After Chelsea's win on Saturday got me to thinking about England's dominance of the ECL in the 80s when English clubs won the trophy 6 times on the trot. The teams were all made up of British players who played there own way without trying to accommodate all the fancy formations that seem to abound now. Liverpool with attacking fulbacks and a big target man, Forest with wingers and a nippy centre forward, and Villa with wingers again and a big target man. Strip away all the fancy coaching explanations about tactics, width etc and last Saturday's game boiled down to the same thing. Drogba, lone striker living on scraps, Bayern with wide men. In the end it boiled down to who took their chances, one header one goal, one piece of slack marking one goal. The missed penalties speak for themselves. My point is - were many of the star players on show from all parts of the world any better as team players than some British player in the lower divisions?. My personal view is that there are if we would only give them a chance. Football is now too success driven and patience has been obliterated by the need for a quick fix rather build a team unit of players that want to be in a team, stay at a club and all in the knowledge that they are part of the club as a whole rather than a one season wonder that can be loaned out because they no longer fit or a perceived better player has been bought to replace him. With FFR looming maybe a return to patient team building and long-term planning would be a good thing - eventually.
I think the wishful thinking reflected in this eloquent post is apparent in your username! I echo your sentiments and would love to see FFP rules have such an effect, but I fear that the richest clubs will get round it and continue to buy success, while the rest of us will make up the numbers and have the occasional result, like we did against Man City, to keep it all interesting.
Time to break out the economic theory!!! Its simple import substitution (but instead of taxes and tarrifs there is the home grown rule) Developing countris often put tarrifs and high taxes on foreign imports in areas where they are trying to develop. The idea is that people will buy products produced in the same country i.e. buy british This usually fosters growth, but it will mean that standards will drop as manufacturers know they dont have to compete with the better quality foreign imports. As such, Andy Carrol costs £35M and Llorente costs €28M.
