Sylvain Distin has become the latest foreigner to speak out against the accusation that the increasing amount of foreign footballers plying their trade in England is harming the national side.
He has told the Sun that people should stop looking for excuses for England’s failure to qualify for Euro 2008: ‘I’m the sort of guy that when I read in the paper that England don’t succeed because of us, I feel a little surprised.
‘People always look for excuses when they fail. Why do we want to talk about foreigners?
‘England didn’t fail because there are a lot of foreigners here. England have a good team but sometimes you win, sometimes you lose’.
I am one who does like to see the English talent given a chance, which on the whole it is so I cannot see the problem, it is just that – people looking for an excuse, we should just accept the fact that we were not good enough!
Pompeycarpet had recently written an article on this matter here, and he agreed with Distin’s views, as did most of us.
My own thinking is that the English game has benefited greatly from the amount of foreign players that have come over in the past decade or so, these players are more often than not technically far superior to the English talent, but at the same time have and will continue to teach the youngsters coming through so much.
There are more than enough English footballers out there, and the cream of the crop always do rise to the top even if they have to leave ‘a top club’ in order to gain regular football, but it does happen. Just because they do not play for an ‘in club’ it does not make them any less of a quality, international standard footballer, this is where too many England managers have gone wrong over the years, they look purely at the top clubs for players, rarely elsewhere…
Had we been a little more adventurous in major tournaments down the years, not to mention being able to win a penalty shoot out we quite possibly would have had at least one world cup and a European championship win under our belts in the past decade or so then the clamour would have been completely the opposite ‘what an impact the foreign players have made on the English game’… which is what it had been for so long anyway, and should still be.
Truth is we were not good enough to make it through to Euro 2008, the manager was not good enough, the players lacked commitment and enthusiasm – maybe due to this? – and over the years we have flattered to deceive, with it quite probably our own over inflated egos making many think we were better than we were anyway.
Foreign players have helped the English game and they will continue to do so, if the English talent is good enough it will come through, it always has and always will.
PLAY UP POMPEY!
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