Originally Posted by cw1984

It doesnt help that when a good young English player comes along the interested clubs are almost held to ransom to buy them. Carrick, Rooney, Rio, Walcott, Nugent(!) to name a couple.

In that respect football has gone backwards because now its less of a risk to buy a promising, young foreigner because whilst he may not be used to the culture you've only paid a small percentage compared to what you would have paid for an English lad...