One striking paradox in the world of football is the completely opposite directions the English Premier League and the England national football seem to be heading.
On one hand, the Premier League is unarguably the best in the world in terms of fan following, viewership and sheer competitiveness of teams while on the other hand; the England team seems to be going downhill as usual. We have been wondering and pouring misery on each other over this issue.
The main bane and boon for this matter is the vast amount of money flowing into the clubs.
When we look at TV rights alone the average sum earned by a Premier League club is £40m while the only other clubs having revenues over this in Liga BBVA are Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Even the lower level clubs have immense amount of money to shell out.
The Premier League clubs with this kind of money are looking for short cuts to success and buy foreign talents who have proved to be successful.
So the effort put into developing young English talent decreases.
When foreign players are brought to an English club, they are given first team chances immediately and often prove successful.
In effect they are depriving English players of their chance to shine and impress the coach and secure a spot in the team.
They will be made to warm the bench or play in the reserve squad.
This is demoralizing to the upcoming talents.
Eventually they will have to run out their contracts and play for lower league clubs and wind up unnoticed.
By this time the peek pf their careers will be long gone. Last season only 32% of players in premier league squads were English.
When comparing to the La Liga this increases to 60%, which is almost double. This explains the recent success stories of Spain and Spanish players at international level.
The number of English born coaches in Premier League clubs is also following a similar trend.
While this may not be a huge factor in decline of player talents available for the national team it sure does pitchin towards the phenomenon in some way.
While every other nation’s players have got the courage to make it at some other better league in some other nation, English players are hesitant and even afraid in making the big step.
Ashley Cole mentioned this factor recently after he made the switch to a foreign league.
Right now, only veteran English players who had successful careers make a switch to leagues outside England at the twilight of their football career to make easy money with less effort.
Other than that, the sight of young players seeking first team action elsewhere in order to gain experience is a rare sight.
This may be due to the fact that most football playing nations are not English speaking and while the language barrier is not a big problem for players coming to England and training themselves in English simultaneously, the English players are still reluctant to follow the example available to them right in front of their eyes.
All these factors weigh in when the problem at hand is concerned and it is no easy job to make a radical change.
The home grown talent rules and FFP regulations are small steps taken in the right direction, but these alone will not be sufficient to reverse the change. Only when the English clubs decide to take initiative and work for developing an atmosphere that nurtures home grown and English talent will there be any stable way to control the issue.
