Jump to content

Are the Big 4 destroying English football?


Recommended Posts

I am in no doubt that this has been brought up before, and it has been the debate of several sports chanels, but it has really hit home today the lack of British players in the big 4 premier teams.

 

I saw the stating lineup for the Arsenal Team for the Liverpool match and not 1 British player was in.

 

Here is a rundown of the British (including Ireland) players in the big 4 champions league starting 11

 

Man U - 5

Liverpool - 2

Arsenal - 0

Chelsea - 4

 

That is only 11 out of 44!! 1 single team out of 4 could be made of homegrown talent

 

If we look a bit further into the teams and include the subs (7 per team) for those teams we have

Man U - 3

Liverpool - 1

Arsenal - 2

Chelsea - 1

 

Once again, out of a possible 28 places, only 7 are British.

 

wasn't there a ruling brought in where a certain amount of players had to be 'homegrown'? or has that been scrapped?

 

 

 

Thoughts and ideas?

 

Pointons Tache

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You only have to look at the comment Keys made over the weekend. After a feature on Pompey and the cup runs of the other three sides he said:

 

"Nobody wants to see the big four out of the FA Cup, the big sides need to be competing for the FA Cup don't they? Anyway back on to the serious football.........."

 

A trailer advertising this weeks Champions Leagues games was then shown! Coventry fan my :shakeit:

 

LONG LIVE THE 88!

Edited by RoytonBlueLad
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You only have to look at the comment Keys made over the weekend. After a feature on Pompey and the cup runs of the other three sides he said:

 

"Nobody wants to see the big four out of the FA Cup, the big sides need to be competing for the FA Cup don't they? Anyway back on to the serious football.........."

 

A trailer advertising this weeks Champions Leagues games was then shown! Coventry fan my :shakeit:

 

LONG LIVE THE 88!

 

 

Sky have further devalued this season's FAC imo by showing another Liverpool/Arsenal* borefest at the same time as the Semi-Final on the BBC. The Semi-Finals of the FAC used to be an occasion, remember how fantastic it was in 1990? GReat coverage etc... Now playing Fourth fiddle to the Premier Greed, Chumps League, Far Eatern Tours etc.... I'm sure they could've kicked off at 5.15 or whatever but noooooooooooo Greed is good AND they have the Scum on before the second semi on Sunday. Tossers!

 

*last night was a rare exception.

Edited by oafcprozac
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sky have further devalued this season's FAC imo by showing another Liverpool/Arsenal borefest at the same time as the Semi-Final on the BBC. The Semi-Finals of the FAC used to be an occasion, remember how fantastic it was in 1990? GReat coverage etc... Now playing second fiddle to the Premier Greed. I'm sure they could've kicked off at 5.15 or whatever but noooooooooooo Greed is good AND they have the Scum on before the second semi on Sunday. Tossers!

 

I'd seriously hope the semi doesn't play second fiddle in the pubs of Swindon though, otherwise I'll be moving on very swiftly.

 

I think it's a little simplistic to blame all of footballs evils on the big four though. EvilSky/Premiership maybe, but a select few clubs is just pointing the finger at the successful who have managed to take advantage (be it their size or money at the right time) of the situation..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No the "big four" aren't destroying English football.

 

The Premier League as a whole and the FA are destroying English football.

 

I have little or no pity for the Premier League sides who can no longer compete with the "big four". They reap what they sow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Big Four aren't destroying English football but they aren't making it great either and i think they are preventing it from developing. Take a look at how many up and coming English (or British - as i think they are having an effect on Welsh, Irish and to a lesser extent Scottish football too) players they have . There's Walcott and Ben Foster (plus Rooney- but he is no longer really up and coming) and that's about it. (If there are any more I stand corrected). Ben Foster is currently second or third choice behind Edwin Van Der Sar who will play almost every game when fit (and the games he won't play won't be very taxing for a ManUre goalie) and Walcott has only started to get games because Thierry Henry left. Steve Sidwell was incontention for Engalnd places and would feature in squads but since he left Reading he's got no-where but richer. I can understand players moving to clubs for even more ridiculous wages than they were getting before but most of the time this is at the expense of their careers as the big four have the money to buy in established talent or proven youngsters from elsewhere and aren't willing to take gambles on paying out big transfer fees for players who might not make the grade. This is beacuse British players are generally over-priced compared to their foreign counter-parts as the money in the English game is ridiculous. This in essence means that top quality English youngsters have to go to mid level premier clubs to get games and therefore improve as a player but they don't get the experience of playing Champions League football regularly and are lucky if they get to play in Europe so can only improve so far which would help the development of the national teams. A prime example of this is David Bentley who could well be languishing on Arsenal's bench but since moving to Blackburn he has gone on to earn England recognition.

