1.st time in Arsenal history without British-born player

[_scorpion_]

scorpion, don't start winding up other posters. I don't care if that was your intention with that post, but that's what you're doing. Cut it out.

who did i wind-up ? What are you on about?

 

[invisibleman18]

i know most people dont care about nationality, but personally i feel it is a sad day in a club's history when they can field a matchday 16 with not one home grown player. yes we won 5-1 so it was a good lineup, but it doesnt say much for the club's academy and coaching programs when they cant find one local player good enough to be in the matchday 16.

i dont understand why a lot of people think english players are no good. we have 3 of the best CB in the world at the moment, the best LB, one of the best CM partnerships in Gerrard and Lampard, the best up and coming attacking player in SWP and the best young playmaker/striker in Rooney. there are surely more like these around somehwhere but coaches would rather buy foreigners than look at home. i dont wanna start the same argument about get the best regardless of nationality etc i just think its a sad day for a club when they cannot find one local player to even be on the bench.

and whenever an argument like this starts, theres always people saying stuff like "this nationality has better technical ability" but then no explanation of wat this really is. ive had it up to here with people saying "spanish have better technical ability" firstly, what the hell is "technical ability"? and more importantly, if spainish have so much of it and its so important then why has it not helped their national team achieve well, tell me when was the last time spain did better than england at one of the major tournaments?

anyway i dont want an argument, those of us who are locals, from around london will feel that its sad that we couldnt have 1 english player in our english league team, but those of us who are not locals will not care at all so theres no point arguing. but for the sake of english football, i think some kind of limit is necessary as we have already seen chelsea, bolton and us field completely foreign teams and there may be more im not sure, if it continues like this then in 10 years, putting together and english national team may prove impossible.

 

[patrick42uk]

wenger seeks to reward talent rather than nationality. if you are good enough, you'll play its as simple as that. it is easier for wenger to pick up a young boy from islington than to go to italy for instance to pick up lupoli. but wenger is attracted to talent for the good of the club. same with sam allardyce, same with ferguson. its the way all the teams are heading.

 

[Anonymous]

i know most people dont care about nationality, but personally i feel it is a sad day in a club's history when they can field a matchday 16 with not one home grown player. yes we won 5-1 so it was a good lineup, but it doesnt say much for the club's academy and coaching programs when they cant find one local player good enough to be in the matchday 16.

i dont understand why a lot of people think english players are no good. we have 3 of the best CB in the world at the moment, the best LB, one of the best CM partnerships in Gerrard and Lampard, the best up and coming attacking player in SWP and the best young playmaker/striker in Rooney. there are surely more like these around somehwhere but coaches would rather buy foreigners than look at home. i dont wanna start the same argument about get the best regardless of nationality etc i just think its a sad day for a club when they cannot find one local player to even be on the bench.

and whenever an argument like this starts, theres always people saying stuff like "this nationality has better technical ability" but then no explanation of wat this really is. ive had it up to here with people saying "spanish have better technical ability" firstly, what the hell is "technical ability"? and more importantly, if spainish have so much of it and its so important then why has it not helped their national team achieve well, tell me when was the last time spain did better than england at one of the major tournaments?

anyway i dont want an argument, those of us who are locals, from around london will feel that its sad that we couldnt have 1 english player in our english league team, but those of us who are not locals will not care at all so theres no point arguing. but for the sake of english football, i think some kind of limit is necessary as we have already seen chelsea, bolton and us field completely foreign teams and there may be more im not sure, if it continues like this then in 10 years, putting together and english national team may prove impossible.

agreed with your post specially about the part of our academy and youths. That is a definite concern. But about the whole England part of it, well, in all honesty, Wenger couldn't give a **** about the National Team, and really can you blame him?

 

[IndoGunnerz]

also you must remember the stupid 90 minutes drive rules ....

I'd imagine that London's traffic is pretty heavy, so 90 minutes is not too big of an area :roll:

 

[invisibleman18]

yes it is the way all teams are heading. hence my statement that in 10 years there will be no england national team.

 

[towelie]

yes it is the way all teams are heading. hence my statement that in 10 years there will be no england national team.

completely untrue

in 10 years your national team won't be underperforming like it does in every international tournament. you think players like ferdinand, andy johnson, terry, cole, sol, rooney, defoe don't benefit from playing with world class players around them?

these foreigners you keep complaining about improve the standards of english football, meaning everyone needs to improve to compete

 

[KingReyes]

wenger seeks to reward talent rather than nationality. if you are good enough, you'll play its as simple as that. it is easier for wenger to pick up a young boy from islington than to go to italy for instance to pick up lupoli. but wenger is attracted to talent for the good of the club. same with sam allardyce, same with ferguson. its the way all the teams are heading.

