Dyke's Plan to Restrict Non-EU Players

[FromTheBench]

Piazon does not have a EU passport, had to get a visa, and spent time in Chelsea youth/reserves before loans. Same with a lot of them.

The visa system is a hurdle, but it does not stop younger non-eu players being signed.

Angelo Hernandez is another example for us.

Can't do anything about loans? The changes will stop teams signing players on loan and farming them out for a few years on loan. In effect they will block British players eventually. They go out on loan 2/3 years, then qualify for Visa or EU passport and they come back to the parent team. Who misses out?

http://theprideoflondon.com/2014/03/05/lucas-piazon-approached-italian-fa/

Piazon has a Italian passport and was aproached by Italian FA as well.


Henriquez is the only one of a small exception to get a work permit at that age and he was a Chile International at 18 and was a surprise one to get a work permit. If he doesn't get a work permit we would just loan him out without one. What changes ? And who has he blocked anyway ?

Wilson is better and leapfrogged him as a result and now he is going out on loan with option to buy. And even if some odd case that qualifies with such criteria blocks someone eventually it's pretty neglegible amount and effect compared to how much disadvantage for the clubs you are adding compared to other leagues.

 

[Sassy Colin]

Dyke is attacking the problem from the wrong angle as usual.

Give the players the choice of decent quality English players and I am sure they would take it.

Just saying here, there you go fellas you can't have any more Colombians, Africans, Argentinians etc shove that in your pipe and smoke it.
Then low and behold the league is full of world class players from Putney and Slough, doesn't happen.

Get local football clubs run by the FA, get football camps run by the FA, get FA talent scouts in at schools, local leagues, liase with clubs and and get them to see what you are doing and offer them a CHOICE first.

Yes, because PL clubs don't have any talent scouts at schools matches and local leagues now, do they?

Seriously, if English players aren't progressing, it's because they aren't good enough. They are most likely only in it for the money anyway, that's why, generally, once they get it, they don't progress.

 

[Dargonk]

Don't we have work permits that already cover this anyway. It is rather difficult to bring in a young kid from outside the EU unless they are a special talent, and even then you generally have to wait until they are 18 anyway. Restricting this won't solve anything other than letting all the talent from outside the EU end up with other CL teams such as in spain.

If england developed enough good players, they would be playing. As it stands England is struggling to produce any good players, which results in the few that are around being over priced, meaning most clubs will opt for the guy from belgium etc inside the EU anyway.

 

[Joemo]

The problem isn't the non-EU players, it's the fact that British players are generally far overpriced and simply not as good.

Coaching of youngsters is the major thing that needs to be addressed, coupled with the price of players. British teenagers land lucrative contracts that make them feel like they've "made it" and as a result lose the discipline and motivation to really make it to the higher levels.

 

[fcbforever]

Yes, you've also conveniently ignored Spain who won everything for years and years and have just as many if not more non-EU players in their league.

While you are ignoring the fact that PD overall has a non-spanish quota of only 40%. While PL has about 66%. And judging by german experience: Yes, that is exactly the problem.

 

[FromTheBench]

While you are ignoring the fact that PD overall has a non-spanish quota of only 40%. While PL has about 66%. And judging by german experience: Yes, that is exactly the problem.

How much is the Non English quota in PL made up of Rest of the British nations ?

That's unique situation the British isles are in tbh.

And how much comparitively beyond that is Rest of EU and Non EU. Those stats will be interesting in detail as i think it will be pretty similar or that big a difference.

 

[Hal9000]

http://theprideoflondon.com/2014/03/05/lucas-piazon-approached-italian-fa/

Piazon has a Italian passport and was aproached by Italian FA as well.


Henriquez is the only one of a small exception to get a work permit at that age and he was a Chile International at 18 and was a surprise one to get a work permit. If he doesn't get a work permit we would just loan him out without one. What changes ? And who has he blocked anyway ?

Wilson is better and leapfrogged him as a result and now he is going out on loan with option to buy.