 

The big four also recruit youngsters from abroad and develop these in their youth team or reserves as opposed to having British talent. Fabregas is a prime example of this as he probably wouldn't be the player he is now if Arsenal hadn't half stolen him from Barca. Quality will always rise to the top but the only two 'world-class' players that are English which have been developed solely by the big four are Gerrard and Terry (who incidentally made his debut as a left-back in the pie-game at Boundary Park). As a result England is really struggling to find the up and coming youngsters who have the ability to progress and be of sufficent quality to play in world cups in 10 years time.

 

Finally the money of the Premier League is appalling and i think it is this which is destroying English football in the main. This will only get worse unless Sky, the BBC, ITV, Setanta and anyone else interested say we will only pay this much money for the TV rights like it or lump it. Either that or the FA realise what the money they accept for the games is doing to the clubs outside of the upper end of the Premier League and the national team and stop asking for ridiculous sums of money. But these are highly unlikely.

 

So in summary the 'Big Four' are certainly not helping the English game as much as say the other big clubs are for their respective countries but the money in the Premier League which is mainly generated as a result of the big four is making the situation worse.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Corney made an excellent point Monday night.

 

He'd heard of criticism from the top 4 about those coming up not being able to compete. In other words take points from those from 5th onwards making their cruise even easier. They reckon the lower clubs should use all the cash they get from coming up (remember the £60 million play off game?) and battle on. How can they be expected to compete like some tried (Bradford anyone?) when the potential for disaster afterwards is so great.

 

Far easier to take the Derby route of admit defeat instantly, take the £12 million you get for relegation and regroup in the Championship and aim to come back stronger. To be fair this time round Bristol have done well but how can Scunny, Colchester etc be expected over the course of a season compete with a side who have been given £12 million. That is their reward for being relegated. You get a paltry sum for winning League One.

 

It's madness.

Edited by RoytonBlueLad
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dont think its so much the big 4 but The FA's dependance of them,

 

we have a lot of english talented players but the ones you see on the england squad are either:

 

a) playing for the big 4 or

B) on £100,000 a week

 

to be honest i prefer english players doing well playing for lower clubs,

 

think about it

example: (totally made up)

wayne rooney scores 34 goals

Jermaine defoe scores 32 goals

 

who is better? jermaine defoe

 

why? because whilst wayne rooney has scored more, he has a lot better team backing him, thus getting better passes, freeing him up, making his job easier.

 

whereas jermaine defoes team backing him aint as strong as rooneys but hes still scored around the same amount as him, yet hes had to work harder to get these goals than rooney.

 

does that make sense?

 

of course this is not the case all the time, but just need to think about the help they recieve at club level, if they are doing as good a job as another player but with a lower team then this player is better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

the only two 'world-class' players that are English which have been developed solely by the big four are Gerrard and Terry

 

 

Not to pick little bits out, but John Terry? I can understand Stevie Me (although I totally disagree with that one too), but John Terry? Have you been sniffing the chloroform?

 

 

NB. Ashley Cole and Michael Owen are two that spring to mind at that (and a better IMO) level.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The introduction of the 'Premier League' gave an opportunity to make the rich clubs richer and the poor clubs poorer. where does all this extra money go - on wages to buy :censored: like cars, apartments, bling etc. Nowt goes back into the game. I wouldnt lose any sleep of the big 4 joined a Super Euro League - good riddance to em. Thankfully there are clubs with good academies constantly producing good english talent (:censored:ty, Villa, Tics) and these should keep the future bright for England. I am glad we are not part of the crass elitists!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The introduction of the 'Premier League' gave an opportunity to make the rich clubs richer and the poor clubs poorer. where does all this extra money go - on wages to buy :censored: like cars, apartments, bling etc. Nowt goes back into the game. I wouldnt lose any sleep of the big 4 joined a Super Euro League - good riddance to em. Thankfully there are clubs with good academies constantly producing good english talent (:censored:ty, Villa, Tics) and these should keep the future bright for England. I am glad we are not part of the crass elitists!

post ended!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...