Andy Shaw

The State of the Game Blog, pt1

The new football season is almost upon us and in recent weeks transfer activity has started to hot up with moneybags Manchester City leading the way in the spending stakes. But will City's exuberance gain them access to the big four or is the Premiership now unaccessible to anyone but the usual suspects of Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal.

In recent times it might be argued that Arsenal have merely flirted with the higher echelons and been unable to cement their place within it. Certainly Arsene Wenger has been unwilling or unable to splash the cash like United (Berbatov, Ferdinand, Rooney et al or Liverpool (Torres, Alonso et al). Unlike City manager, Mark Hughes, Wenger seems reluctant to invest and when he does it is often a little known foreign talent and rarely an established Englishman.

City's policy so far has not been to take ready made English talent although Chelsea's John Terry was reported to be a target. Otherwise Tevez, Santa Cruz, Toure and Adebayor have all signed up to play a part in the intended revolution.

So what is it that seemingly steers our top clubs to invest in overseas talent as opposed to Englishmen? Is it that foreign talent  is better with better ball control, ball retention ability, quicker feet, crisper passing and all the other attributes that secure victories at the highest level, Premiership, European Championships, World Cups.

Wenger is a cerebral manager who prefers foreign talent. His 'no Englishmen' team was a successful delight to watch and surely the connection must eventually be made between top sides highly populated with foreign talent and the approaching 50 years since England won the World Cup.

The investment strategies of Hughes and Wenger perhaps signal more pain for the English national team in the future if foreign talent is preferred to English. Ergo, they are better players and our footballers are of a lesser standard than the imports. Should we then worry about why imports are preferred to home grown and the implications for our national team or why our footballers are less talented than the imports?

Part 2 of Andy's blog will be up on Maxim.co.uk next week.

You can buy 'FAiling our Footballers' by Andy Shaw on Amazon. And you should do. It's an enlightening little read.