Originally Posted by
Bungle
I keep hearing how the Premiership has destroyed the English national team, but they have very poor memories - they were god awful at Euro 92 (the one that got away from us) and they didn't even make World Cup 94. Those tournaments were at the time when the premiership were in its early days and teams were packed with mostly English players.
Yes, Liverpool in the 70's/80's had some fabulous teams, but most of their best players were Scottish, with the Irish or Welsh or Australians or Danes playing a big role in success as well. The same was through of United, Leeds, Forest, Derby etc with the best players often being Scottish or other nationalites. England were truly rubbish in the 70's, while in the 80's they had no idea how to really play some of their technically wonderful players like Hoddle, Waddle, Beardsley and Barnes.
The English are right to aspire to be better, as we should, but the fact is that if a player is good enough he will normally make it. I am sure that there have been some very good young players that have not broken through like the Keegans or Bradys of yesteryear, because their paths were stopped by a Bergkamp or a Zola, but I don't believe it's on the scale the FA would state.
Too many youngsters in Britain (and Ireland) don't have the drive to succeed that the continentals or South Americans do. Societal factors (poor diet, drugs, alcohol and parents unwilling to allow their children play on the streets like they would have in the past doesn't help).