There has been recent commentary around the realisation that just one Australian will compete in the English Premier League in season 2020-21.
Since the inaugural edition of the competition in 1992-93, a grand total of 51 Aussies have played in the top tier of football in the ‘old dart’. Yet Mathew Ryan will be the only one doing so in the new season that kicked off last weekend.
Ryan’s solo presence appears to bring sadness to many who witnessed some of Australia’s best on English soil. Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, Tim Cahill and Stan Lazaridis to name a few and when that commentary turns to criticism of the modern Australian player in general, the misguided nature of it never fails to annoy me.
Michael Lynch wrote a sensible piece for the Sydney Morning Herald last Friday, where he identified the lessening opportunities available to Australians in the EPL.
However former Brisbane Roar and Melbourne Heart manager John Aloisi took the stone cold facts and parlayed them into his opinion that the drop off in Australians succeeding in England was reflective of a “lost generation” of top players.
Aloisi’s argument appears to be that there has been, in his view, a drop in the intensity in the development of players; citing the lack of an effective academy structure to do so around the time of the birth of the A-League.
The former Coventry City player also cited the Institute of Sport which played a key role in his development in Canberra and the pre-A-League structures that saw “the best 16-year-olds in the country……..training with each other, playing against 19-year-olds in the youth league.”
Such a view is one I regularly hear. People claiming that the lack of Australian players offered contracts in England is representative of the lesser footballers we are currently producing; all measured contextually inaccurately against the exceptionally high standards of the oft mentioned ‘golden generation’.
John Aloisi (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Aloisi’s sentiment is somewhat wide of the accuracy mark considering contemporary context and when compared to the world that was English football nearly 30 years ago.
It is easy to quote numbers such as the nine men who were EPL players in Australia’s squad when the team travelled to Germany for the 2006 World Cup and compare that to Ryan being the solo EPL representative in the current squad.
However doing so misses a simple reality and the actual reasons behind less frequent Australian involvement in the EPL.
Diversity.
Even on an English front that diversity is obvious. In 2017, Dave Fraser’s piece for The Sun cited a doubling in the number of English Players of black, asian and ethnic minority backgrounds in the EPL between 1992/93 and 2016-17.
Near 33 per cent of English players had such backgrounds, compared to just 16.5 per cent when the Premier League first kicked off in the early nineties.
That diversity in local talent has morphed the league from a predominately white English competition into one which reflects the English community far more accurately and appropriately.
Domestically, that has broadened the talent pool and increased opportunity for talented local boys; perhaps lessening the need for clubs to look abroad for youth as frequently.
In saying that, EPL clubs certainly do not think twice about casting their recruitment net far and wide when it comes to acquiring proven stars from around the globe. This is another factor that has eroded Australian involvement in the most lucrative and arguably talented competition of all.
In 2018-19, 565 players were listed on Premier League squads, just 33 per cent were English and those numbers were considerably lower at the powerful top-end of the league.
But for Cardiff City at 52 per cent, Southampton at 55 per cent and Bournemouth with a whopping 64 per cent of their roster eligible for the England squad, the real figure for those clubs competing for the title was somewhere near the mid 20s.
The number of international players has escalated consistently over the last 25 years, as the financial clout of the league has continued to grow. The growth of African football lies at the forefront of this and it is not only Australians struggling to find a pathway to EPL play.
Many young English boys have been forced to ply their trade in the lower leagues or venture abroad in the search for opportunity. We have even seen a handful of them in Australia on loan, a concept that would once have been deemed madness, yet one that is now becoming more realistic with the fewer opportunities available to young English players at the top level.
Thus is the plight of promising Australian talent and talent from right across the globe; all lusting after the financial rewards of EPL play.
In reality, around 220 players take to the pitch to start EPL matches each weekend and to suggest that there are many more Australians capable of earning a spot among them alongside Mathew Ryan is highly questionable.
However, the reasons behind that fact have little to do with the quality of Australian players and a whole lot more to do with the evolution of the Premier League.
Griffo
Roar Guru
How much more effort and cost to host Y-League games before A/W-League matches? Second divisions would then provide even more opportunities which can only be a good thing. Seeing youth leagues as the first to cut costs and last to get funding is more detrimental for the 17-22 bracket as the tokenistic 8-game Y-League shows.
