Bye British

As Fabio Capello starts figuring out which games to watch in order to scout potential England candidates and Chelsea target Nicolas Anelka, we were wondering how many foreign players the leading clubs sign compared to the number of British players they buy.

Predictably enough...

Figures since 2003-04, excluding signings without an appearance for the club.

Arsenal:  UK - 1, Foreign - 29  (3 per cent British)

Chelsea:  UK - 9, Foreign - 28  (32 per cent British)

Liverpool:  UK - 6, Foreign - 27  (22 per cent British)

Manchester United:  UK - 5, Foreign - 17  (29 per cent British)

TOTALS:  UK - 21, Foreign - 101  (21 per cent British)

Bottom club Derby County's dealings in the past five years? 25 Brits and 15 men from abroad - 60 per cent British. And they signed eight foreign players in 2003-04, skewing the figures. Last season, Billy Davies moulded a promotion-winning team signing 14 Brits and one foreign player - more British players in one season than Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal have signed combined in the past four-and-a-half years.

Comments

[Rob Hughes]

Well done Dag, those comments really help our national team and kids actually playing sport in England instead of watching brazilian kids at home on tv eating crisps and beer.

[Peter Bench]

Sadly this point is poor journalism; had all the clus mentioned bought only, say, Welsh players, that would still have made no difference to Capello. He can only pick ENGLISH players, NOT British ones. Show us those stats but over the past 40 years and you will see that your conclusion remains faulty because your premise is wrong.

[Dag JIggens]

I was in Perto Del Carmen,Brazil Recently and watching two groups of teenage boys having a kickabout in a car-park with two rubber tyres for goalposts.All of them had mesmerising stepovers and judging by the number of girls smiling at them were going to get legovers later on.The defenders knew how to jockey lightning quick wingers instinctively, and show them outside onto their weaker foot.They were all two-footed whirling Dervishes.

The following day I was on CopaCabana Beach in Rio where the World Beach Football Championships were being held.We were waiting for our Plane to leave in the eveningand I was watching the Brazil team trainig.They spent forty-five minutes stretching. I'd never heard of any of these players previously,who were soon volleying the balls- thrown up randomly by the coach-into the top corner of the goal.Why on earth would Arsene Wenger pay two million quid for Robbie Savage when he can get one of these kids in Africa, or South America for nothing.The Press need to get out more.The days of limited Nobby Stiles type footballers have been consigned to the recycle bin,probably along with this message.