Woy vs. Johnny

According to recent comments made by England dinosaur Roy Hodgson, it isn't his lack of invention or adventure that is killing the English national game, nor is it his unwillingness to kick the ageing, serial underachievers out on their international asses. It is in fact, those pesky foreign imports at Premier League clubs that are making his job more difficult than it should be.

What would be a valid point if say, Glenn Hoddle would have bemoaned such luck, or even Schteve McClaren, but for Hodgson to air such a complaint, sounds like nothing more than the clueless ramblings of a short minded hypocrite.

As he is supposedly such a staunch opponent of the foreign influx into the Premier League, it's only fair to see how he, personally has attempted to combat such a worrying trend during his time in the Premier League.

Let's look at the numbers shall we?

Roy Hodgson has managed four different clubs in the Premier League. Blackburn Rovers, Fulham, Liverpool and West Bromwich Albion.

As Blackburn Rovers were his first Premier League club, it only seems logical to begin there.

During his audacious attempt at taking Blackburn from Premier League Champions to relegation contenders, he signed seventeen players. Out of those seventeen, only four were English, most notably goal-shy target man Kevin Davies and forgotten footballer Ashley Ward.

Yes, you read that correctly. Four English players out of seventeen, just four. That's around 23% of his signings that were aiding him in his fight against foreign.

After a spell away from the English game, Roy returned to England to take charge of Fulham during the 2007-08 season. His first transfer window saw him strengthen the struggling southerners with six new players. None of which were English! Not bucking such trend, Roy made a further twenty-five signings during his time at Craven Cottage, with a 'massive' count of nine players being English. Players including pint-sized left back Nicky Shorey, and injury-plagued Andrew Johnson brought in for big money.

The figures at his time in charge of Fulham read; thirty-one signed, with only nine of which were eligible to play for England. Another fail from Roy.

Moving up north and to his time at Liverpool, I'm going to purposely ignore most of that car crash, focusing solely on the kick-and-rush disciple's transfer dealings. As foreign crap like Milan Jovanovic and Christian Poulsen walked through the doors at Anfield, so did the likes Jonjo Shelvey, Joe Cole and left-back impersonator Paul Konchesky.

Surprise, surprise, once again a look at Roy's dealing shows that only 38% of them could now accept a cap from Hodgson. A paltry figure from a man who is now blaming the Premier League for a decreasing pool of English talent.

Fear not though, as his reign at West Brom showed a small upturn for the tactical buffoon. The 2011-12 season saw a whopping (for Hodgson at least) 44% of his signings being of English nationality. Players like Billy Jones and Jamie Edge helping Roy achieve a career high of four incoming players eligible to play for the England side during a Premier League transfer window.

Overall, Roy's stats read sixty-five players signed in the Premier League. Of those sixty-five, only twenty-five of them being eligible for England. Another huge fail for Roy in his apparent quest against the foreign imports.

I suppose the only thing left to state following the England man's most recent excuse is 'men lie, women lie, but numbers don't Roy!'

Aston Villa's Foreign Exchange

"If the Premier League think we will produce English players and then lose them at the age of 16 – that's not happening.

Aston Villa will now, if it doesn't change, start to go into Europe to get players to develop. We have already met with the manager and the board of directors and talked about that. My job is to produce players for Aston Villa, not for Arsenal to pinch them. What is the point in developing players for eight or nine years only to then lose them cheaply? That will kill the game and it will kill development."

Pretty damning from Aston Villa's Head of Youth Development Bryan Jones. A statement I strongly agree with.

Why should a club like Villa, who have provided a record amount of players for England put up with such BS?

The case Jones is referring to is 16-year old Danny Crowley's acrimonious move to Arsenal for a piddly £200k (as is the amount necessary according to new EPPP guidelines.)

After spending countless time and resources over the years developing such a talent, Villa's argument is a valid one.

As anyone who know's me will know how much of a staunch supporter of the local youth systems I've been. And how much I have detested the influx of Johnny Foreigners in recent years.

The realization is, like Jones, my interest is solely in Aston Villa. Not England.

In the end though, if changes aren't made, fans may never see the likes of Gabriel Agbonlahor, Gary Cahill or Daniel Sturridge breaking through to grace the Premier League again.

