Arsene Wenger believes calls for a quota of home-produced
players will not improve the quality of the game in England, in the
wake of a damning Professional Football Association report.
The Arsenal manager also revealed he had tried to encourage English
talent in his side but the players were not up to his high
standards.
Wengers views of foreigners in the English game are at odds with
his attitude about the next England manager, reiterating that an
Englishman should succeed Steve McClaren, even claiming that the
likes of Middlesbroughs Gareth Southgate could do the job.
The damning PFA document, entitled Meltdown, reveals that in
1992-93 there was 71 per cent of topdivision players who were
English. Last season, however, that figure had dropped to 38 per
cent.
The PFA has called on the Premier League to bring in a new rule so
that every team has at least three homegrown players but of any
nationality on the pitch at any time in order to reverse the
trend.
And Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson joined the debate,
calling for the introduction of quotas to stave off the demise of
English players from the Premier League.
Whether it could be applied, or agreed to by all the clubs, I am
not so sure, Ferguson said. But there would be nothing wrong with
it.
Wenger, however, remains adamant that such a cap would not work,
saying: I was at the centre of an experience (in France) where we
had to play three players in the squad who were under 21. You know
what these people became? Professional bench players.
Every week they sat next to the manager, not only did more French
players not play but they did not even play in the reserves or
practise enough, and in the end we cut the rule and we opened it up
completely again because what happens is you produce professional
substitutes.
PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor claimed the report revealed a
crisis in the game.
It is a crisis . . . we commissioned this report before England
had failed to qualify for Euro 2008 because we could see which way
the wind was blowing, he said.
Arsene Wenger is a manager you cannot help but admire and it is
not his job to look after the interests of the England team. We
have no issue with him bringing in young players from abroad such
as Cesc Fabregas . . . at least in the Arsenal academy there is a
level playing field for the young English players.
Wenger claimed he made a conscious effort to buy English in 2001,
when he spent a combined £14 million on Everton striker Francis
Jeffers and Ipswich goalkeeper Richard Wright. Jeffers is now at
Sheffield Wednesday and Wright at West Ham.
Yes, it was a conscious effort, he said. But when a guy sits in
the stands at Arsenal and sees a fantastic cross and a volley, he
doesnt think Eboue, where does he come from. He either enjoys it
or he doesnt enjoy it. And that at Arsenal has done a lot for the
popularity of the game all over the world.
