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Remember John Gregory. Remember when he seemed set to be a future England manager and his Aston Villa side looked poised to win the Premier League? More than a decade on Gregory is now managing a little-known Israeli side, FC Ashdod, after a stint in charge of Maccabi Ahi Nazareth last season. If his life has changed beyond recognition in recent years so, too, has the elite domestic league he has long since left behind. On Sunday it will be 12 years to the day since a Premier League side last fielded a starting XI consisting solely of English players.
On 27 February 1999, 14 Englishmen appeared for Gregory's Villa in their local derby with Coventry, according to Opta stats. It ended with a 4-1 victory for Coventry and, suitably deterred, no Premier League manager has since fielded an all-English starting XI. Considering the interim has featured 4,562 top-flight fixtures that is quite something.
Middlesbrough did come near to breaking the sequence in May 2006 when they played Fulham in Steve McClaren's penultimate game in charge before becoming England manager. McClaren named a very English squad including 15 academy graduates and appeared to field a fully home-grown starting XI – or at least everyone thought he had done so until one of those supposed Englishmen, James Morrison, was subsequently capped by Scotland.
Played in the week before the Uefa Cup final against Sevilla this was an extraordinary one-off and did not reflect the cosmopolitan nature of a Boro squad containing, among other foreigners, Yakubu Ayegbeni, Gaizka Mendieta, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, George Boateng and Mark Schwarzer.
The increasingly eclectic nature of the Premier League partly reflects changes in English society over the past 12 years and has undeniably raised the standards of our domestic game. Yet if young Englishmen such as Arsenal's Jack Wilshere have benefited from the personal bar-raising experience of playing alongside the likes of Cesc Fábregas, some of his young, less exceptionally talented compatriots can find their route to first-team football blocked by a sea of foreign imports.
Along with the lack of a winter break, the relative shortage of English players starring in the Premier League is frequently cited as a reason why the England team persistently disappoint during major tournaments. If no one can object to the presence of, to name but a few, Cristiano Ronaldo, Fábregas, Dimitar Berbatov, Xabi Alonso, Jari Litmanen, Luka Modric and Asamoah Gyan, the problem is where clubs deliberately, strategically opt for cut-price overseas options. These are invariably cheaper but not necessarily any better players than the indigenous alternatives. Every fan can name at least a handful to have passed through their club and must, at some point, have wondered why local youngsters could not be coached to an at least equivalent level.
In refreshing contrast, Arsène Wenger possesses an immaculate eye for talent spotting – even if he tends to direct it towards European rather than English provincial football nurseries. Perhaps significantly Arsenal have used 25 players this season but just four are English – Wilshere, Theo Walcott, Kieran Gibbs and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.
Tellingly the latter pair have played only 106 minutes of Premier League football between them for Wenger's ensemble since last August's kick-off. Superficially depressing? Maybe. Yet no one can dispute the sheer quality of Wenger's non-English recruits.
Which does not mean there is a talent dearth on these cold – and our climate is a huge technical hindrance – shores. Aston Villa are the side inclined to offer most English professionals a chance. Indeed, of the 32 players Gérard Houllier's team have used this season, half have been English.
Similarly Newcastle United have deployed 16 Englishmen in the top division this term. Alan Pardew's side boast an unusually high percentage of English squad members – 59% or 16 of the club's 27 senior professionals. Mike Ashley, Newcastle's owner, may have talked about wanting to build an Arsenal on Tyne but – and this may be no bad thing – he is clearly deviating from the original blueprint.
Opta has provided us with intriguing stats which show the number of English players fielded by each Premier League team so far this campaign. The figures are: Aston Villa and Newcastle 16, Sunderland, Blackpool and West Ham 13, Birmingham 12, Wolves 11, Bolton 10, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham 9, Fulham, Manchester City and Stoke 8, West Brom 7, Blackburn and Wigan 6, Chelsea 5 and Arsenal 4.
That Villa team v Coventry on 27 February 1999
Oakes; Watson, Southgate, Scimeca, Wright; Merson, Taylor, Grayson, Hendrie; Dublin, Joachim. Subs: Barry, Collymore, Draper.
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On 27 February 1999, 14 Englishmen appeared for Gregory's Villa in their local derby with Coventry, according to Opta stats. It ended with a 4-1 victory for Coventry and, suitably deterred, no Premier League manager has since fielded an all-English starting XI. Considering the interim has featured 4,562 top-flight fixtures that is quite something.