And even if some odd case that qualifies with such criteria blocks someone eventually it's pretty neglegible amount and effect.

Ok i read something that said Piazon needed a visa.

Yeah Wilson is better, but and that's worked out. But as i said, if you farm 2/3 non eu players out on loan, when they get to the parent club. Whose path have they blocked?

We buy 3/4 Brazilians, farm them off to Holland or w/e where they can get a Visa or Passport after a year or two and then bring them back. Whose space will they take up?

Restrictions will force teams to work with what they have, not go looking around.

 

[jojojo]

"a minimum transfer fee - of around £15m - that would enable ANY non-EU player to join an English club."

So basically one rule for the rich clubs and another one for everyone else.

Yes, that was what struck me as the worst aspect.

The rest of it, which are effectively a rationalisation of the work permit rules seemed pretty reasonable. The criteria would be more objective. It's always been nonsensical to suggest a club needs a non-EU player and then they loan him out.

Spain goes for a simpler rule - a Liga club can hire 3 non-EU players for their 25 man squad. But of course we can't do anything that straightforward.

 

[FromTheBench]

Yeah Wilson is better, but and that's worked out. But as i said, if you farm 2/3 non eu players out on loan, when they get to the parent club. Whose path have they blocked?
We buy 3/4 Brazilians, farm them off to Holland or w/e where they can get a Visa or Passport after a year or two and then bring them back. Whose space will they take up?
Restrictions will force teams to work with what they have, not go looking around.

Firstly buying and farming out talented players rarely works out as most will not agree to it, or then other factors take over.

2ndly if we want to buy and farm out a young player after 18 from Brazil (Say lucas Silva for example), there's really no restrictions that can be put anyway or are part of the plan as listed above as we or Chelsea or whoever is doing it without work permits.

Only clubs with resources can afford this type of risk anyway, unless there's a situation of same owners like Udinese/Watford and these clubs will otherwise just buy the same player if he becomes good enough 1/2 year down the line. You are just increasing the chances of less exceptional talent coming to England early and cheaper which is neglegible amount anyway while putting clubs at a competitive disadvantage further than what they have compared to other nations and nothing really much more with this.

 

[Patchbeard]

*Cut the list of countries from which players can apply for a visa from the current 70 top-ranked FIFA countries to the top 50

Well that rules out players from the likes of Cameroon, South Korea and Senegal.

And also introduce a minimum transfer fee - of around £15m - that would enable ANY non-EU player to join an English club.

Unless you're one of those clubs with non-EU owners, then you can have whoever you like.

 

[fcbforever]

How much is the Non English quota in PL made up of Rest of the British nations ?

That's unique situation the British isles are in tbh.

And how much comparitively beyond that is Rest of EU and Non EU. Those stats will be interesting in detail as i think it will be pretty similar or that big a difference.

48 of 345 players, so reduces the quota from 66.90% to 57.5%. Still highest percentage of all european top leagues by far. And, to be honest, while it's a unique situatian it doesn't change the fact that these players aren't english players.

 

[FromTheBench]

48 of 345 players, so reduces the quota from 66.90% to 57.5%. Still highest percentage of all european top leagues by far. And, to be honest, while it's a unique situatian it doesn't change the fact that these players aren't english players.

They aren't English but technically it's still the same political country or partly affiliated so far.

From where are you getting these ? And how much is a Non EU component comparison which is what they are targetting supposedly. The stats i had were bigger for Welsh, Scottish, Irish and Northern Irish.

Spain has the high component of spanish players because they produce more players of that level in part too due to grassroot system working better and that's why the German component increased years after taking those steps too.

 

[fcbforever]

The stats i had were bigger for Welsh, Scottish, Irish and Northern Irish.

From where are you getting these ? And how much is a Non EU component comparison which is what they are targetting supposedly.


Spain has the high component of spanish players because they produce more players of that level in part too due to grassroot system working better and that's why the German component increased years after taking those steps too.

