England’s exit in the Round of 16 in the World Cup has triggered a fresh call to rein in the cosmopolitan roster sheets of the Premier League by placing quotas on the number of foreigners on each team. I have yet to come across a coherent argument as to why such a move will assist the English national team. The Bundesliga, Eredivisie, Serie A, and La Liga have oscillated in their percentages of foreign players and there is no discernable pattern as to whether it has helped or hindered their national teams to have more or less foreigners in their own league.

So, what would happen if England limited the number of foreigners in domestic football? My guess is that it would be uniquely disastrous for England. The Premiership is the most popular league in the world and as such generates huge treasuries for even middling clubs to spend on players, coaches, and infrastructure. Reducing the potential talent pool of players is likely to decrease the quality of play and ultimately push viewers away from the English league which means less to spend on developing domestic clubs. That might be balanced by having more spots for English players to hone their craft if there was sufficient infrastructure for the players to hone their craft but there doesn’t appear to be such an infrastructure in place. Tony Attwood of Untold Arsenal wrote an interesting column exploring why England seems to be comparatively behind other traditional football powers and why Arsene Wenger employs so few Englishmen in his first choice squad. Attwood spotlights a few jarring numbers,

“UEFA says there are only 2,769 English coaches holding the three top coaching qualifications. Spain has produced 23,995, Italy 29,420, Germany 34,970 and France 17,588.”

and

A report from Leeds Met University earlier this year said that, “There is a great shortage of adult coaches as 1,113,000 adults in the UK wanted but did not receive any professional coaching in 2006.”

So what’s going to happen if you isolate England’s top players from better schooled foreign players… if (as the money and the interest levels dry up) you remove an incentive for foreign managers to coach in the premiership? It would seem that you would have an abundance of English players who have even less instruction than they do now. That hardly seems a blueprint to success.

There is however a reason to believe that if your team is not Italy, then getting some of your players into foreign leagues might help the national team progress farther in the World Cup (and there is no reason to think that Italy wouldn’t benefit from some diversity as well).

Since 1990, there has been one world cup winning country, Italy’s 2006 bid, that has not had significant number and quality of personnel actively playing in foreign leagues when they won. And even a couple of Italy’s 2006 stars’ had some previous experience in foreign leagues (Gattuso – Rangers 1997-98, Materazzi – Everton 1998-99, and the Italian-Argentine Camoranesi – Aldosivi 1995-96, Santos Laguna 1996-97, Banfield 1997-98, Cruz Azul 1998-2000 before Verona and Juventus).

Similarly, of teams finishing runner-up in the world cup, only Italy’s 1994 bid played a squad without significant experience in foreign leagues (Italy had none at the senior level).

Of 3rd & 4th place finishers, Germany 2006, had 4 players with foreign league experience, Korea 2002 had 2 players playing outside of Asia but did have 5 players in the J-League, Italy 1990 had no foreign club experience, England 1990 had Lineker’s 103 Barcelona caps and Waddle’s glittering Marseille experience not to mention that nearly half the side had played in Scotland as well as the domestic Football League. Every other squad to finish in the top four since 1990 has been staffed with a minimum of 5 players with some experience playing for a foreign club and many had double or triple that. Presumably, some of these players are learning to win games in ways not focused upon in their domestic leagues and they are getting altogether different technical and tactical approaches to add to their game. I’m not sure that there is any one reason why Italy seems somewhat immune to the need to place its players in foreign leagues but I’m guessing that the emphasis on tactics implies a greater learn and response to an opponent than other schools emphasize. Indeed, Germany spent an entire generation sending players to Italy in particular. The 1986 and 1988 squads had 2 players apiece playing in Serie A. By 1990, that number had jumped to 5 and every team that Germany presented to the Euros or World Cup in the 1990s had at least 4 players (and sometimes as much as 40% of the squad) who had played in Serie A. This has been coupled by a growing German presence in France and England.

So maybe what’s happening is that the traditional powers are incorporating everybody’s else’s leagues (including the English), but the English are ignoring the opportunity to learn the same of their chief European rivals which would seem to put the English at a huge disadvantage. I suppose one could argue that by limiting the amount of foreigners in England, other national teams would forget how to play against the English, but that seems like it would take a long time and not really solve the systemic problems. Perhaps better to push English players to explore other leagues and bring back that experience to fuse with the benefits that are already inherent in English football while pushing a national directive to domestically increase the coaching corps as well as creating widespread easily available scholarships to encourage players and coaches to study football abroad.

Who are the very best young players in the world?  For the purposes of this article, “young players” are those no older than 22.

First there are the obvious: Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Alexandre Pato, Francesc Fabregas, Karim Benzema, etc.  Their class has been established before this mysterious “young” label vanished, and subsequently they command enormous transfer fees, if their clubs are even willing to part with them.  They often aren’t and for good reason.  These are players who will win Ballon d’Ors, change Champions League finals in a single play, and will also sell shirts.

