What the hell is this sh*t. No English players starting for City. Im not bringing this up because im a United fan, but this is a disgrace IMO. Should be ATLEAST 5 English players in the starting line up for EVERY English team I think. Well, good luck England for trying to win the world cup! (lol)

The title may seem confusing sorry, There are English players playing for Spurs (4 I think?) But the title can be a bit confusing in the sense of that there are no english players on the pitch whatsoever.

It's not the first time this has happened. It's been a reoccurring patter for some time now. Only English players in the City team capable of starting (in my opinion) are Richards for Demichelles and Hart (when he is on form).

Yeah because in the 70's, 80's and 90's when almost all the English teams were made up entirely of English players, England was totally dominating world football right?

That was then Fred and this is now. For England to have a chance at winning anything we need English players to be starting for teams like City, United, Arsenal, Chelsea etc. And I think its a disgrace that teams with loads of money just buy foreign players instead of having faith in OUR English youth system.

If the English youth system produces enough good players, they will get in, don't you think? If English teams were somehow discriminating against English players, they could always go abroad and play. Yet I see 0 Englishmen playing in Bundesliga, La Liga etc. how would they adapt to different playing styles etc.?

Its plainly obvious that Januzaj will very soon will be a better player than Welbeck. What would you suggest in that scenario? Keep playing Welbeck because he's English?

In the recent England U-15's (or U-16's I think), 6 of City's youth players were called up. They are being given a chance, they have to take it.

Except Rooney, I can't think of a single English player who'd get in a top team anywhere in the world.

The grassroots level coaching and playing style has to improve.

I am not saying your point is wrong, but for a majority of Englishmen to start for City, Chelsea, Arsenal, United etc. THEY have to become good enough, the clubs are not going to reduce their levels.

@devilz Teams have faith, but if teams wanna win. Teams don't care if you're from Africa, America, or Europe everyone wanna win. So nobody cares about if in starting XI there are any English players.
Would you put better player or English player on the pitch when u wanna win? and that's the question.

"Except Rooney, I can't think of a single English player who'd get in a top team anywhere in the world."

I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. I'd rather have Cole or Baines at LB ahead of practically anyone else, for instance.

But this is certainly true:

"The grassroots level coaching and playing style has to improve."

Blaming top clubs for buying and playing foreigners is a scapegoat, nothing more. It somehow never stopped Italy from being good, did it, when their league was the most star-studded in the world during the 90s?

@Fred Cant agree more. +1

@Lodatz: You should take Cole out as the LB you'd pick ahead of anyone else. He is currently declining at an insane rate.

@fredTilson Lampard and Gerrard could atleast get onto a club of Barca or R.Madrid level onto the bench.

Yet they won 6-0....I agree with everything Fred said except for this line: "Its plainly obvious that Januzaj will very soon will be a better player than Welbeck". Januzaj is already better mate.

England's deficiency on recent world cups and euros has nothing to do with the players or the lack of quality... Individually they have one of the top 5 team in the world cup. But what England lacks is a team, there is usually 11 players on the pitch but no team and many coaches have tried fixing this and by now, Hodgson has improved it the most.

Personally I dont think it is that big of an Issue that there are no English players in a team like City, a team that has bought most of their starting XI players in the last couple of seasons. With that financial capability there is no real need for using or trying out some youth players, which are probably British. Other teams with less capability of buying players eventually use their youth players to cover up some positions and end up helping a little more in the development of British players.
And also, this doesn't define or explains why the national team in any case does good or bad on important tournaments.
I remember Inter in 2010 having almost no Italians on the team and Italy still had a decent national team...

Aaaaand, English players are overpriced so I can see why City would prefer buying Spanish players...

@Tuanis

Indeed. I'm sure that you can get Koke at 2/3 or maybe even half the price of Wilshere, even though Koke himself is as great of a talent as Wilshere. Simply because Wilshere is English.

Obviously no one agree's with my opinions, But im just saying I think there should be a minimum of 4 English players starting for a team, whether or not there are better foreign players.

do you guys remember the 6+5 rule that the fifa tried adopting in 2008?

it states that "At the beginning of each match, each club must field at least six players eligible to play for the national team of the country of the club. There is no restriction, however, on the number of non-eligible players under contract with the club, nor on substitutes to avoid non-sportive constraints on the coaches (potentially 3+8 at the end of a match)."

"The objective of this rule is to restore the national identity of football clubs who have increasingly resorted to fielding foreign players in their squad. It is also intended to reduce the increasing gap between the big and small football clubs."

the idea was abandoned in 2010, but i think it would have been one of the best ideas the fifa came with in recent years.

^^ You think that will help? It will simply inflate the value of English players by 5x. The richer clubs will simply buy the likes of Lallana, Rodriguez etc. and the small clubs will be screwed. Sturridge came out of our academy but went to Chelsea in 2009 on a free because they offered him a much better wage.