Punter
Roar Rookie
That is the biggest issue the ‘requisite quality’, football has changed & football in this country is slow to react, this is my biggest issue. Most Aussies plying their trade in the big leagues around the 06 period in the big leagues were hard working, solid, physical players, either strong or fast or big engines, very few were blessed with high technical skills (Kewell, Dukes, Bresc, Zelic & Okon apart). Have a look at the at the Premier league around the same time & how many Scottish, Irish & Welsh players too, other countries big on more the physical side of things
Brian
Guest
That's part of the story but so is Australia's decline. The 2006 team had 9 EPL players but 5 more in EPL level teams Culina (PSV), Grella & Bresciano (Parma), Aloisi (Alaves), Kalac (Milan). So 14 players in top European clubs. However the 2018 squad on had Leckie, Ryan, Mooy, Jedinak & Rogic at EPL quality clubs which is a total of 5. Now if this was based on some European diversification that affects the league why did Denmark have so many more players in top clubs European clubs. I count 16 so is it any wonder theyt qualified ahead of us.
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
We may have thought that once upon a time, but these big spending C-grade leagues have definitely smashed that rule of thumb. I guess the reason is, a CSL team might have 3 or 4 marquees in its team, players of genuine quality, but they are rubbing shoulders with 3rd rate players, some might even be in the Chinese NT!
pete4
Guest
Football is built on capitalism the biggest spenders will always rise to the top
Stuart Thomas
Expert
I am fairly confident it has changed more than "a little since then." A 7% drop from 01-11 would most likely be mirrored in the next decade. Thus a figure around 70% would be far more reasonable as an estimate.
Newie
Guest
Yeah it was really interesting listening to Graham Arnold in that podcast. The big takeaways from his interview was the tiny tiny amount of games that the younger players get nowadays, even with the NYL. Expand the A-League to 16 teams, have a better structure for youth and create a second division for young players to get minutes. Then we'll see improvement. I don't know what others think, but even a cheap and cheerful A-League (without the Foxtel $$$) for a year or two, that has a second division with promotion into the A-League would be the best thing to come from Covid-19.
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
Ok, it's harder to break into the top 5 Euro leagues because of greater competition, granted. But what about breaking into the next 10 European leagues, all of which are still way ahead of all the 3rd rate leagues most aussies now play in. Also, many Australian players still have one crucial advantage: the ability to get an EU passport, that's a massive advantage, if you have the requisite quality.
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
Yeh, but so what? The great footballing countries of South America have poor infrastructure, but they are the countries and clubs that the European teams want to test themselves against. They're not interested in playing 3rd rate clubs from China, Qatar and the US unless it comes with a big fat cheque.
Really
Guest
If Germany is towelling us up as you say because they can also play the physical game, then we clearly need to get bigger and stronger players. Noone in the Aussie team who is under 6'4". Clearly trying to beat Germany at it's game is not working for us, we gotta step it up a notch. A real shame soccer does not allow you to go the knuckle. There are so many latino players I'd love to see get clobbered.
Punter
Roar Rookie
I watched the a bit of the Bundesliga & I see a lot black players, most teams have 3-4 some more then that in their team. In Zelic's day, there would have been 3-4 Black players in the whole Bundesliga.
pete4
Guest
Then look at the football infrastructure being built in the likes of China, Qatar, USA in past 5 years all world class
Gnasher
Guest
The stats aren't off at all. I said 80% white British (rest other White-European, mostly Irish), while conceding that this might have changed a little since then. But 33% BAME, overwhelmingly Afro-Caribbean, is not representative of the wider population distribution, though assuredly of the footballing talent. 16.5% BAME in the early 90s, when as you say the White British proportion of the population was 87%, is surely more representative pro-rata.
Stuart Thomas
Expert
I apologise.
Stuart Thomas
Expert
A little disrespectful to Tajikistan methinks.
Stuart Thomas
Expert
I think you may be right pete4.
Stuart Thomas
Expert
I think the real issue and the point I am attempting to make, is the fact that there is one 1st rate league and only one. It's elitist nature has led to the demise of Australia's involvement in it. So-called 2nd rate leagues should be the goal for developing Australian players and some of the 'labelled' 3rd rate leagues will only get stronger and stronger in the next decade.
Stuart Thomas
Expert
Gnasher, those stats are a bit off. According to the official UK Government site "from 2001 to 2011, the percentage of the population of England and Wales that was White British decreased from 87.4% to 80.5%". That is only up to 2011, imagine the continued trend afterwards.
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
Just because the likes of China and Qatar can spend money on salaries, doesn't make them good leagues. They are 3rd rate leagues, let's try not to kid ourselves otherwise (when compared to playing in the best comps in Europe). There have been recent reports that Bangladesh has made offers to some A-League players.
pete4
Guest
Who even mentioned Bangladesh? No it doesn't but tell me which country is spending vast amounts of money like China, Qatar in past 5 years certainly doesn't make them 3rd rate