The amount of money being pumped into clubs across the world has increased year on year for decades now. The dominance of Spanish clubs has proved them to be higher than the rest in recent years. There is now so much money in the Premier League that clubs such as Crystal Palace can afford to spend £30million on Christian Benteke, where in the year 2000, that was a world record when Hernan Crespo went from Parma to Lazio. But how has all this money affected the England team
and is it a contributing factor for their demise?
Over-Hyping Our Youngsters
Premier League clubs now need at least eight home-grown players in their squad, so the prices of some of our own have increased. Two years in a row, Manchester City spent around £50million on an English player under the age of 23. First with Raheem Sterling from Liverpool and then with John Stones from the blue half of Merseyside. Both of those are now the most expensive English players of all time. We are putting too much pressure on the young players to go and deliver at major tournaments too and we did that at the European Championships in 2016. We expect so much from the young players as they have all the hype on their shoulders and it turns into a burden. Also with them being so young and not a lot of players have huge experience in the England squad, it is unlikely that they would enjoy their best football together in their early twenties, we need to wait until they're in their prime.
Prize Money in the Premier League
Due to the amount of money in the Premier League, it is almost impossible to build for the future now and to be able to blood through the youngsters in an appeal to start a legacy. This is down to the fact you get £100million just for staying in the league now so it is more important for the owners than thinking of long-term success.
This not only affects the players but also affects the managers as they are often sacked in their first or second season in charge due to the importance of safety.
This way the English managers leave their club early on and then have to take a step back into the Championship or a lower Premier League side. Things were so different before though, as Sir Alex Ferguson lasted 26 years at Old Trafford, despite not winning a title in his first five seasons at Manchester United.
Now, the highest-placed English manager in the Premier League is Sean Dyche at Burnley, who sits in 12th, with Pulis being the highest placed British manager in 8th. The time that they are given just isn't enough and we need to give them more time to build their clubs.
Foreign Imports
With the amount of money being spent on players from abroad to come to this country, we are now filled with different nations in our squads, where in other countries, they have a base of home-grown players. So often we spend a lot of money on the best players abroad to come here when it doesn't really need to happen. Last summer Manchester United spent £89million on Paul Pogba, which isn't too much of a problem because they needed to make a statement, but now they look like they could sign Griezmann for another world record as they are desperate for more goals.
They could build their team around Marcus Rashford though, as he is one of the best teenagers in the country, if not the best. The main issue is that we don't give them enough of a chance to get into the first team as the foreign players are being brought in. In Germany, they have so many young players coming through and getting first team chances. Leroy Sane broke through at Schalke, Timo Werner is having a good season at Leipzig, Kimmich is doing well at Bayern, Julian Brandt, Benjamin Henrichs, and Jonathan Tah at Leverkusen, and Niklas Sule has just signed for Bayern to join them in the summer. This crop of young players is what English clubs should learn from as they all get their chances in their teens and go on to become greats.
So what do you think? How would you solve our crisis in international tournaments? Who is at fault?
