- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The English Premier League is one of the most fascinating and enjoyable football leagues on the planet. It attracts some of the world’s best players and now has some of the biggest clubs in Europe. But is this ruining the English national team?
It’s a question that has been asked numerous times throughout the Premier League era, but it has become far more apparent in recent years.
When you think of top Premier League players you immediately think of Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Eden Hazard – you could go on and on.
But where are the English stars? While the Premier League has produced some great local talent it seems the supply of home-grown heroes is dwindling every year.
Now that the likes of Paul Scholes, Alan Shearer, and Michael Owen have moved on, English stars in the Premier League seem a rarity, with foreign players now the main attraction.
With Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard retired from the national scene it is hard to say that any of the current English squad is world class, excluding Wayne Rooney. The team is made up of mostly B-grade Premier League players, some who struggle to play regular football for their club, like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Rickie Lambert.
It is no surprise they have slipped to 15th in the world, and it would not surprise me if they slipped further.
Years ago we would turn on the television to watch Shearer, Owen or Rooney dominate defences, but why do we watch the Premier League now? With all due respect, no one gets up at three o’clock in the morning to watch Danny Welbeck or Jordan Henderson play. We get up for the brilliance of Hazard or Sergio Aguero as they tear defences apart.
It is no secret as to why this is happening: why would a manager struggling in relegation give a developing young English talent a game when he can buy an established overseas player far more likely to save his skin? And why would Louis van Gaal take three years developing a home-grown player when he can splash the cash needed for the likes of Angel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao?
If you take the most recent World Cup winners for example, most of their players actually play in their own country’s league. In the current German squad only four players play their league football outside of Germany. I know what you’re thinking, all the English team play in England – but how much do they actually play and how much of an impact do they have?
While foreign players continue to dominate the Premier League it is hard to see the English football team making a deep run in the World Cup as national teams around them continue to produce better players and play better football.
So how would you go about fixing it? I’m not sure but there is no doubt the Premier League has ruined the national team.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.