|
Last month I wrote about the cliques at Chelsea. How the predominant clique was the English one as opposed to Arsenal where everybody spoke French. This week this analysis was borne out by events.
Ashley Cole decided that he could no longer play football in a foreign country and decided to take his passport in hand and come back to England by transferring from Arsenal to Chelsea. Equally William Gallas despite playing for Chelsea for a number of years, decided to return to that part of France that is the new Emirates Stadium. It is a dream deal for both.
Cole can now join the ever increasing English clique at Stamford Bridge along with Terry, Lampard, Joe Cole, Shaun Wright Philips and Wayne Bridge. Gallas on the other hand joins a supposed English football club in North London with hardly any English players in the squad, let alone the team. It reminds me of when I asked David Bentley, the ex Arsenal striker who now plays for Blackburn, why he left Arsenal and he said that unfortunately he does not speak French!
The transfers of Cole and Gallas were good business for both clubs as they will improve both clubs. Both think that they have made a good deal though I think for once Chelsea have decided not to overpay. Ashley Cole has joined his fellow team mates from the England team. He will give us an ability to go forward which we have lacked for some time. The left back berth has been a position which Gallas has often covered for us but he is not a natural left footed player, which meant that he was never comfortable going forward. Now Cole can attack down the wing, but we will miss the underrated Gallas’ versatility. He will be a success at Arsenal and will no doubt play at centre back which is his preferred position. I wish him well though I am glad that he has taken his Gallic moods with him. Cole and Gallas have both been taken for granted by their respective clubs and now I hope that they can simply get back to their “home countries” and play beautiful football.
The reality is that England is not producing enough technically talented footballers any longer, and this is due to the standard of grass root coaching in this country. Wenger believes that he cannot find suitable young English players and has simply given up trying to develop young players like Jeffers and Bentley and has decided to build on the better initial technique of their young foreign counterparts who he is buying whilst they are still unknown. Arsenal are finding young foreign players like Fabregas (Spain), Senderos (Switzerland) and Eboue (Ivory Coast) and working to develop them. Wenger is a brilliant coach and is doing a great job but I am not sure what this will mean for the future of the English team. I am also not sure, how long the English authorities will allow him to put out teams without any English element.
Chelsea on the other hand, are developing an English nucleus and the national team is becoming more and more dominated by Chelsea. This summer’s disaster in Germany was in my opinion not only based on the lack of leadership on the pitch shown by a captain who did not deserve his place on the team, but also on the lack of team spirit. I went to various matches in Germany this summer and certainly the English ones were the most dire. The team were lacking camaraderie and leadership; Beckham’s personality and fame had a negative effect on the others. The talk throughout was about Beckham, the players’ wives and Rooney’s foot – absolutely crazy!
The new England is led by the Chelsea captain, John Terry who will try to instil the sort of team spirit that individual clubs like Chelsea have created and has led them to success. A large part of the team will come from Chelsea, and it will create the bulldog spirit that Terry espouses and demonstrates every week. This will not make them technically any stronger but at least the players and the manager will want to fight for their country. What I cannot see is where the future England players are going to come from as the number of English players in the league keeps declining. Young English players are not given a chance to develop as the clubs are looking for instant success. Certainly they are unlikely to be playing for Arsenal and with the sole exception of Theo Walcott, who will benefit from Wenger’s brilliant coaching, the rest of the club will be a foreign oasis.
The internationalisation of the world is best seen in London. The huge satellite TV money which comes from the rights to sell English football around the world and the attractions of the end to end matches in England, has meant that the Premier League clubs can now bring in many of the best foreign players. Similarly there is a tennis tournament every summer at Wimbledon which brings together all the best tennis players in the world except that there are no English ones participating. Again the coaching of young tennis players in this country has been very poor. England and in particular London has become a welcoming host to the best of the rest of the world.
Even in the non sporting world of finance, we have the City of London which is host to all the largest banks and financial institutions in the world attracting the brightest individuals in the world but where are the English? It makes London a fabulous city to live in but you do have to question the long term sustainability of this policy when it comes to football. Do the English supporters want to be supporting a team that does not include people of their own nationality? The extraordinary thing is that the supporters themselves are also often not English any more. Coming out of watching a Chelsea match, one listens to many different languages. One sees foreign buses parked outside the stadium with number plates from Belgium, France and other countries who come over to London specifically to watch a match. The world is getting smaller and it is all very interesting but the English national team will undoubtedly suffer. We need to coach the young English players to give them a chance to participate and to give the national team a chance!
|
