Quite an astonishing piece by the talentless Matt Law from the equally unimpressive Mirror: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footb...ti-british-bias-is-reverse-xenophobia-1272111 -------------------------------------------------------------------- We are all guilty of it. What's not to love about an exciting new foreign signing at the start of a Premier League season?Michu was undoubtedly the overseas star of the first round of fixtures, helping Brian Laudrup get off to the perfect start as Swansea boss . Spaniard Santi Cazorla was excellent for Arsenal , while Argentina midfielder Claudio Yacob looks like another great spot by West Brom . But before we fall into the old trap of quickly falling into foreign love affairs, let's remember what we already have at home. There is a reverse xenophobia within the Premier League, particularly regarding managers and strikers. Tottenham preferred to offer Andre Villas-Boas a return to Premier League management, rather than try to appoint David Moyes.Everton's victory over Manchester United only underlined just what a good manager Moyes is. He's consistently performed for the past 10 years at Goodison Park and yet whenever a top job comes along he as written off as being too dour, not sexy enough and basically too British. But there was nothing boring about the way his Everton team fought back against United last season or put Wayne Rooney and Co in their places on Monday night. The way he juggles selling star players with bringing through youth and picking up bargains makes Moyes the perfect eventual successor to Arsene Wenger at Arsenal. United too should look at Moyes when Sir Alex Ferguson calls it a day, but no doubt the likes of Mourinho, Guardiola and Klopp will be at the top of the hit lists. It is a similar situation with strikers in the Premier League. Tell a the supporter of a big club that they could do worse than get Grant Holt and they will turn their nose up. But tell a fan that Olivier Giroud might be on his way and they will be seriously excited - even if they only saw the Frenchman for five minutes at Euro 2012. Holt would have scored the chance Giroud missed for Arsenal on Saturday, as would Southampton's Rickie Lambert - as he proved against Manchester City. Luis Suarez did no better than Emile Heskey would have done when presented with chance after chance for Liverpool against West Brom and yet we are meant to believe the Uruguayan is world class. Off course, Suarez is incredibly skilled and Giroud will most likely prove to be a very sound signing for Arsenal, as will Lukas Podolski. But let's not write off British players and managers simply for being British. The argument 'they have never done it in the Champions League' is also flawed. People who perform well deserve to be given chances – regardless of where they were born.
Why bring Suarez and Liverpool in to it when we have been buying British about 90% of the time in the last 2 years? Prick.
HA!!!! hilarious.. this guy must be a right long nekced brontosaurus cos he's talking about old donkes and hoof ball merchants. Can you IMAGINE moyes running spurs and truning them into the kind of 10 men behind the ball and hoof it ad the big man team everton are? Hilarious... then a few guys get a goal and they're huge talents while all foregin buys are muck? i wonder if he ever thought the reason why the vast majority of fans get excited by these imports is that they are knowledgable about football and can tell a star whe nthey see one.... and on that bombshell i've not seen many arsenal fans whooping for joy at giroud arriving!
People do seem to be attracted to exotic names. Would you rather sign a player called John Carlisle or a player called Johan Cariliouh
Funny considering that the papers are run by xenophobes. You only have to look at the treatment they give to British players compared to the vitriol they spew about the foreign ones.
I'm waiting for the huge Mirror backpage headline of "Racist" over the picture of Rio. One-eyed xenephobes.
Foreign players are better. Foreign managers are better. It's that simple really. Foreigners have brought the English game on leaps and bounds. In the past nobody would have been interested in watching two relegation stragglers (no offence) in QPR and Swansea. But it was a brilliant game with both sides playing good attacking football. Ages ago there was this old stubborn English attitude of "our way is the best way" until sides like United were getting opened up like a Eucalyptus every year. The media blamed it on a variety of factors like diving, winter breaks so players being fresher, less physical league, less competitive league etc. It never occurred to them that foreign sides just might be technically more apt until Barca came along. The old age of 4-4-2 and kick and rush with a big number 9 striker has long gone now. I'm much more a fan of managers like Rodgers who have had their footballing education abroad.
Its all cyclical - Barca won sod all last season - Real ground them down in La Liga and other team s worked them out (to a degree). They didn't pick up the CL either. 4-4-2 has its place, but the rigid adherenace to a formation without any consideration for the patterns in the game is what fails many managers. You can aruge over the causes, but inflexibility is the problem. (IMHO)
Couldn't be arsed reading it all- is this guy a journalist? If so I'm getting increasingly dismayed at the standards of journalism by the minute. Reverse xenophobia?? What's wrong with xenophilia, a perfectly serviceable term that has the advantage of actually existing? It's like describing his stupidity as reverse cleverness.
The journalists article is a bucket of piss. Try comparing a world class player like Dennis Bergkamp to a 3rd rate striker like Roadkill head? There is no comparison. Bergkamp had the feet of a tap dancer, and the balance of an ice-skater, Roadkill head runs around a lot.