Middlesbrough did come near to breaking the sequence in May 2006 when they played Fulham in Steve McClaren's penultimate game in charge before becoming England manager. McClaren named a very English squad including 15 academy graduates and appeared to field a fully home-grown starting XI – or at least everyone thought he had done so until one of those supposed Englishmen, James Morrison, was subsequently capped by Scotland.
Played in the week before the Uefa Cup final against Sevilla this was an extraordinary one-off and did not reflect the cosmopolitan nature of a Boro squad containing, among other foreigners, Yakubu Ayegbeni, Gaizka Mendieta, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, George Boateng and Mark Schwarzer.
The increasingly eclectic nature of the Premier League partly reflects changes in English society over the past 12 years and has undeniably raised the standards of our domestic game. Yet if young Englishmen such as Arsenal's Jack Wilshere have benefited from the personal bar-raising experience of playing alongside the likes of Cesc Fábregas, some of his young, less exceptionally talented compatriots can find their route to first-team football blocked by a sea of foreign imports.
Along with the lack of a winter break, the relative shortage of English players starring in the Premier League is frequently cited as a reason why the England team persistently disappoint during major tournaments. If no one can object to the presence of, to name but a few, Cristiano Ronaldo, Fábregas, Dimitar Berbatov, Xabi Alonso, Jari Litmanen, Luka Modric and Asamoah Gyan, the problem is where clubs deliberately, strategically opt for cut-price overseas options. These are invariably cheaper but not necessarily any better players than the indigenous alternatives. Every fan can name at least a handful to have passed through their club and must, at some point, have wondered why local youngsters could not be coached to an at least equivalent level.
In refreshing contrast, Arsène Wenger possesses an immaculate eye for talent spotting – even if he tends to direct it towards European rather than English provincial football nurseries. Perhaps significantly Arsenal have used 25 players this season but just four are English – Wilshere, Theo Walcott, Kieran Gibbs and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.
Tellingly the latter pair have played only 106 minutes of Premier League football between them for Wenger's ensemble since last August's kick-off. Superficially depressing? Maybe. Yet no one can dispute the sheer quality of Wenger's non-English recruits.
Which does not mean there is a talent dearth on these cold – and our climate is a huge technical hindrance – shores. Aston Villa are the side inclined to offer most English professionals a chance. Indeed, of the 32 players Gérard Houllier's team have used this season, half have been English.
Similarly Newcastle United have deployed 16 Englishmen in the top division this term. Alan Pardew's side boast an unusually high percentage of English squad members – 59% or 16 of the club's 27 senior professionals. Mike Ashley, Newcastle's owner, may have talked about wanting to build an Arsenal on Tyne but – and this may be no bad thing – he is clearly deviating from the original blueprint.
Opta has provided us with intriguing stats which show the number of English players fielded by each Premier League team so far this campaign. The figures are: Aston Villa and Newcastle 16, Sunderland, Blackpool and West Ham 13, Birmingham 12, Wolves 11, Bolton 10, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham 9, Fulham, Manchester City and Stoke 8, West Brom 7, Blackburn and Wigan 6, Chelsea 5 and Arsenal 4.
That Villa team v Coventry on 27 February 1999
Oakes; Watson, Southgate, Scimeca, Wright; Merson, Taylor, Grayson, Hendrie; Dublin, Joachim. Subs: Barry, Collymore, Draper.
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#ALWNV
Alanbileysfeathercut
Player Valuation: £70m
International games on ?
BrendanGOT
Player Valuation: £25m
There's dross in England too. Hibbert, Cleverley and Osman for example. If you took the top 5 best players for every position over the past 10 individual seasons in world football, how many English players would make the top 5? An all English/British team would probably be one of the worst teams in the league, all to appease over the top nationalism, all a bit daft and all a bit UKIP
Alanbileysfeathercut
Player Valuation: £70m
I thought similar but a book on our history puts paid to that
Can't remember the book but somebody posed it on here
I liked Hibbert and Osman too....
bol-uk
Player Valuation: £50m
Would like this more than once if I could
bol-uk
Player Valuation: £50m
Eggsyblueskin
Player Valuation: £40m
If their good enough they’ll get a game, regardless of their provenance, as it should be.
The only criteria for me is , are they good enough and can we get better? Not their country of origin , which is immaterial.
nsnojosh
Player Valuation: £2.5m
They do it because Spanish players are good mate, most English players in the PL aren't very good
Steve Wigan
Player Valuation: £35m
Nigel Farrago for chairman !!!
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