Why are England rubbish? Blame the foreigners says Graham Taylor
HOW bad are Roy Hodgson’s England? The Daily Mail’s Riath Al-Samarrai says England are in danger of missing out on the Brazil World Cup. And he knows why. No, it’s not a lack of guile, team-cohesion, adventure and patience. It’s them:
Outgoing FA chairman David Bernstein and national manager Roy Hodgson have the same message: not enough English players are getting a chance in the Premier League.
The Premier League is a meritocracy, surely? And what about English players working overseas? They can go. Plenty of other country’s have well-paid and well-run football leagues. The writer isn’t interested. He has facts:
A Sportsmail audit of English players in the Premier League proves Hodgson has a point… Of the 537 players who appeared in the Premier League last season, only 197 were English. That’s 37 per cent, which is more than 30 per cent down on the numbers from those in the Premier League’s first season 20 years ago.
So. Thanks to the Premier League, England are worse of than they were 20 years ago.
Back in 1993, England were managed by Graham Taylor.
And he gets a mention in the article. No, not to illustrate how England are just as average as they were under his guidance, but to show us how much worse things have gotten:
Graham Taylor, in charge of the England team that failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the USA, is not alone in asking: ‘How can we continue to demand success of England managers when this is the situation?”
In 1992, the foreign (non-British) players who started the first game of the Premier League season for their clubs were:
Peter Schmeichel (Den) Man Utd
Andrei Kanchelskis (Rus) Man Utd
Jan Stejskal (Cze) QPR
Roland Nilsson (Swe) Sheff Wed
Michael Vonk (Holl) Man City
John Jensen (Den) Arsenal
Anders Limpar (Swe) Arsenal
Hans Segers (Holl) Wimbledon
Tony Dorigo (Aus) Leeds
Eric Cantona (Fra) Leeds
Gunnar Halle (Nor) Oldham
Some great names in that list.
Taylor’s team for the England game that preceded that kick-off was:
Chris Woods
Andy Sinton
Martin Keown
Des Walker
Stuart Pearce
David Platt
Neil Webb
Carlton Palmer
David Batty
Gary Lineker
Tony Daley
Paul Merson
Alan Smith
Oh, for those halcyon days…
Posted: 7th, June 2013 | In: Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
