Weakening Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea with a cap on foreigners will NOT help the Premier League

what pro cap people never explain is why the worst run of england performances in terms of failiure to qualify for World/Euro Cups was when there were almost no foreigners in the english league. the fact is the world game has moved on from english power/hoof/agression football and english coaching at youth level and beyond hasn't caught up, given that ,the national team largly overachieved under sven. until the fa and english fans grow out of the old way of playing they will see an improvemtn in both the national team and the proportion of english players in the premiership.

Atleast every club should have a youth system like in Arsenal Manchester city or Westham or Middlesborough or even like Barcelona or Real Madrid or Ajax. To that the youth team should be able to play in lower leagues lie in Spain

Putting a cap on English players would only increase the gap. The big teams would buy British, increased demand for British talent forces prices up squeezing smaller teams out of the market for good players. If we want an even system, you want a greater supply of talent, not a lower one. Caps and quotas are NOT the way to go. There must be intervention and change but capping and quotering are poor ways of destroying the market, disguised as being "for the good of the game". They are categorically NOT.

The lower ranked teams should actually be grateful for the foreigners. Arsenal had never sold the likes of Pennant, Sidwell and Bentley if we had to use them to fill a quota. If this cap will be put then the big four will buy all the good English players and don't let as many academy players go away. Everton can forget about keeping Johnson and the likes of Downing and Young will be bought. What will then happen? Middlesborough and Villa will buy players from the Championship. All that happens is that the quality of football will go down. How many from the national team are not playing regularly? All the players who are good enough to play on national level are good enough to play for their clubs anyway. The foreigners makes England better. Do you think Walcott had been better off learning from Andy Johnson than from Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp? Don't blame the foreigners for your primadonnas that play for England and instead, get some players to go abroad themselves. I bet that Ashley Young would be ideal for a side like Villareal. But on the other hand, I don't want to lose him from the EPL.

This debate about restricting foreign players seems to crop up time and again. Yet the real issue should be about the restriction on Clubs spending. How about truly leveling the playing field and restricting the clubs to using only a max of 70% of their football related turnover on transfer fees and player wages. The larger clubs will still be able to afford the best. The only difference will be that the artificially stimulated clubs can only buy what they can naturally afford as opposed to stockpiling the worlds best talent, and consequently buying success. These clubs are no better than the drugs cheats. C'mon FIFA & UEFA you need to act now by getting the clubs to comply to proper house keeping. Fair competition will allow the development of more players of all nationalities.

i agree with the above statement, arsenal are a perfect example of spending within there means and still being successful.

i 3rd that idea above.. Bcos when the football boom goes bust. teams like arsenal will be safe and sound. Bcos they will be able to live off the resources it can generate them selfs. were as others will just fall into Dept. What happend to Leeds was a warning from the future

i agree with the comments that we did not qualify tournaments etc before foreign players arrived,we will not improve england with a cap on foreigners.i think the f.a have alot to answer for themselves.wembley was supposed to be built at the same time as an academy for training english youth in the claire fontaine mould.that went out the window when wembley went over budget,over schedule,academy still not started,and wembley in mass loss of profit this year.they can learn from arsenal who in the last 10 yrs have built a stadium (on budget,on time),better training facilities at colney and the david rocastle academy.those who look at arsenal should be looking at the english f.a!

limiting foreigners just isnt do-able. id love to see more english players at arsenal, but i cant blame wenger (or any other manager) for buying foreign, when its less than half the price of english 'talent'. i agree about the possible restriction of transfer spending, limiting clubs to what they can spend - its something that wouldnt affect arsenal, because wenger does it anyway. fans would suddenly realise just how smart wenger is in the transfer market. but what about if they dont spend one summer, so they can spend more the next, on better players? and what about a salary cap, that encourages players to stay instead of leaving for more. for example, no club is allowed to pay a player more than 30k a week when they sign on. but, that the wage can be increased by say, 5% every year... so you've got a player who's been at a club 4 years, who can be on a maximum of about 37k per week. No matter who he, where he is, how old he is, and who wants him, the maximum amount of money anyone can offer him is 30k per week, apart from his current club. not only does it encourage him to fight to stay for his place, but it also means no-one can lure him by offering him more money. and, if he does want to leave, it levels the playing field in terms of contracts for everyone... teams like everton, portsmouth, villa, spurs, etc, are suddenly all in the mix for the players that are, at the moment, only really reachable to manchester united, arsenal, liverpool, and chelsea in the prem league, because they'll pay them more money. a player is more likely to think about who he's going to play for most, rather than letting money do the talking. it may work, it may not. but its a much better idea than a cap on foreigners

There has to be a limit eventually otherwise the national team will contiue to suffer due to the financial greed of the premiership. There should also be a rule stating that no transfers involving foreign youngsters under the age of 21 to be permitted in order to allow English youngsters to prosper.

The real pressure to promote national talent is coming from Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini. Both have stated that they aim to promote the use of local players over international signings. The consequences of this political game playing would be disastrous: 1) The EPL would descend into mediocrity since there is very little English top talent coming up for all the 20 EPL teams. 2) The big 4 or 5 EPL teams will snap up every promising English player leaving the lower 15 to scratch for the rest. 3) the English National team will falter as the level of competition in the EPL drops and other national teams are strengthened by a return of their stars. 4) European and UEFA Cup dreams will melt under the onslaught of superior teams from other leagues. 5) Without a viable and organized youth development program like France has, English talent will have to depend on EPL reserve and youth leagues which are inadequate to raise them to the EPL or international level. 6) African, Asian and South American talents will be unable to experience the tough, challenging and formative crucible that is the current EPL. The solution is not in diminishing the EPL but in strengthening and facilitating the acquisition of great players at the mid and lower levels of the EPL. How can this be done without bankrupting these teams? Here are some ideas: a) Require that 50% of potential youth talents sitting on the bench of the top 4-5 teams be loaned to other EPL teams for at least one season. b) Create a fund from EPL revenues that could be tapped (like loans from a bank) for poorer EPL teams to use to entice better players to their teams. c) Create a youth development Academy like the French have done, where English talent can be brought along by the best coaches from all over the world. This could be jointly funded by the League teams, the League and the British government and maybe corporate sponsors. d) Institute a draft system like in Hockey and American Football, where the weakest teams not being relegated get first dibs on youth talent coming out of the British Academy. e) Tell FIFA and UEFA to sod off when it comes to anything having to do with international transfers. They should stick to International and European competitions and applying existing rules fairly and equitably.

no to worry there is always a next time