Agreed and well said. Without doubt Wenger, myself and many others would prefer that most of our players come from the UK preferably just around the corner from Highbury but thats easier said than done.

Fact is Wenger does whats best for the side, race, nationality etc is not an issue.

 

[Gunner Ossie]

The fact that it happened was down to injuries, but generally most english/british players around are relatively crap overated and overpriced, so its not suprising they are being squeezed out by better,superior and cheaper foriegners.

This is not an england forum, its an arsenal forum so personally i dont give a rats arse where our players come from depite the fact that ime english/british

 

[Gunner4Eva]

In the end, Wenger couldn;t really do much about it. We only have two pure World Class English talent in the squad, Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole. Since their injured, Wenger had no choice to play a fully non-English side, and so what.

Sure, it would be good to see English players in the team, after all, it is the English Premier League, but with the way some of these English players are priced, its no wonder Arsène cant bring any to Arsenal.

It didn't bother me when I saw the line-up and heard Martin Tyler mentioning it, after all, we did win 5-1! It's a team game after all.

 

[Gunner Ossie]

In the end, Wenger couldn;t really do much about it. We only have two pure World Class English talent in the squad, Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole. Since their injured, Wenger had no choice to play a fully non-English side, and so what.

Sure, it would be good to see English players in the team, after all, it is the English Premier League, but with the way some of these English players are priced, its no wonder Arsène cant bring any to Arsenal.

It didn't bother me when I saw the line-up and heard Martin Tyler mentioning it, after all, we did win 5-1! It's a team game after all.

funny thiing is people say foriegners arent as loyal, dont have a sense of the clubs history and dont love the club like english/british players do, but then who is currently the biggest alleged mercenery ASHLEY COLE

 

[RockyRocastle]

I think it is a shame that there were no English players, especailly home grown ones last night. We are an English club after all.

But if we win 5-1 every game, then I suppose we can put up with it.

 

[pv_ice]

Their 16-man squad last night featured six Frenchmen, three Spaniards, two Dutchmen, one Cameroon international, one German, one Ivory Coast international, one Brazilian and one Swiss national.

Even when Chelsea fielded the first overseas line-up in English football at Southampton on Boxing Day 1999, there were still four young English players on the bench - Jody Morris, Jon Harley, John Terry and Mark Nicholls.

 

[Gunner4Eva]

Wenger claimed he unwittingly made Premiership history by failing to include a single British player in his squad of 16.

“I did not know this but I do not look at my players’ passports."

Class response Arsène!

 

[Gurgen]

It's simple: Sol and Cole were out so there were no English players. Don't see what all the fuss is about. Sure it's a shame we don't have more English talent, well the youth players should have been better then.

 

[kel varnsen]

nationalism is irrational and useless. it doesn't matter if a player is from belfast or paris; neither is emotianally attached to islington. a few local lads is all good, but nationality? give me a break...

 

[kronik]

Yea, I find it rather dissapointing when not one English player is playing for an English club. I think Wenger really needs to sort this out.

You cant use the excuse that English are more expensive, sab already dismissed that theory with a good point. And you cant say, well we have 2 of the best English players around, why do we need anymore, does this mean its better to have an average foreigner then an average English man?

 

[MK5]

While I’m not even half as upset about this as I’d been for 5 or 6 years ago I still find it a bit sad. As other people have mentioned here we’re a British club after all, but let’s face it. What Arsène is doing is next to a miracle, he’s fighting for the biggest trophies in the world of football with a third of some of his rivals budgets. It’s very rare that we can afford to spend over £5 millions on a player and which English player would you get for under £5 ?
Some people say we should develop our own English players if we can’t afford them but that’s just ridiculous in my opinion. How could we afford to choose a decent English player instead of, for example, Fabregas one just because he’s English if we’re a serious club?
What I’d agree with though is that Wenger could find better English players in the lower divisions than Cygan and Almunia.

 

[Henry IV]

There are a lot of people who are using this non-British thing as an excuse to bash Arsenal. Imagine if we had drawn or lost.

 

[JazzG]

Who actually gives a **** about this. Wenger's job is to look after Arsenal not the England national team. I'd be pretty upset if Wenger played English players just because they were English.