I'll be honest, Id go further than the FA have and require that 5/11 players must be club trained or english. there are so many average players from abroad in our leagues, and for every ronaldo that comes-there are 5 potential harry kanes who need the right chance, at the right time to kick on. The only reason english players dont do so well is that they generally don't get the chances at the top level. what the FA are doing will lower the price of english players, give them more exposure, and improve the national team. if that means the CL is out our grasps for 3 years or so, thats great. id rather be an also ran with 11 ryan bertrands than what we have now tbh.
That's very valid critique, gifted inexperienced players improve when they play with top class players. However to start the process of improving overall standards on a false premise that banning "ordinary" foreign players, who no Club would knowingly sign anyway, and replacing them with "ordinary" British players, should be the starting point.Some kind of compulsory number of home grown youngsters playing in every team during the season is surely a better start.
Instead of all this "home grown imports" ****, perhaps we should ban imports under the age of 21. That way you would only be buying a talent to go straight into your squad and the "home grown" players would have a chance to develop and prove themselves.
I kinda get the feeling it is trying too hard. It must be the Polar Bear (we ignore International boarders) in me, but I don't feel the need to farm children to create the next master race. I'm more behind aspirations than an out dated sense of National pride. Competition on a global scale will ultimately always be a numbers game. Invest in Chinese grass roots football (or anything) and they'll win everything, but it wouldn't mean then that the Chinese were intrinsically the World's greatest players. We already see this at work in the Olympics. The only reason the England and Wales cricket team still have a chance at the World cup is because other countries tend not to give a monkey's about cricket because if the Chinese took it up......
Indeed, in England, grass roots training on often expensive pitches in expensive football gear and football boots counts for nothing. The England Cup winners of 1966 would have learned their skills kicking a ball against a wall in a street and with jumpers for goal posts when in a park. The Brazillians in the current Chelsea side probably learned their skills in a back street or barefoot and on a beach as children.
