FIFA want to set a minimum number of English players each Premier League team must name in their match-day squad. In my opinion they are missing the point.
The reason England doesn’t have a great national side has nothing to do with the number of foreigners. England doesn't have a good national team because the players aren't good enough.
There are very few 'professional' academies around in England. Crewe, Southampton and West Ham are the exceptions. The reason for our players not being good enough is because as kids they are taught the 'English' game. This means hoofing it up the pitch and running around like a headless chicken for 90 minutes because the English game is 'fast'. Most kids nowadays can’t control a ball to save their life.
Instead of Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United, it's left to the likes of West Ham, Southampton and Crewe to nurture our young talent – the fact that Barcelona or Real Madrid won't touch our kids speaks volumes.
If good youngsters were being produced, then they’d be playing in countries like Spain, Italy, Germany and France, but teams in these countries will not touch English youngsters because they are not technically good enough on the ball. Freedom of employment works both ways – not just coming into the UK.
The only way to improve the national side is to pump money into the academies and actually train our kids to play football. If they are good enough when they get to 17 and 18 years old, they will get into the top teams. Look at Wayne Rooney, Stephen Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Theo Walcott (well, Arsenal have to have ONE Englishman!)
Introducing more English players into the Premier League will just make the Premier League worse, not the players any better.
