Reply to: Premier League one third English

[amcdonald]

I haven't read all the above, but doesn't this indicate that team managers are being lazy and are just buying in talent instead of investing in home grown talent?

Are talking about football or IT now ?

[Mich the Tester]

Lewis Holtby is eligible as his father is from Liverpool but decided to play internationally for Germany as that is where he was born, brought up and lives (also his mother is German.) Aaron Hunt who plays for Bremen has a German father and British mother but also made the same decision whereas Owen Hargreaves who was born in Canada to British parents decided to play for England rather than Canada or Wales. One of the funnier stories concerns Sean Dundee who was a South African who played in Germany and wanted to play for Germany so he took German citizenship. As soon as that came through he got called up for national service and had to do it, while he was doing it his girlfriend buggered of with someone else as she never saw him and after finishing it his career took a nosedive.

What all of them seem to have in common is that they chose to play for strongest team they're eligible for, which is a pretty fair reflection on how a lot of serious sportspeople think. If nationality is not such a clear cut decision for you, having moved around and had an international background, why choose to join a second rate team if you're eligible for a team where you might get to win things?

[minestrone]

I haven't read all the above, but doesn't this indicate that team managers are being lazy and are just buying in talent instead of investing in home grown talent?

At the end of the day the homegrown talent is not good enough.

[scooterscot]

I haven't read all the above, but doesn't this indicate that team managers are being lazy and are just buying in talent instead of investing in home grown talent?

I think that's the point, talent is unavailable. Generation x-factor is not good for business.

[Pogle]

I haven't read all the above, but doesn't this indicate that team managers are being lazy and are just buying in talent instead of investing in home grown talent?

[darmstadt]

I think the current rule in England is that players need to have had 5 years schooling here before the age of 18 to be eligible to play four our national team.

It means that all the fuss about the Man Utd player (and Lewis Holtby), is a watse of time as their not eligible anyway.

Lewis Holtby is eligible as his father is from Liverpool but decided to play internationally for Germany as that is where he was born, brought up and lives (also his mother is German.) Aaron Hunt who plays for Bremen has a German father and British mother but also made the same decision whereas Owen Hargreaves who was born in Canada to British parents decided to play for England rather than Canada or Wales. One of the funnier stories concerns Sean Dundee who was a South African who played in Germany and wanted to play for Germany so he took German citizenship. As soon as that came through he got called up for national service and had to do it, while he was doing it his girlfriend buggered of with someone else as she never saw him and after finishing it his career took a nosedive.

[TheBigD]

There are players in the Bundesliga who have British parents and are eligible to play for England, in fact one now plays for Tottenham: Lewis Holtby, but they decided not to and instead are picked for the German national team, why? They'll quite happily play in the PL but not for England...

I think the current rule in England is that players need to have had 5 years schooling here before the age of 18 to be eligible to play four our national team.

It means that all the fuss about the Man Utd player (and Lewis Holtby), is a watse of time as their not eligible anyway.

[Mich the Tester]

Oh but it is and the FA have opened their new training school, St. Georges but its a little bit late. The Germans saw that their national team were doing absolutely tulip a few years back and decided to invest in the youth and although they may not have won much they still have a formidable team and the Bundesliga clubs are a force to be reckoned with. However you talk about other sports here but where do these people train? Many of them live and train abroad because the UK either does not have the facilities, coaches, etc. or does not invest in the sport even though the Olympics was meant to be the kickstart to investment in sport, the government is still cutting back in that area. When I was at school we had football and rugby pitches, a cricket pitch, a full complement of athletic facilites, tennis courts, netball, 2 indoor gyms, etc. When I went back to look at my old school they only had one football pitch and one gym, all the outside facilites were now housing. That is where the problem lies, no investment in youth...

I think quite a few top sportspeople come from private schools that have great facilities, universities like Loughborough that have top class sports facilities, and in one or two sports like cycling there's been investment by private and public parties in facilities.

[darmstadt]

Given that British sportspeople have reached the top in athletics, road and track cycling, rugby union, cricket, gymnastics, rowing, equestrian, tennis, boxing etc etc etc, I wonder whether football in Britain is really attracting the most talented young sportspeople.

Oh but it is and the FA have opened their new training school, St. Georges but its a little bit late. The Germans saw that their national team were doing absolutely tulip a few years back and decided to invest in the youth and although they may not have won much they still have a formidable team and the Bundesliga clubs are a force to be reckoned with. However you talk about other sports here but where do these people train? Many of them live and train abroad because the UK either does not have the facilities, coaches, etc. or does not invest in the sport even though the Olympics was meant to be the kickstart to investment in sport, the government is still cutting back in that area. When I was at school we had football and rugby pitches, a cricket pitch, a full complement of athletic facilites, tennis courts, netball, 2 indoor gyms, etc. When I went back to look at my old school they only had one football pitch and one gym, all the outside facilites were now housing. That is where the problem lies, no investment in youth...

[Mich the Tester]

seriously, nobody really gives a flying fook about cycling

Poor trolling. 1/10.

[FiveTimes]

I suppose it depends what is classed as English/British. Would John Barnes, Owen Hargreave be classed as british ?

[minestrone]

Given that British sportspeople have reached the top in athletics, road and track cycling, rugby union, cricket, gymnastics, rowing, equestrian, tennis, boxing etc etc etc, I wonder whether football in Britain is really attracting the most talented young sportspeople.

seriously, nobody really gives a flying fook about cycling

[Mich the Tester]

There are players in the Bundesliga who have British parents and are eligible to play for England, in fact one now plays for Tottenham: Lewis Holtby, but they decided not to and instead are picked for the German national team, why? They'll quite happily play in the PL but not for England...

Perhaps he'll have a chance of winning the World Cup if he plays for Germany. Really single minded sportspeople (often the types that become the very best) will often choose whatever route they think will get them to the top of their sport; nationality might be of secondary concern.

[darmstadt]

Or that maybe football should recruit talent from overseas like the cycling, cricket, rugby ?

There are players in the Bundesliga who have British parents and are eligible to play for England, in fact one now plays for Tottenham: Lewis Holtby, but they decided not to and instead are picked for the German national team, why? They'll quite happily play in the PL but not for England...

[Mich the Tester]

Or that maybe football should recruit talent from overseas like the cycling, cricket, rugby ?

Perhaps, and personally I don't oppose that, but actually those sports still have most of their talent coming from British backgrounds.

It's not as if there's a shortage of talent in Britain; OK, I'm not saying that a natural long distance runner could be a great footballer, but there are common factors to success in all ball sports, like hand and foot to eye coordination, peripheral vision, spatial awareness, judgment of speed and distance, and then common aspects in any athletic sport like speed, endurance, 'trainability' and resistance to injury; there's obviously no shortage of those qualities among English young people as so many sports succeed in getting the best out of them; why doesn't football do that?