In the early 90s, when Manchester United were becoming the dominant team in English football, our teams didn’t exactly excel in Europe and attendances and money in the game weren’t the greatest.
Now the English league is the strongest in the world and English teams have participated in each of the last 4 European Cup Finals, and no English team lost to a foreign team in the 2007/2008 tournament. But our national team is not even ranked in the top 10.
Back then, clubs were only allowed 3 foreign players in their side at any one time, nowadays, only a third of premiership players are English. Foreign imports have been a huge factor in the recent success of the English game, but are we prepared to accept the poor form of the national team in return for a strong domestic league?
The national side recently slipped out of the top 10 in the world rankings, and its no surprise why, what with a lack of big match experience, and reluctance to play meaningful friendlies, it seems the English team is beginning to suffer from bad habits started over a decade ago.
There can be no doubting that the first team is fantastic, consisting of big match experienced star players, but who are the leading lights of the future, and are they getting the necessary experience at club level?
Probably not. With only a third of premiership players now hailing from England, only the top few players are now able to make careers in the Premier League. Players that might have developed into potential internationals 10 years ago are now being offloaded to championship sides if theyre lucky, or rotting in their clubs reserves if not.
Even the best of English talent is not guaranteed a start these days. England internationals like Crouch, Shaun-Wright Philips and Bridge have all had time on the sidelines recently.
But as the current set-up fails to impress, and the future looks bleak as players prefer not to play in tournaments for their country for fear of risking burn-out for the season ahead, we, the fans, only have ourselves to blame. Most of us would prefer our club side won a trophy over England lifting a cup, and as you cant have both, we need to start thinking seriously about which we want.
Until we change things, England will continue on a downward spiral, and managers will continue to get it in the neck, despite their best efforts.