England v Uraquay

[penelope2]

Well that's it then 'done and dusted'. England boys off on their holidays early after another abject performance. Despite all the media hype we were rubbish. And Rooney's great goal, it was a tap in for chr**t sake. Pity they didn't wear the English shirt with more passion, but there again with the money they earn they obviously don't give a ***. Pathetic!!!!!

[jim360]

Yes, I'd agree that a certain limit might be reasonable. An outright ban, or some cynical attempt at pretending that the foreign players are suddenly English even when they don't want to be, is not.

[ChillDoubt]

Summed up in 5 words:

Simply not good enough - again.

[pixie373]

Ok. Thanks for clarifying, jim. So the premier football is basically about which team can buy the best players, but you have to be English to play for England?
Either way, if those 11 are the best out of 60 million people, hmmmm.

[jim360]

Yes, up to a point but then the best players don't always make a good team so it's also about making the players you have work together effectively. It's just that often a good player can function well whatever team he is in, so is worth paying the money for.

International football is about making the best team you have from your native players. Until rather recently, I think, the definition of "native" might have been loose enough that Suarez could have ended up playing for England, although he probably wouldn't have wanted to. The great Hungarian player, Puskas, switched to playing for Spain later in his career, after he'd emigrated there. But then that arguably takes something away from what the World Cup should be about. In one of the rare times that he's opened his mouth to say something sensible, Sepp Blatter pointed out the "farce" of the African team Equatorial Guinea fielding eight players from Brazil, although it didn't do them much good.

(By the way, I was slightly surprised that the lack of a link between where you live and the club you play for goes as far back as the first ever league, but there you go).

[pixie373]

Yes, that surprised me too. I'm obviously not a football wotsit, so I'm probably looking from a different viewpoint. To me, it looked disloyal- which isn't great in a team game. But i can now see your point.

[jim360]

Thanks.

Club football in general can often be disruptive of the International matches. There was a claim that some of the reason the Spanish team have bombed is that their players are coming of the back of a long and tough season in Spain (the competition between Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona covered not just their own league but also their version of the FA cup, and the Champions league to boot). I don't know if this is reasonable or not -- the catch is that Iker Casillas the keeper barely played all season and he was utter rubbish -- but sometimes a strong club football performance can count against you if it does lead to fatigue. It might be that we will have to accept a weakened national side in exchange for one of the world's top leagues.

But more than likely the problem is at the grassroots of the game. If good players are developed early, then they'll rise to the top, no matter the competition from foreign players. We saw that at Liverpool last season. Unfortunately, at the moments in counted we were just lacking something. Perhaps even it was luck, which does play its part in football alongside skill.

[lozzer50]

pay by performance save some clubs a fortune

[malagabob]

So there wont be reruns and talk of 2014 like there is of~~~ when was it??? 66

[aelmpvw]

with a little bit of luck rooney would have had a hat trick and we would be saying they are going to win the ruddy thing

[murraymints]

In a previous life ..Lol...I was wag to a player in Eintracht Frankfurt...very few of the first team were German !

[jomifl]

Football is not about entertainment it is about making money, it would still make money if there were no English players playing in England or for England. That is the root of Englands dismal performance.

[jno]

Cricket has restrictred the number of foreign players and it did not turn us into world champions.

Actually, it did, very briefly. England was top of the test rankings about three years ago and won a T20 championship. Not that there are a lot of rival countries.

[Tuvok]

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