Ron Doe or Ronaldo?

What is modern day football's fascination with a foreign name?

And what I mean is, well, let's take Roberto Martinez as an example.

The Spaniard recently relegated Wigan from the Premier League. A feat no other Wigan manager has reached, heck, not even close. Yet Martinez did, and that's after flirting with the drop year upon year. Yes, he's put the FA Cup trophy on the table of 'Uncle Dave' Whelan but at the huge expense of Wigan and their Premier League status. Which in turn, has cost the club around £70m in new TV money. The sort of figure that could make or break a small club like Wigan.

Yet, because Martinez has the Latin charisma, the exotic name and swaggers about the touchline in a nice suit, he's heralded as a great manager.
'Performed miracles at Wigan', 'One of the top managers in Europe'. Part of the Top 5 in fact, according to the annoying, loose lipped Dave Whelan.

We constantly get told of Roberto's philosophy of great football and his ability to unearth gems. All of which proved futile and somewhat false. The fact is he took Wigan down. End of.

And then jumped ship to blind admirers Everton.

So why then, did it take Scottish manager Owen Coyle so long to get another job? The man who 4 out of 5 seasons finished above Martinez. The cynic in me can't help but think it's because he was born in Paisley, Scotland and not Balaguer in Spain.

Tracksuit clad Owen Coyle, has always had his teams playing the right way, and had it been for similar FA Cup luck as Wigan, could well have had Bolton's name on the trophy at the end of the 2010/11 season.

As it turned it, Bolton eventually suffered the drop and not long after Coyle recieved his marching orders. A real contrast to Martinez who was rewarded with a Top Premier League job.

After a while out of the game, Owen Coyle has recently been named, coincidentally, as the new Wigan Athletic manager, following Martinez's distasteful leap to Goodison.

Now, don't get me wrong, such bias and favouritism towards the foreigner isn't exclusive to the English football family, journalists, pundits and whatnot, it's an unfortunate trait that has trickled down to the heartbeat of football - the fans.

Players too, can often find themselves victims of such sketchy views.

A quick look at my own club, Aston Villa, last summer, Ashley Westwood and Matthew Lowton were brought into the club, to very little fanfare. Disgruntled noises on message boards became a theme during the summer. Fast forward 12 months and the same fans are getting giddy as the likes of Leandro Bacuna and Antonio Luna join the Villa ranks.

The effects of such a modern dismissive nature runs deeper in football, but to be honest, I don't care enough about the FA's around the UK and their national sides at the moment to delve any deeper, so for now at least, on the surface I'll scratch.

And on that surface, take Harry Forrester and Dale Jennings. Two names that are not well known. (To the average Premier League fan at least).

After Forrester's contract ended with Aston Villa not too long ago, he was offered a deal with Ajax after impressing in the Hong Kong 7's tournament.

Subsequently, the exciting Forrester turned down Ajax's offer (as he was reportedly apprehensive of a move abroad) and ended up moving to Brentford. No offense to Brentford, but how was it no bigger team on these shores could claim his signature? Probably because teams like Fulham were too busy stockpiling Johnny Foreigners into their squads, that's why. Now, as it turns out, Forrester has just had a breakout season with Brentford and is now linked with a move to the Premier League.

Dale Jennings' situation was a little different. Jennings was rightly placed in the 'exciting prospect' category at Tranmere a couple of seasons ago. But when push came to shove, no club in England obviously thought he was exciting enough. Their loss, Jennings signed for Bayern Munich. This summer however, a homesick Dale Jennings headed back to England. Highly rated by the staff at the current European champions, Jennings must surely have had many suitors vying for his signature? Aston Villa? Arsenal? Liverpool? No, no and no.

After being linked with Huddersfield, Jennings moved to Barnsley for a very modest fee, signing a 3-year deal.

Rankles a bit when you see that Premier League cannon fodder Sunderland have just brought in three 'Johnnys' and look likely to sign more. Even Aston Villa's Paul Lambert has succumb to the horrible trend and done all his shopping abroad so far.

Unfortunately, it's British players like Harry Forrester and Dale Jennings, and British managers like Owen Coyle who are being pushed aside for mediocrity, just because that mediocrity is from overseas.