Then there is a second tier of young players who might becomes world class, but aren’t quite there yet: Chelsea’s Mikel, Villarreal’s Giuseppe Rossi, Werder Bremen’s Mesut Ozil, Real Madrid’s Gonzalo Higuain, etc.  Another way of saying this is, although they wouldn’t be guaranteed a starting position on a Champions League final team, they’d at least be on the bench.

Then there’s a third tier of players who are still unpolished and generally unproven, though many people believe they have the quality to go on a to great things.  These are players like Inter’s Santon, Everton’s Rodwell, AZ’s Dembele, Palermo’s Pastore, Bayern Munich’s Kroos, or Athletic Bilbao’s Muniain (the new youngest La Liga goalscorer, or “the Spanish Wayne Rooney”).

What strikes me from these lists, which are meant to be totally cursory and by no means inclusive, is the lack of EPL representation.  Considering the league has come under fire for “luring youngsters away from the academies that developed them”, why do football’s future luminaries seem to ply their trade on the continent?

Some might say they don’t, and that the best youth in the EPL could easily match Serie A and La Liga’s best young players.  Aaron Lennon, Fellaini, Agbonglahor et al, the argument goes, have just as much class.

Teams like Arsenal, Everton, West Ham, and Manchester United have fine traditions of developing youth players into great players.  These traditions, especially at Everton currently, look like they’ll continue.

Yet despite Arsenal’s policy of youth, I see few players who will go on to be world class.  Fabregas already is, Nasri has a great chance of becoming, and for Jack Wilshire and Aaron Ramsey, it’s too early to tell.  But can anyone see Bendtner as Ibrahimovic’s heir, or Denilson as a second Fabregas (or a defensive midfielder, or whatever they want to make him these days)?

In La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1, the Eredivisie, and the Bundesliga, these young players have a greater chance of getting lots of playing time and actually being stars.

Would Fiorentina’s Stevan Jovetic (in my opinion the second best teenager in the world, behind only Pato), have started for Liverpool in the match in which he scored against them?

Probably not, likely because he isn’t good enough to do so.  As exciting a prospect as Jovetic, he still could not have replaced Gerrard, Torres, Benayoun, Riera, or Kuyt because he isn’t a better player than any of them.  He does, however, have the potential to be better than the last three especially.  Yet in Liverpool he would ride the bench this season, just as he would at Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, or Manchester City.  He would get chances at smaller clubs, but he wouldn’t taste Champions League football like he does now at Fiorentina.

At the best clubs in the EPL, the competition is too great for young stars to truly break through, it seems.  I don’t mean seeing the least four minutes ten games per season, but rather the chance to play 90 minutes regularly.

With the exception of the “predestined” youngsters – the Fabregases and Messis and  Rooneys and Ronaldos – the Serie A, La Liga, Eredivisie, and the Bundesliga provide better opportunities.

It seems the youngsters and their agents realize this too.  Javier Pastore, Palermo’s 20 year old midfielder, was hesitant to join Manchester United when the rumors were flying because of the lack of minutes.  Instead, he opted to join Serie A’s 8th place Palermo.  He might have joined a team in the Champions League, but now he gets to play about 30+ games per season, ninety minutes each.  His contract lasts until he’s 25, when by then, he could be one of the premier playmakers in the world.

When the “Big Four” come knocking, the theory goes, you don’t turn down the golden opportunity in your career.  It’s supposed to be your big chance to break into the national team, to win trophies, and become an elite player.  This doesn’t seem to be the case in the EPL, with the exception of the truly greatest.

For simply the good players, let Chelsea’s Saloman Kalou be a warning.  When the Blues signed him in 2006, it seemed like the 21-year old could be Chelsea’s Cristiano Ronaldo – a winger who could score lots of goals and dribble past opponents.  Instead, he’s gone from promising star to inconsistent substitute, age 24.  One can’t help but wonder what might have happened if the Ivorian had opted to join a German, Italian, or Spanish club instead of one of the EPL’s elite and hyper competitive giants.  Would the consistent minutes have made him a better player?  It’s very possible.

First of all, a quick, somewhat belated, Happy New Year to the readers of EPL Talk, my fellow writers, and, of course, The Gaffer, to whom I’d like to express my gratitude for inviting me to be a member of his 2009 squad.  I look forward to sharing news, opinions, and participating in debates regarding the greatest sport in the greatest league that we all follow.

Those festive pleasantries provide me with a nice transition into my first contribution for 2009, and a hot topic for some debate.  According to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), the English Premier League is the top football league in the world for the second consecutive year.

