Guest Posted 11 March 2005 Posted 11 March 2005 I want to see all the English sides go through. 76351[/snapback] Just because they're based in England, they're not truly English sides anymore though. The Premiership is full of foreign players, and we wonder why the national side underperforms? When I was younger, the better English (and Scottish for that matter) players played regularly against Europe's leading teams. Players on the fringe of a national call up got to play against Europe's leading teams. How many of England's top players now play in Europe regularly? The starting 11 at most, I'd guess. Very few of the fringe players do. No wonder we fail when we get to the big tournaments. This is one reason I don't give a stuff about 'our' teams in Europe.
shen Posted 11 March 2005 Posted 11 March 2005 I want to see all the English sides go through. 76351[/snapback] Just because they're based in England, they're not truly English sides anymore though. The Premiership is full of foreign players, and we wonder why the national side underperforms? When I was younger, the better English (and Scottish for that matter) players played regularly against Europe's leading teams. Players on the fringe of a national call up got to play against Europe's leading teams. How many of England's top players now play in Europe regularly? The starting 11 at most, I'd guess. Very few of the fringe players do. No wonder we fail when we get to the big tournaments. This is one reason I don't give a stuff about 'our' teams in Europe. 77174[/snapback] I think it's a pretty poor excuse to be honest. It's the same scenario in the rest of Europe! England are not the only ones affected by this 'foreign sickness'. But it strikes people around the world that the big European footballing nations have been doing so 'poorly' lately. I think it's just become very obvious that smaller nations are competing a lot more these days, with many peripheral countries having a few star players scattered around in the European leagues. I can understand that these countries' football teams get better from the experience of their ambassadors. But the level in the Premier League, Serie A, 1. Bundesliga and La Liga is still very high and should be of a high enough level to develop the British talent. You highlight the failure of the England team (who I just think are overestimated, or rather, their opponents get underestimated), but what about last year's Champions League? Monaco vs Porto in the final of the most prestigious European League? Leverkusen a few years back, and I'd even class Valencia as a shock team... My point is, times have changed, the big nations' power has tilted slightly and the smaller nations are in with a shout as shown by Denmark, Czech Rep, Turkey, Greece, Sweden and Bulgaria these last 15 years..
Guest Posted 11 March 2005 Posted 11 March 2005 I want to see all the English sides go through. 76351[/snapback] Just because they're based in England, they're not truly English sides anymore though. The Premiership is full of foreign players, and we wonder why the national side underperforms? When I was younger, the better English (and Scottish for that matter) players played regularly against Europe's leading teams. Players on the fringe of a national call up got to play against Europe's leading teams. How many of England's top players now play in Europe regularly? The starting 11 at most, I'd guess. Very few of the fringe players do. No wonder we fail when we get to the big tournaments. This is one reason I don't give a stuff about 'our' teams in Europe. 77174[/snapback] I think it's a pretty poor excuse to be honest. It's the same scenario in the rest of Europe! England are not the only ones affected by this 'foreign sickness'. But it strikes people around the world that the big European footballing nations have been doing so 'poorly' lately. I think it's just become very obvious that smaller nations are competing a lot more these days, with many peripheral countries having a few star players scattered around in the European leagues. I can understand that these countries' football teams get better from the experience of their ambassadors. But the level in the Premier League, Serie A, 1. Bundesliga and La Liga is still very high and should be of a high enough level to develop the British talent. You highlight the failure of the England team (who I just think are overestimated, or rather, their opponents get underestimated), but what about last year's Champions League? Monaco vs Porto in the final of the most prestigious European League? Leverkusen a few years back, and I'd even class Valencia as a shock team... My point is, times have changed, the big nations' power has tilted slightly and the smaller nations are in with a shout as shown by Denmark, Czech Rep, Turkey, Greece, Sweden and Bulgaria these last 15 years.. 77177[/snapback] Firstly, I don't think it's a poor excuse. I also didn't say England were the only nation affected. Secondly, you've said it in your own argument that players from so-called 'smaller' nations are playing in the better leagues, surely this has the opposite effect than with the likes of England, Germany, France etc. All that is happening is the playing field (excuse the pun) is levelling out. Perhaps this is a good thing, but from the selfish POV of being an England fan, I think it's shocking. So what if I want to overestimate/underestimate teams? Isn't this what being a fan is about? Isn't this why we dream of beating Blackburn on Sunday, and get upset by things like the Wycombe game? British talent is not developing as it has done in the past. Rather than bringing on young talent, the big clubs let their youngsters go to smaller clubs so that they can bring in players from overseas. What started off as bringing in talented players who our youngsters could learn from, has backfired in our faces. The Arse played Senderos and Cygan on Wednesday night. Are you seriously telling me they are better players than Upson?
Steven Posted 11 March 2005 Posted 11 March 2005 For those of you who may have forgotten, there is always the ignore poster function.
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.