Haven't counted the irish, by going this way you shouldn't count austrian or dutch players in Germany, that's nonsense.

Last part is not exactly true, but I will lay out my point when I'm sitting at a proper laptop and not a stupid smartphone.

 

[manux399]

Sorry if this has been posted already, I looked for a relevant thread but couldn't find it.

Dyke's plan to restrict the quality and numbers of non-EU players coming to this country is basically laid out here :

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/fo...-to-slash-number-of-non-EU-players-in-England

Without going into the arguments for and against, I'm broadly for it. I think there are too many average -class non-EU players in our game, just because they're cheap to get.

What do you think?

Broadly speaking I'm also in favour but there's two reasons I see it as to why the kids aren't coming through.

Dyke is looking at this from the National team aspect not that of the clubs and whether you take an interest or not the England team has been gradually declining since the EPL came around. Yes initially there was improvement but that was down to teams like United who had a strong squad of young English players. These lads got to play week in week out at the highest level of the team game available ECL and EPL, whereas other clubs such as Arsenal and Chelsea and latterly City fill their squads with overseas players and hence limit British / English kids to develop. When you've got a league where the tope 4-6 teams are predominantly overseas players what chance the English lads. A loan out to a lower league club can be of benefit but only if they can see this as a route back to the original club. You only have to look at the decline of the Scotland team since the 80's which is primarily due to Rangers and Celtic taking a similar overseas player route and the traditional knock on of the top Scottish players then going to English clubs is now none existent. Without limits and purchasing limits this will just continue and we'll see less English players playing at the top level and having to look elsewhere to develop.

Secondly we really need to look at how the youth are coached, we need to get our heads out of the sand and look at how overseas countries tackle this and are producing results Holland, Germany, Spain and recently USA can show us far better systems and youth development programme that blows our out of the water. I'll use the USA as an example as my sons there playing and how their system is set-up always leaves doors open for the player. Three years ago my sons team went to the Dallas Cup and while we expected to see some good US teams the level they were playing was jaw dropping. My son was one of three approached to go and play for an School / academy in the USSDA (United Sates Soccer Development Academy). This is a nationwide league for U16 and U18's used by all the MLS teams and other academies and is the supply to the US national team youth squads and Universities. Once the kids have competed at academy level the next step is University teams for 3-4 years prior to the MLS draft and the emphasis all the way is education and soccer (as they call it). So rather than a club focussing solely on a kid and signing him at 8 and dumping him at 16 these kids get to play and develop gradually with the aim of going pro at 21 and with an education to boot.

My point here is that we and the clubs put far too much expectations on our youth at an early age and too much talent is being wasted too early. This is then compounded further when there's so many overseas players even in lower leagues so what happens, play Sunday league ??

Time for a big re-think.!

PS: From the point of a supporter I'm not bothered about England but from a fathers point of view I'd love to see my son get the chance, wouldn't we all.!

 

[golden_blunder]

• Cap transfer fees between English clubs. No longer can a club stick an 'English tax' on top because Man Utd fancy one of their young players.
• Coaching at grass roots level needs to be more regulated
• More competitive competitions for reserves, u-21's etc
• In order to qualify for coaching badges, coaches should have to spend a few weeks abroad studying coaching methods in different countries
• English players should be encouraged to play abroad more
• ALL clubs should be told that they MUST play x amount of homegrown players in at least 50% of their games

 

[MJJ]

Yes, I'm well aware of that. Changes are being made to the way we produce players but what's the point if - unlike Germany and Holland - they're never going to get the chance to play and develop?


Not as things stand, but things need to change.

What would be your solution to the problem of producing better English players then?

Let me explain it once mroe for the last time.

Introducing this rule doesnt mean club will play/sign more english players as they will replace the non-eu players with european players not english ones.

Why cant people accept that the quality of english players is just not as good as the wages they demand or the transfer fees. Look at Lallana/Markovic, the latter is a better talent but is probably on less and his transfer fee was less. Or rodriguez/shaw or the aforementioned jones example. Or even what the likes of vidal, etc moved for in the first place.

