It seems to me that every country is fairly keen to blame their problems on “foreigners” and football is no exception.  When one’s national team gets knocked out of the world cup the reason is…”too many foreigners in the domestic league”.  When one’s favorite team gets beaten in the champions league or a cup final the reason is…”too many foreigners on the opposition team”.

Nowhere can this seen more clearly than in England where the Premier League attracts large numbers of foreign players due to the league’s popularity and high salaries.  For some time this has been sighted as a major  reason why England frequently under achieve at tournaments.  England have not won a world cup since 1966 and I’m no statistics buff but I’m pretty sure foreigner have not been prolific within the English league all the way back 40+ years ago.

The argument is that bringing in foreigner players stunts the opportunities of young English players.  Personally I disagree; playing with the best players in the world can only improve the skills of young players.  And while it may prevent the opportunities for throngs of mediocre English player, it also takes the shining star English players puts them on the biggest stage next to the best in the world and takes them to the next level.

I for one would rather be able to pick a national team squad from 30 superstars than 1000 garden-variety muppets.

I guess one could argue that youth players will just give up on football if it’s too hard to make it big.  I’d like to believe that “oh it’s too hard, let’s just give” has not become the new motto for a country that prides itself on determination.

Wrongly or rightly I think rules such as the new home-grown rule will become more popular as foreigners are such a convenient scapegoat for everything.

This summer we have seen a huge amount of spending especially by Real Madrid, and to a lesser extent Manchester City.

Whereas other teams such as Arsenal and Manchester United have remained faithful to their young players and youth academies.

This season will be the ultimate test of whether money can buy success and trophies.  Will Real Madrid manage to walk away with everything or will the Galácticos fail to jell…

In my opinion the big spenders will see some short term gains, but much less than they might expect.  It takes a long time to forge a brilliant team, not just 11 talented individuals.   In the long term the teams which develop their own players and buy to fill in the gaps will be the most successful.

However it’s the wannabe Galáctico teams which are in the most trouble.  Such as Chelsea; they wanted to buy big name players, and have neglected their own development programs, and now the money is drying up they could be in real trouble.