World Football Thread VII

[Footie Mad]

It's not ethnic quotas it's nationality based quotas. There's basically no european country, certainly not England, that's ethnically homogenous anymore. Fair enough with the other points but given the number of black englishmen I don't see the race issue really.

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Cort Haus

We'll just field Cole and Campbell in wheelchairs against Juventus then, just to shut these wannabe Enoch Powells up. We'll send our 16-year old on too, just to please the national purity brigade.

I dont think anyone expects Arsenal to field inferior English players for the sake of it, theyre questioning how the squad was formed before now.

9. These stupid demands for ethnic quotas can only benefit the richest clubs who can afford the inflated transfer fees and wages for English players.

Spurs are one of the richest clubs? We must be, since we have 8 England internationals in and around our first team.

[alva]

You're not including Lineker, are you? He is retired for some time now.

[Cort Haus]

If English players could find a way to get by on less than the £100,000 per week they all seem to think they are worth, they might find more career options open to them.

It's the contempt for the fans that gets me. They, multi millionaires expect the fans to get poorer and poorer just so they can buy their tenth BMW or third mansion or whatever.

If I was a Man Utd fan I'd never forgive Ferdinand for drawing his full wage during his drug test ban. He never showed remorse, or a sense that he owed the club something.

Now, that Stuart Pearce - there's a guy I can respect. He didn't even want a pay-off clause in his Man City contract if he got sacked. "Why should I get paid for being sacked?" What a hero, what a man.

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by alva
You're not including Lineker, are you? He is retired for some time now.

A middle-aged Lineker is still better than Crouch.

Robinson (full)
Dawson (U21)
King (full)
Jenas (full)
Carrick (full)
Murphy (full not picked)
Lennon (U21)
Defoe (full)

[reds4ever]

Not a single outfield regular in that list. There'd need to be a flu epidemic before most of those got a game.

[Maquiladora]

You missed the point, read the previous posts.

But if you want to go on about that, Liverpool only has a single England cert aswell, so whats that about?

[Cort Haus]

Spurs are one of the richest clubs? We must be, since we have 8 England internationals in and around our first team.

I don't have the figures on Spurs, but you've certainly spent a lot more than Arsenal on players over the last decade. I think Alan Sugar spent much of his Empire keeping you in the top flight. At one point you and 'Boro had spent a defence budget on strikers between you.

Arsenal's transfer bill under Wenger over the last decade works out around £5million per year. Man Utd spent about £60 million on two players. Chelsea now spend what - over £50 million a year?

Credit to Spurs though - you've got a good manager now, and he's bringing out the best in your English players. Man, the derby game in April will be a tasty one. Luckily Jol isn't a dirty manager, or your boys would be trying to break all our legs before the Juve game. Wouldn't it be a fitting Arsenal-Spurs thing for us to win the CL on the year you come 4th! Like 1919 all over again ...

Martin Jol for the England job!!

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Footie Mad
It's not ethnic quotas it's nationality based quotas. There's basically no european country, certainly not England, that's ethnically homogenous anymore. Fair enough with the other points but given the number of black englishmen I don't see the race issue really.

I'm using ethnic in the widest sense. England is such a mongrel country that there has been little 'racial' purity for hundreds of years (except in some of the more backward and isolated regions, perhaps). Nationality is essentially a cultural construct here. It doesn't matter if your mum's Nigerian and your dad's Swedish. If you are born and grow up here you are English.

Seeing as 'ethnic' is used to define a people based on religion, it can be used to define a culturally-based nationality. I admit I was pumping up the rhetoric a bit with the Enoch powell analogy just to spice up the debate.

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Maquiladora


But if you want to go on about that, Liverpool only has a single England cert aswell, so whats that about?

I don't care, if they do the job I'd play Eskimos.

I can't see why it's a matter of pride to have more Englishmen in the side.

[MikeH]

I should clarify what point of that article I meant - I don't think that teams have a responsibility to field English players, but I'm trying to explain why it is that as a neutral I don't really think of Arsenal in the same way as I do with other English based teams when playing in Europe. A

I believe that Chelsea fielded a team of 11 foriegners before Arsenal did, and at their strongest the Arsenal first 11 would have 2 English players to Chelsea's 2 or 3, what's really interesting about Arsenal is how few of the squad and youth players are English.

BTW I don't think it's racist to suggest that a team should have a core of players from the country the team resides in. I think that it is an important thing to have a core of players from the host country, whether that be for Real Madrid and Spanish players, Milan with Italians or Chelsea with English players. It's about nurturing talent and game in the area and country in which you reside.

[reds4ever]

When you say "should" do you mean for their own good (which I might agree with) or that teams should be made to play players from their own country?

[Maquiladora]

Mike pretty much said what i feel. I dont think itll take much away from Arsenal if they go further without "flying the flag", but they should still do more.

[MikeH]

Yes, for their own good I meant. I do totally appreciate Cort's point that English players are expensive, and Arsenal did just buy an english player for a lot of money.

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
You missed the point, read the previous posts.

BTW I didn't and I did!