How often has cleverley played in the last few years? Playing time doesnt equate to a better player if the talent is missing. Rather than decreasing the quality of the whole league and increasing the premium on english players, dyke would be well served by improving the level of coaching, the reserve league and giving financial incentive to the likes of southampton.

How well were england doing in the 80s/90s when there was a cap on foreigners? They were still shit.

 

[FromTheBench]

Haven't counted the irish, by going this way you shouldn't count austrian or dutch players in Germany, that's nonsense.

Last part is not exactly true, but I will lay out my point when I'm sitting at a proper laptop and not a stupid smartphone.

Not exactly the same situation though i get your point. How much is the Non EU component anyway which was the subject of this thread as you cannot do anything about the EU component anyway without changing EU law (British component being even more tough)?

Edited the post above to add in more before you replied and i am not saying the last part is the only reason but it's definitely a major part too. It works from both sides.

 

[fcbforever]

Broadly speaking I'm also in favour but there's two reasons I see it as to why the kids aren't coming through.

Dyke is looking at this from the National team aspect not that of the clubs and whether you take an interest or not the England team has been gradually declining since the EPL came around. Yes initially there was improvement but that was down to teams like United who had a strong squad of young English players. These lads got to play week in week out at the highest level of the team game available ECL and EPL, whereas other clubs such as Arsenal and Chelsea and latterly City fill their squads with overseas players and hence limit British / English kids to develop. When you've got a league where the tope 4-6 teams are predominantly overseas players what chance the English lads. A loan out to a lower league club can be of benefit but only if they can see this as a route back to the original club. You only have to look at the decline of the Scotland team since the 80's which is primarily due to Rangers and Celtic taking a similar overseas player route and the traditional knock on of the top Scottish players then going to English clubs is now none existent. Without limits and purchasing limits this will just continue and we'll see less English players playing at the top level and having to look elsewhere to develop.

Secondly we really need to look at how the youth are coached, we need to get our heads out of the sand and look at how overseas countries tackle this and are producing results Holland, Germany, Spain and recently USA can show us far better systems and youth development programme that blows our out of the water. I'll use the USA as an example as my sons there playing and how their system is set-up always leaves doors open for the player. Three years ago my sons team went to the Dallas Cup and while we expected to see some good US teams the level they were playing was jaw dropping. My son was one of three approached to go and play for an School / academy in the USSDA (United Sates Soccer Development Academy). This is a nationwide league for U16 and U18's used by all the MLS teams and other academies and is the supply to the US national team youth squads and Universities. Once the kids have competed at academy level the next step is University teams for 3-4 years prior to the MLS draft and the emphasis all the way is education and soccer (as they call it). So rather than a club focussing solely on a kid and signing him at 8 and dumping him at 16 these kids get to play and develop gradually with the aim of going pro at 21 and with an education to boot.

My point here is that we and the clubs put far too much expectations on our youth at an early age and too much talent is being wasted too early. This is then compounded further when there's so many overseas players even in lower leagues so what happens, play Sunday league ??

Time for a big re-think.!

PS: From the point of a supporter I'm not bothered about England but from a fathers point of view I'd love to see my son get the chance, wouldn't we all.!

The american system is exactly the wrong way. You are probably wasting a bit of talent in a club academy system, but you aren't demanding enough of the real talents. And 21 is way too late in modern football. At the end you see a big amount of really mediocre players coming out, which is exactly what is happening in the US for years. They need to throw their college system out of the window before they can expect progress. It's just shit.

 

[RooneyLegend]

Stupid idea. These are the sort of ideas that will lead to the prem's downfall. The only restriction that needs to be placed is one for how many English players per squad and then the rest should simply be down to what the clubs want to do. Any plan that reduces the ability of clubs to pick up young rafael's ,Kagawa's, eto's and drogba's straight from Africa, south america and asia just isn't a smart one. By the way, why is there such a thing as english tax? its not like the english players are better than the foreigners.