The IFFHS generate a ranking using a statistical formula based primarily on the performance of teams from the various national leagues in continental tournaments.  The recent strong performances of English teams in International club competition, particularly the European Champions League, has resulted in the EPL dominating the ranks for the past couple of years.

Before we even take a look at the breakdown, most ardent followers of the game would not be too challenged in throwing together a list of the usual suspects from the best leagues around the world.  Off the bat, most people would guess that we could expect to see the EPL joined by the top flights from Italy, Spain, Germany, Argentina, and Brazil, but the order as ranked in this study may throw a few surprises.

Here is the list of the top ten national leagues according to the IFFHS 2008 report:

1. England
2. Italy
3. Argentina
4. Spain
5. Brazil
6. Germany
7. France
8. Mexico
9. Portugal
10. Ukraine

The complete list of the top 100 domestic leagues

The rankings may raise some eyebrows to say the least and has the potential to spark many other debates and ideas for future articles.

It is not exactly shocking to see the EPL, Serie A, and La Liga in the top four, but I must admit to being a little surprised to see the Spanish top flight fall to fourth spot behind Argentina, and the Dutch Eredivisie (one of my personal picks outside of the EPL) not even able to crack the top ten.  Many people will make the case for Serie A or La Liga to be the strongest in the world, though it is interesting to review the summary of the results to get an insight into the reasoning behind the standings.

There is no doubt that the streets of Buenos Aries and Rio De Janeiro are the breeding grounds for some of the most talented footballers on the planet, but I have always somewhat doubted the strength of the respective domestic leagues purely because it seems that the top talents jet to Europe to earn their stardom and riches.  Thus far, the elite players of South American football have had limited, or at least mixed, success in the English top flight, but there can be no questioning their influence on the Spanish and Italian leagues, dating back at least 20 or 30 years.

Maybe the high rankings of the Argentinean and Brazilian leagues are simply a reflection of the constant stream of talent produced in these countries.  After all, their respective success at the International tournament level speaks for itself.  A call-out to the Mexican league is also in order where typically it seems that not so many players are ‘exported’.

However, on the domestic front, this study really confirms what I, and maybe (or maybe not) many of the followers of this site, already realize; that the EPL is the strongest and most sought after domestic club league in the world.  The English top flight is a massive worldwide product that is ever increasingly difficult to quantify.  The reception that Manchester United received recently in Japan as they embarked on the FIFA World Club Cup mission is just an example.

Champions of the World and the World’s Greatest League

The English League Championship Promotion Playoff Final is dubbed the richest football match in the world, as the winner attains a pass to the Promised Land, albeit in many cases a temporary one.  Television rights to the EPL are unrivaled in terms of global domestic competetions.

Team for team, player for player, coach for coach, there really is nothing quite like the English Premier League.

Agree?  Disagree?  What are your top 5 leagues?  Is the EPL deserving of the top spot?  What about the MLS of the USA ranked just below the leagues of Angola, Ivory Coast, and Finland?

You know what button to hit below and we look forward to hearing from you….Cheers!

Episodes two and three of The Third Half Podcast are now available. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to them, click on the player at the foot of this message to hear the episodes via your browser. Or, better yet, subscribe to the EPL Talk Podcast stream via iTunes where you’ll automatically get the EPL Talk Podcast and The Third Half as soon as a new episode is published.

Hosted and produced by Johnathan Starling, The Third Half is definitely recommended listening. As well as featuring raw opinions about the Premier League, which are refreshing to hear, Starling also covers the other major leagues such as the Championship, Major League Soccer, Serie A, La Liga and more.

Be sure to listen episode two followed by episode three below:

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It may be just me, but lately I’ve been burned out listening to podcasts. So much so that my weekly diet of half a dozen different shows has now dwindled down to one or two. The same goes for non-soccer podcasts too. I find myself occupying my listening time with my newest addiction, Audible books, but that’s a story for another time.

When I do listen to football podcasts, I find them more enjoyable when I listen to them a couple of days after they’ve published so I can hear whether their mid-week and weekend predictions were on target or completely off-base. It helps me gain a better appreciation of how knowledgable the experts really are.

So earlier this weekend, I tried a new podcast. New for me, at least. It’s been around several months, but now is available only on the EPL Talk Podcast stream at iTunes and here. Hosted by Johnathan Starling, The Third Half is quite unique as it takes you around the leagues of Spain, Italy, England, United States and Europe all in one show.

To me, I judge the quality of a podcast by whether I learn things from it. In the case of The Third Half, I learned quite a bit about the lesser known teams in the Champions League thanks to Starling and interview guest Lonnie Smetana who was interviewed during one of the segments. I also enjoyed the analysis of Serie A and La Liga, which was a lot more well rounded instead of the brief remarks I usually find on The Guardian’s Football Weekly Podcast.

