re: Foreign Players in BPL

quote:

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Gary Neville on Foreign Players in BPL

What say you soccer board? Agree or disagree?

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I tend to disagree but may be wrong in I that I don't follow the EPL that closely. . .

The only thing I agree about is that fans love to see local/national players on their teams.

but in England:

1. there's not as many English players as German, Spanish or Italian (especially when so many in South America have Italian or Spanish grandparents and can get passports/visas) that are going to fill out high quality rosters

2. Due to this, English players seem to be priced 2-5 times higher than equal players from other countries. Garreth Barry, James Milner etc. . . these are pretty good players but sell for astronomical prices. Milner, to me, is about as good as Alessio Cerci from Torino-- for an example of an extremely similar player--and I'm sure Cerci would sell for around €8m and that only after he really broke out this year.

You also have to compete with the big clubs buying up promising younger talent as an investment like Rodwell or Sinclair even if they're not good enough to play for them.
That makes it even harder for clubs with less money to compete with predominantly English lineups.


3. I don't follow Newcastle much at all so I may be totally wrong but part of the problem may also be the exact discounted foreign players like Santon they're buying. He's a promising talent that was available to go to a side like Newcastle for a reason.

It's the exact players you buy but competing in the EPL with a modest budget and trying to do so with mainly English players seems pretty difficult.