Clubs will simply resort to signing EU players from smaller countries and play them which wont help the league much as there are hoards of talented players from brazil who'll never qualify if restrictions are placed, but the talentless lads from the likes of ireland stroll right in.

 

[manux399]

The american system is exactly the wrong way. You are probably wasting a bit of talent in a club academy system, but you aren't demanding enough of the real talents. And 21 is way too late in modern football. At the end you see a big amount of really mediocre players coming out, which is exactly what is happening in the US for years. They need to throw their college system out of the window before they can expect progress. It's just shit.

Their results certainly at World Cups recently seem to be better than ours of late, so somethings working.!

 

[In Rainbows]

Their results certainly at World Cups recently seem to be better than ours of late, so somethings working.!

The college system isn't good. They have shorter seasons than normal clubs and the clubs don't have an incentive to do their utmost best to produce talents. Why should a club waste so many resources producing a top talent only to lose the talent through the draft? Not to mention the clubs most likely have better coaches than the university coaches. The US system also has too many talents wasted at u6-u16 level through shit coaches. A lot of high school coaches aren't great either.



As for the Non-EU restrictions proposed, they just don't make sense. Just look at United, how many Non-EU players do United have in the youth system? The foreign players are usually European. The youth leagues need more games, and England need much more qualified coaches at lower levels that teach technical skill.

 

[Erebus]

We've rehearsed the arguments all before - small sided training, more money for grass roots football, etc.,etc.. Thes will increase the number of young quality players. Just cutting off a supply of non EU players will of itself do nothing to improve the quality of young English players. All that will happen is there will be a clogging up of academies with below average English players who will not make the grade. The supply of English quality players is what's needed, and that won't be changed by the proposals. Until the FA really get to grips with issues such as playing time , facilities for young players and cheaper coaching badges so more can be trained, the rest is all window-dressing.

 

[Snow]

When has effectively making a huge money making thing worse ever been a good thing?

How is limiting foreigners a positive thing? Italy does it. They were world champions 8 years ago but that's not necessarily down to the system. They had a great generation and great coaches and managers. Look at them now. Look at their league now and how it has progressed in recent years. Nothing to be proud of really. Their TV sales are a joke. Their attendance is poor to what England is used to. The positives are so limited.

The Premier League is simply bigger than the national team. Ridiculous to try and limit such a beast that it is.

 

[justboy68]

Ugh. What we need is less of the likes of Di Maria, Falcao, Aguero and Sanchez obviously. Because these players restrict all this mystical great English youth that doesn't get given any chances! You know in a league where Clint fecking Hill still gets a start. I'm so sick of this thick argument. The premier league is a much better thing to take national pride in than the national team anyway. There are a number of countries who can boast good national sides. No one else can boast the worldwide popularity of their national league as much.

 

[x42bn6]

Dyke needs to actually think this through. He needs to ask himself the question: "Why do clubs prefer foreign players? Are they better? Do they have better attitudes? Do they ask for less money? Are the clubs themselves xenophobic? Maybe aliens?" Any number of questions can be asked with a variety of answers.

Foreign players carry the risk of not settling because they may not know the language or culture of the UK. So given two players of comparable ability, but one is British and the other not, the British player will be preferred as he is a less "risky" player. So there must be a reason why British players are being sidelined. If it's a lack of ability, there simply is no comparable player to a foreigner - which Greg should solve. If it's an attitude problem, then Dyke should be talking with the PFA and the FA, and probably working with schools. If they're asking for too much money, Dyke should look into why they need so much money and why foreign players can get away with less - perhaps, for example, local players are loathe to move so ask for more as a buffer. If clubs themselves are xenophobic, then perhaps educating the clubs is in order. And so on.

In all the cases, only the last one possibly justifies any sort of quota. A quota without any real justification stinks of someone who has simply not got to the root cause(s) of the problems.

