The Credibility of the Premier League Damaged by The World Cup
The Premier League has taken an all out beating in South Africa. If the national team of a country is an accurate description of the standard of the footballing league in that country, then the way Fabio Capello’s England performed is something that needs to be looked into with the highest level of concern. The Premier League is currently employing players ranging from Rob Green to the likes of Wayne Rooney, who now seem like nothing more than damaged goods.
From the last eight teams left in the tournament, only eighteen players currently play in the Premier League. Chelsea and Manchester United who have been the top two club’s in England this past season, don’t have a single player left in the tournament.
From the top four clubs that will be representing the Premiership in the Champions League next season, only three players are left in the tournament. Arsenal’s, Robin Van Persie and Cesc Fabregas along with Tottenham’s Heurelho Gomes are those three players.
Liverpool on the other hand, the Club that failed to qualify for the Champions League, have the most players left competing in South Africa. Fernando Torres, Pepe Reina, Dirk Kuyt, Ryan Babel, Javier Mascherano and Maxi Rodriguez are those playes.
When the World Cup, comes to a close and is reviewed, the top names that will be remembered from the tournament will be those of, David Villa, Lionel Messi, Wesley Sneijder, Lucio, Ozil and Kaka. Not a single one these players is part of a single Premiership team. Which is something that the English F.A, should look into. The Premiership has been losing its credibility over the past couple of years, with players preferring to look into moves to the leagues in Spain, Italy, etc.
This failure of the Premiership, directly leads to the failure of the English national team. The reason for this failure can be a direct link to the fact that the number of English players in each one of the top teams has died down quite significantly. The only team that has more than five English players playing is Manchester United, whose squad consists of approximately six or seven English players. Whereas teams such as Arsenal, barely have more than three English players playing for them.
The lack of home grown players, in a countries league directly results in a smaller pool of players to choose from, while at the same time helping the talent from other countries develop. This is something the English F.A needs to acknowledge and look into as soon as possible, leagues such as the Spanish La Liga have already noted this fact and introduced a minimum quota of home grown players that need to be in the squad for it to be eligible for participation in the league.
We can judge how bad the situation in the Premiership is when we look at the opening day fixtures, which consist of, Blackpool vs Wigan and Bolton vs Fulham or the same day as Arsenal vs Liverpool.
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