Meltdown

turbo_drift SG

FOREIGN players are killing English talent according to an official report.

The damning findings follow a major investigation commissioned by the PFA.

Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the players union, had hoped to keep the conclusions of the report called Meltdown secret until next week.

But SunSport has discovered its key findings, which include an attack on Arsene Wenger for his recruitment of young foreigners.

It shows the massive increase of foreign players in the Premier League since it began in the 1992-93 season.

Then there were 363 English players (71 per cent) in the Premiership, compared to just 49 from overseas (10 per cent). The remainder were from Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

By last season there were just 191 English players (38 per cent), with 252 from abroad (51 per cent).

SunSport can also reveal only 12 foreign players were involved in the opening weekend of the first Premiership season last weekend there were 138.

The report concludes foreign players are stifling the development of English kids and will do long-term damage to the national team.

Former Manchester United and England star Paul Parker said: The money available to owners, managers and players now means that success is the only way to be measured.

That means winning, surviving or whatever at all costs. That makes clubs greedy and it is harming the structure of football in England.

gunner77 SG

Shocked Shocked Shocked

felirox SG

Originally posted by turbo_drift:

[b]FOREIGN players are killing English talent according to an official report.

The damning findings follow a major investigation commissioned by the PFA.

Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the players union, had hoped to keep the conclusions of the report called Meltdown secret until next week.

But SunSport has discovered its key findings, which include an attack on Arsene Wenger for his recruitment of young foreigners.

It shows the massive increase of foreign players in the Premier League since it began in the 1992-93 season.

Then there were 363 English players (71 per cent) in the Premiership, compared to just 49 from overseas (10 per cent). The remainder were from Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

By last season there were just 191 English players (38 per cent), with 252 from abroad (51 per cent).

SunSport can also reveal only 12 foreign players were involved in the opening weekend of the first Premiership season last weekend there were 138.

The report concludes foreign players are stifling the development of English kids and will do long-term damage to the national team.

Former Manchester United and England star Paul Parker said: The money available to owners, managers and players now means that success is the only way to be measured.

That means winning, surviving or whatever at all costs. That makes clubs greedy and it is harming the structure of football in England. [/b]

bollocks.

BrUtUs SG

ya everything blame wenger… PFA/gordon better go blame themselves…

turbo_drift SG

Wenger backs foreign policy

ARSENE WENGER insists Arsenal fans could not care less if there are no Englishmen in their table- topping team.

The French boss says as long as the Gunners play quality football and win trophies that is what matters.

So, while the FA work on a strategy to restore battered English pride in the wake of the Euro 2008 exit, they can forget about Wengers help.

Wenger has been hammered in a PFA report called Meltdown revealed in SunSport yesterday for having too many foreign imports and denying Englishmen the opportunity to perform at Arsenal and gain vital top-level experience.

But Wenger insists his duty is to the 60,000 supporters who pack out The Emirates at £60-a-time not the Three Lions.

Those fans, he argues, have no desire to substitute their foreign heroes who can land the ball on a sixpence for Englishmen who cannot land it inside the M25.
Best league in world

Wenger said: 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 this guy? He either enjoys it or he doesnt enjoy it.

The most important thing for me is not to see where the players come from. What is important is the clubs do a lot for the game and that people who come and pay £60 enjoy what they see.

You cannot want the best league in the world and only play English players.

Wenger vigorously defends his foreign-biased transfer policy, arguing that Arsenal were priced out of the market for the very best English players. The likes of Frank Lampard went to Chelsea while Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand joined Manchester United

And, in the past, when the Gunners gambled on unproven Englishmen such as Francis Jeffers, now at Sheffield Wednesday, and Richard Wright, now the sub keeper at West Ham, the experiment was a failure.

Wenger said: There was a conscious effort to try and buy English. But I accept that now, for example, you can point your finger at Arsenal because we have no English players who are really regular players.

There were two reasons. The first one was financial because we were always competing with Manchester United and Chelsea, who had bigger financial potential.

And, secondly, you do not produce enough, and have not produced in the last 10 years, enough English players of the top, top, top quality.

You have produced some but they have gone to clubs with the biggest financial potential.

At Arsenal you have to see how you can compete with Man United and Chelsea and it had to be in a different way.

We had to try in our own way to be successful and this was to buy young players.

I dont look at the nationality when I buy a player. The question is are you a good football player, can you play the way I like to play it?

If you are from England it is even better and we do have some top English players in Theo Walcott and Justin Hoyte.

It is easier to keep an English footballer at Arsenal than an Argentinian, but we have had to make choices.

Wenger is completely against an imposed quota system of English players which, he believes, would encourage mediocrity.

He said: I prefer to tell a boy

Listen my friend, you are not good enough. We are in a job thats down to quality and I do not want to give you a job of just sitting on the bench because somebody in an office has decided that you need to be in the squad. Its ridiculous and its unfair.

It is better for that player to play in the second division, where he is one of the stronger players, than sitting on the bench at Arsenal and feeling hes not good enough and with no respect from people around him.

Wengers multi-national table- toppers, who hold a four-point lead over United at the top of the Premier League, travel to Middlesbrough tomorrow for the start of a run of eight games in 21 days.

They will again be without Cesc Fabregas, Alexander Hleb, Mathieu Flamini and Robin van Persie, although the Dutchman is set to resume training next week.

Wenger said: Its a massive challenge and we are still hungry. We used to dominate games in the second half but in the last two games we dropped our pace a little bit.

We want to get back to playing the full 90 minutes because that is needed if you want to be consistent.

dragg SG

without foreign players EPL wouldnt be so popular now.

Spartans SG

The job of Wenger is not to produce English talent! He only need to look after the interest of Arsenal, not England.

I dun really care if England continue to fail miserably as long as Arsenal continues to play brilliant football.

stellazio SG

well it is true that with the all the wonderkids around, the english boy who is nowhere near as technically skilled as the europeans or south americans will find it hard to move up to the level of playing ucl football with the big 4.