Besides, I believe foreign players can be a benefit to football in this country, at all levels - in the same way that British players are encouraged to go overseas. It gives clubs a new set of ideas and viewpoints. They may even be compatible with British football and lead to success - in which case British football too should adapt and adopt these new ideas. But these ideas are rarely going to originate in British football alone - the Home Nations compete globally, so you need a global mindset and you need to know your enemy.

 

[FromTheBench]

Spain goes for a simpler rule - a Liga club can hire 3 non-EU players for their 25 man squad. But of course we can't do anything that straightforward.

That's a decent rule for first team squads. Does Spain have some rule for Academies and Non EU imports as well ?

Saw on my timeline that Barca U19s yesterday had all Cameroonian Midfield yesterday for example.

The Nationalization laws are more lax too though.

 

[Rednotdead]

Let me explain it once mroe for the last time.

Introducing this rule doesnt mean club will play/sign more english players as they will replace the non-eu players with european players not english ones.

Why cant people accept that the quality of english players is just not as good as the wages they demand or the transfer fees. Look at Lallana/Markovic, the latter is a better talent but is probably on less and his transfer fee was less. Or rodriguez/shaw or the aforementioned jones example. Or even what the likes of vidal, etc moved for in the first place.

How often has cleverley played in the last few years? Playing time doesnt equate to a better player if the talent is missing. Rather than decreasing the quality of the whole league and increasing the premium on english players, dyke would be well served by improving the level of coaching, the reserve league and giving financial incentive to the likes of southampton.

How well were england doing in the 80s/90s when there was a cap on foreigners? They were still shit.

You don't seem to be picking it up at all here. The idea is to both change the way we produce players to make them more technically proficient, then give them the chance to play.

People DO accept that our players are not as good as the wages they command - that's why they're trying to change things.

Do you have an answer to this problem or do you just want to criticise everything everyone else tries?

 

[Hed Zitin]

So they'll just fill the league with average euro players instead.

 

[MJJ]

You don't seem to be picking it up at all here. The idea is to both change the way we produce players to make them more technically proficient, then give them the chance to play.

People DO accept that our players are not as good as the wages they command - that's why they're trying to change things.

Do you have an answer to this problem or do you just want to criticise everything everyone else tries?

If they are good enough, they will get a chance to play. Simples.

Let me explain it once mroe for the last time.

Introducing this rule doesnt mean club will play/sign more english players as they will replace the non-eu players with european players not english ones.

Why cant people accept that the quality of english players is just not as good as the wages they demand or the transfer fees. Look at Lallana/Markovic, the latter is a better talent but is probably on less and his transfer fee was less. Or rodriguez/shaw or the aforementioned jones example. Or even what the likes of vidal, etc moved for in the first place.

How often has cleverley played in the last few years? Playing time doesnt equate to a better player if the talent is missing. Rather than decreasing the quality of the whole league and increasing the premium on english players, dyke would be well served by improving the level of coaching, the reserve league and giving financial incentive to the likes of southampton.

How well were england doing in the 80s/90s when there was a cap on foreigners? They were still shit.

 

[MPTutd]

Why not just up the number of 'Home Nation Trained' players in each PL squad from 8 to 10?

One of the other things I have thought would be a nice idea is to allow an eighth substitute for each game. This 8th sub have to be Home Nation Trained, under 21 and cannot have played more than 15 first team games.

 

[Ducklegs]

Yes, because PL clubs don't have any talent scouts at schools matches and local leagues now, do they?

Seriously, if English players aren't progressing, it's because they aren't good enough. They are most likely only in it for the money anyway, that's why, generally, once they get it, they don't progress.

Not to the extent that they should have no.

Not the extent where talent is slipping by the way side because they play outside of the major cities.

We have a population of 50 million, and are buying players from countries of a fifth of the size where football isn't even a majority sport, so no, I dont think the scouting is as effective as it should be.

 

[Sassy Colin]

Not to the extent that they should have no.

