Arsenal – The ‘E’ Factor

There has been complaint from many people in football in recent times about the lack of English players in the Arsenal first team. It started out amongst rival fans calling us ‘the foreign legion’ and ‘a French team’ but these xenophobic views soon spread to other areas of football with people such as Alan Pardew and Trevor Brooking expressing their dislikes about the Arsenal team.

At first it infuriated me that such xenophobic views should be expressed in public but I soon got bored of them along with many other Gooners.

So, why are we REALLY targeted? Is it really because there are few Englishmen in our squad? No, it`s because of the success that having these foreign players has brought to our club. How often do people target Bolton for the number of foreign players they have in their ranks?? Never, that`s how often!

Why do teams such as Arsenal dip into the European market more often than the domestic league? There are a few, simple reasons.

1) There are very few technical English players around and, as I’m sure you`re all aware, Arsenal’s style of play is amongst the most technical in Europe.

2) MONEY- The transfer fees demanded for English players is extortionate. A prime example is Carrick to Manchester United for £18.6million, compare to a mere £7million for Tomas Rosicky. Shaun Wright Phillips- £21million or Hleb for £9! I could go on.

3) Wages. English players are less interested in football and more interested in
money these days. Look at the likes of Ashley Cole and Rio Ferdinand who demand wages between £80,000- £120,000 when players like Kolo Toure and Manu Eboue are on £5,000- £10,000 a week!

How do we address this issue? Arsenal have just invested a large sum of money in a new youth training centre which concentrates on technical ability. It will however, take much more than that, the FA and other clubs need to invest more in youth.

The fact of the matter is that if you took all, or even half of the foreign players out of the EPL it wouldn`t even be in the top 7 or 8 leagues in Europe.

Article submitted by Simmy8_2000.