Looks that way too me.. www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 31,00.html

Looks that way too me.. www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 31,00.html

We want our leaf back!

Quote ="Frosties."Looks that way too me.. www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 31,00.html'" It's been talked about for years. About time they did something about it.

Quote ="Frosties."Looks that way too me.. www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 31,00.html'" It's been talked about for years. About time they did something about it.

If only they had the balls to introduce a salary cap... football might be worth watching again! They of course don't!

Hasnt there been a homegrown rule in the Champions League for a few years already? Is this just an extension of the same rule? If so then its very easy to get around since half the Arsenal squad qualify as homegrown

[i"We're not going down the route of a nationality test but what this will mean is that you just can't buy a team from abroad."[/i

Yup, same criteria IIRC - three years between the ages of 16 and 21 at an English or Welsh club. I think the UEFA rules go a step further too in that a certain number must also be trained by that particular club, it's not clear whether the PL are also adopting that.

So promising young players from the "poorer" European leagues can be snapped up at 16, and by the time they've finished playing for the youth team at 19-20 they will be classed as "home grown", despite another club having spent 8-9 years developing them as a junior.

Well yes, but don't forget that in some way that can still be a positive for many of these players that don't make it and then go back and play top-flight football back in their own country.

I see they have also nicked the 25 player first team squad system directly from the RFL operational rules!

from what i understand, you could have every "home grown" player actually be from another country other than england just as long as they train with the club for 3 years before they are 21?

Well yes its a positive for those players but not exactly a positive for the Premiership or for England national team, surely the point of a homegrown rule is to promote and encourage the production of more English players?

One question.

Is there a bloke currently working in a supermarket in North London who can say "if Cesc Fabregas wasn't at Arsenal, I'd be an England international"?

Nope? Then how are foreign youngsters harming the England team?

I'm pretty sure that Arsenal for example (ne club oft criticised in this argument) look around local schools, Hackney Marshes and wherever. The reality is that the players that they find there aren't as good as the ones that they find in Europe or Africa. So far, the only English youngster that they've found who they deem good enough for their team is Jack Whilshire.

The sentiment behind the idea is right. The problem is that it is attacking the result of the problem, not the cause of the problem.

Listen, don't get me wrong I think they could go a lot further and indeed should but this is the FA we are talking about! As I said above, they should introduce a salary cap and bring some integrity back to the premier league... but they wouldn't dare as the big money clubs are all about the money and not the football.

Yeah I agree with you there, they desperately need a salary cap in football, the problem is though that the salary cap needs to be worldwide otherwise all the best players will simply bugger off somewhere else.

I agree to a point, the same is also true in RL (though to a lesser degree). But you have to put up with the initial short term loss of quality in order to redress the imbalance between the domestic league and the national team. If Arsenal as a club really put effort into an academy system that focuses on young English players then there is no doubt that those young English players will improve over the years to the point where they are good enough to take the place of some of the foreign players.

Thats why the RFL have lowered the overseas quota in increments rather than just cutting it, because as you point out the problem is that the foreigners are currently better than the homegrown players.

That's a little like me saying if it wasn't for Bono, I could be the lead singer of U2.

The problem isn't that English kids aren't getting an opportunity to sign schoolboy forms etc at the top clubs, but that their opportunities to progress into the first team are limited by an influx of foreign players who arrive "ready made" and relatively cheap.

The problem is not underinvestment in academies. Look at the amount of money that goes into the Liverpool, Chelsea or Arsenal academy. It's far more than the likes of Ajax, Barcelona and Inter Milan sink into theirs.

The problem is youth coaching.

If Lionel Messi was born in Oldham or Rochdale, he would have been dismissed by whichever volunteer dad was coaching his junior team as being "too small" and "too weak". Abroad, the attitude is to teach a youngster how to play football and then teach him fitness. In the UK, we do it the other way around. That is the root of the problem.

There's also this myth that you can have a "production line" of players. It's absolute nonsense. If it was, Yorkshire would have had no trouble finding another Trueman, GB would have had no problem finding another Hanley and Northern Ireland would have found another George Best.

I agree, it's a problem that all sports face, but poor youth coaching is equally a problem that all sports seem very reluctant to address.

Yeah Id agree with that, its one of the many things that p1sses me off about the amateur game in RL too. Plus there is the issue that young English players usually want a higher wage than young foreign players of the same ability.