Not the extent where talent is slipping by the way side because they play outside of the major cities.

We have a population of 50 million, and are buying players from countries of a fifth of the size where football isn't even a majority sport, so no, I dont think the scouting is as effective as it should be.

Schools and youth club coaches should be contacting professional club scouts to come down and assess players they feel are exceptional, there may not be a mechanism for this though, or perhaps they do that anyway.

Any top class schools player ought to be picked up during their development. Surely the scouts are attending interschools/county/area/national finals searching for talent? I doubt they find it in the park on a Sunday afternoon, unless it's one of Moyes's pre-CL training sessions, of course.

 

[Cal?]

While you are ignoring the fact that PD overall has a non-spanish quota of only 40%. While PL has about 66%. And judging by german experience: Yes, that is exactly the problem.

And banning non-EU players will likely lead to more EU players in the league or English players?

 

[Ash_G]

The problem isn't the non-EU players, it's the fact that British players are generally far overpriced and simply not as good.

Coaching of youngsters is the major thing that needs to be addressed, coupled with the price of players. British teenagers land lucrative contracts that make them feel like they've "made it" and as a result lose the discipline and motivation to really make it to the higher levels.

I agree and then to go the one step further you'd ask why are British players over priced and that's because players of any decent quality upwards are rare and so the bigger question is why are their counterparts around the world seen as better? Seems to me that we don't want to admit that perhaps there are flaws in the coaching/facilities for our young players which inhibits the numbers that come through and as you said the motivation which then stops them coming through.

I personally have always thought that British clubs would love to have british players because they connect with the fans better, they don't have to waste time adapting etc, they're generally more marketable and they can go for good fee's (although this might drop when the volume of quality players goes up). For that reason I think the problem is developing the players to the point that their ready for first team football rather than the issue being that there's enough quality but not enough chances.

If the volume of quality of young players improves prices will go down and more clubs can field British players. A cap like even if extended to just non British players caps without really looking in to our own coaching will just mean a poorer standard of quality imo.

 

[fcbforever]

And banning non-EU players will likely lead to more EU players in the league or English players?

If I'll find some time today, I'll add my views on the german development here. And no, a bann of non-EU players probably isn't the only answer.
The root of all problem is the money in the Premier League. Because a main factor for the emergence of german youth was the end of the Kirch-Empire and the drop in TV revenues. ALONG with other measures. It went hand in hand.

 

[Ducklegs]

Plus restricting the imports drives the price of available English players up even further.

A limited resource which each club is required to draw on and obligated to include in the squad means the prices are going to escalate even faster in the short to medium term.

 

[Adebesi]

1. Cap transfer fees between English clubs. No longer can a club stick an 'English tax' on top because Man Utd fancy one of their young players.
2. Coaching at grass roots level needs to be more regulated
3. More competitive competitions for reserves, u-21's etc
4. In order to qualify for coaching badges, coaches should have to spend a few weeks abroad studying coaching methods in different countries
5. English players should be encouraged to play abroad more
6. ALL clubs should be told that they MUST play x amount of homegrown players in at least 50% of their games

Interesting suggestions. I especially like 2, 3 and 5. And 4 to be fair.

1 and 6 Im less sure about. The former just because I think clubs would find a way of gaming the system (though I said the same thing about FFP and that seems to be more effective than I was expecting it to be). Both just because I think these things tend to fall on the poorer clubs hardest: at the end of the day the we can buy our way around any regulation that comes out but it could be crippling for smaller clubs who have very rationally looked at foreign markets to find good value and would find it hard to reverse that.

I just think on the whole these kinds of top-down, quota type solutions are less effective than identifying the real cause of the problem and fixing that. Which is what I think the middle four suggestions all do.

 

[fcbforever]

Dinner is cooking, so I've got some time now, just as promised.

First, this:

Their results certainly at World Cups recently seem to be better than ours of late, so somethings working.!

