needs to sort quickly too because it'll take a good 10 years to see the fruits of a new academy system emerge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 the cream always rises to the top. Arsenal for example are famous for bringing foreign youngsters through but the 2 best players from academy are Cole and Wilshire 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 The Scottish league is nearly all Scottish players but their national team is crap. Meanwhile the Belgium national side all play in leagues outside Belgium. It can't just be that there are not opportunities for young players, good players will always get opportunities. In England there are plenty of professional teams outside the Premier League a young player can join, the lower leagues are almost all english players. That's more professional clubs to chose from than a young German kid has. People act like the Premier League is the only league in the country. I think the issue is the way kids in this country are brought up playing, not that the premier league has foreigners playing in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brumerican Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 There were not many foreigners playing in our league in 92 -93 yet England didn't even qualify for the 94 world cup . England are crap because they don't develop players in the right way from a young age and there is too much pressure on them . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PussEKatt Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 If an English player is a better player than a foreign player in the same position and in the same club then the English player will be in the team. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to work that out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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