Well rounded is a good description of the entire Third Half podcast. If you’re the type of individual who enjoys learning about what’s happening in most of the major leagues around the world, give the show a chance. Try to ignore the audio quality, which I’m sure will improve on future episodes but listen instead to the knowledgable exchange of football discussion between the host and his guests during the interview portions.

You can hear the latest episode here:

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According to The Independent, Arsenal midfielder Mathieu Flamini is Milan bound as of July 1.

Flamini will reportedly sign a five-year 20 million Euro contract with A.C. Milan. The Rossoneri see him as the eventual replacement to Gennaro “The Snarling Dog” Gattuso.

The contract was worth a million more per year than Juventus’ offer and much more than Arsenal was ready to pony up.

Wenger urged the midfielder to stay loyal to the Gunners, but given his treatment at the club before this season, Flamini was perhaps wise to look out for numero uno.

Flamini is a fine player,but not irreplaceable. Arsenal have an experienced hand in Gilberto as well as frisky youngsters like Diaby and Denilson itching for a chance.

 Take a look at this article that came out today on ESPNsoccernet about Manchester City striker Rolando Bianchi:ROME, Dec 28 (Reuters) – Italian striker Rolando Bianchi aims to reach double figures at Manchester City this season but does not plan staying in the Premier League in the long term.‘I hope to score at least 10 goals and I want to win a place in the next Champions League with City. It would be like winning the championship,’ he said in an interview published in La Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday.‘I want to become a European top scorer. After the 18 goals I scored with (Serie A side) Reggina, I want to reach double figures in the Premier League too.’Then I’ll pack my bags again and go in search of new adventures. I’d like to wear the shirt of Atletico Madrid and score 15 goals in the Primera Liga too.’He also said he planned to return to Italy soon because playing abroad was not helping his chances of winning a place with the Italian national team.The forward, who has scored four league goals since joining City in July, said he had trouble getting used to the British diet.’I have raised the white flag with English food. I don’t like it,’ he said.’I think I’m the only teetotal player in the Premier League. My team mates were surprised when I refused a beer. They looked at me as if I were an alien.’He also has his doubts about English refereeing:’In Italy the referee whistles as soon as a defender brushes against you. In the Premier League you don’t get a free kick even if the defender runs you over with a tank.’Wow. I don’t even know where to begin.I guess I’ll start by saying that if you’re lucky enough to play professional soccer, or any sport for a living for that matter, one would think that you’d appreciate that opportunity and not complain about it. I understand that that isn’t how things work in the real world; players have their gripes about certain things and I know that, I’m a player myself.But Bianchi crossed the line in this interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, a newspaper in his home country, Italy. First of all, he shouldn’t have gone public with his desire to basically leave Manchester City and go to Atletico Madrid or somewhere else in Spain if he can score 10 goals this season. Bianchi is 24 years old and in the soccer world, you’re supposed to be a little bit more mature and a lot less selfish at that age; you’re not a youngster or a kid anymore. Basically what he’s saying is that he just views playing soccer for City as a challenge, as another step in the ladder. He scored 18 goals with Reggina in Italy, he wants to score 10+ goals with City in England, and then he wants to go to Spain and do the same thing.This is selfishness to a tee. You don’t come out in the media and say that you’re in it for the individual glory of scoring goals; whether that’s what you care about or not, you stick with the team-first mantra and say you want to help achieve great things with that club.“I’ll pack my bags again and go in search of new adventures.” I’m sorry, you just can’t say that publicly. This will become a distraction because he’s putting himself above the rest of the team. If you’re going to boast about scoring goals and speak of your ambitions, at least be able to back that up on the field. Bianchi has not done that. He’s scored 4 goals in 14 Premier League games this season and is not even a regular starter for City.Bianchi also has the gall to complain about British food and refereeing. Granted, British food isn’t in the same caliber as Italian food (but then again, nothing is), and some of the refereeing has been shockingly bad this year. But come on! Bianchi had to have known these things before he came to City! It was his choice to come to England in the first place; he made the decision to leave home for greener pastures. I have no problem with that at all, but I do have a problem with whining about something he knew full well about or at the very least, should have known full well about.As I said before, he’s 24 years old now. He’s not a kid anymore but this interview brought him back down to that level. I haven’t heard younger, more productive foreign players like Nani and Fernando Torres come out in the media and say things like this. There was no reason for Bianchi to do what he did and there’s no excuse for it. If I was manager Sven Goran-Eriksson, I would have Bianchi on a plane out of England in January as soon as I could. It’s obvious he doesn’t want to be in England and he has no real desire to play for City, so why keep him on the roster?Things like this make me angry. Rolando Bianchi is a disgrace and I truly feel bad for Manchester City, who invested a lot of money in him and their faith won’t be rewarded.