Just no. The better results is mainly due to to the facts that all stars were aligned for the US against Ghana, otherwise they would've gone out of the tournament. Next thing is that a huge pack of their players was developed by foreign federations, mainly rejects from the german NT.

About this non-EU restriction: Would it help? No. As a stand-alone measure it would only lead to more EU-players filling up the league. Restricting these would lead to a situation similar to Turkey: All half-decent homegrown players would be ridicoulusly overpriced. Just not an option.

Onto the next topic: The apparent love for the german youth-reform. Yes, a lot of things have been done right. No doubt. The overall quality of youth players rised. But why did it even drop? Part of it was laziness, part of it was the rise of TV-Revenue that Leo Kirch gave us. There were times at the end of the 90's and star of the 2000's when some times in the Bundesliga did not field even one german player. Sounds familiar, huh? And it was done by the smaller clubs, the one which youth education relies the most.
Problem is, it's always cheaper and safer in the short team to rely on foreign educated players. And all clubs in the Bundesliga did it, so you had to do it in order to stay up. Sounds familiar, too. Just the same as in England to.
Do I believe all this youth explosion would've happened if things remained the same? No. The clubs would've still rely in foreign players. What happened that Kirch went bankrupt, revenues dropped and clubs suddenly started to rely on their youth, which had become better over the years. And it worked! This lead to a change of mindset, so that today, even if clubs would be able to affort foreign players, they realised it's cheaper and better to rely on their own youth. This, though, is supported by the fact that while we managed to up revenues again certain clubs and especially the premier league went far ahead and it's not possible anymore even for the more wealthier clubs to afford the absolut top-talent. To gain these top talents, they have to develop them by themselves.

It's quite the same in Spain, where most clubs besides Real and Barca became quite poor, especially in recent times. So they started to rely on youth again.
Playtime is the most important thing in the development of a player, nearly regardless of his talent as long as its enough for the first division. Guys like Kramer would've never came up in England.

Nothing of this will happen in England anytime soon, though. So even if you would increase your efforts on youth development, I don't think anything would change because in most cases the clubs relying on youth would just get relegated.
Next problem for you is that there's so much money even in the lower leagues. If you look where a lot of german talents origante from, it's often the second (Benders, for example) or even third (Marco Reus!) league.

As long as the premier league stays as strong as it is and no effective measures towards forcing clubs to play english players are taken, you are doomed. Changing youth development patterns won't change either. It's a question of what you wan't more, the amazingly wealthy premier league or a good NT.

 

[devilish]

I strongly believe that if an EPL club has a choice between getting a quality British player at 4-5m extra and a foreign one of the same level and attitude then they will opt for the former option. A British player will probably stick to the club more, he has no adaptation issues and is a big plus in terms of European/EPL rules. Not to forget that a team made up of a British core tend to have an easier go by journalists then a team made up of foreigners. British talent is appreciated by the top clubs. United had just spent ridiculous money in the past for British young talent with some potential (Rooney, Shaw, Zaha, Jones, Smalling etc). Liverpool had in the past spent ridiculous amounts of money on the likes of Lallana and Carroll. The top clubs would love to give young British talent a go. Its just there aren't many around.

Id say the solution to the issue is pretty straightforward

a) improve the youth academies. Make sure that there are enough quality youth coaches who would focus on developing kids in future stars.

b) harmonize rules at all levels. Its ridiculous that there are some clubs, even in the EPL, that can play a style of play (physical long ball football) which in continental Europe is unacceptable and they manage to thrive with it. That can be achieve by showing more yellow and red cards to certain type of fouls and make sure that goalkeepers are protected more in 1 vs 1 situations (Cech suffered a possible career/life threatening injury back in 2006)

c) The money for smaller EPL clubs should be redistributed differently. The FA should place more emphasis on offering resources and help in terms of youth academy instead of just handling cheques which are usually spent in bringing foreign imports. It will force these clubs to develop better players and also sell promising players to bigger clubs when the time is right.

d) Youth tournaments should be encouraged and some real money should be given to those winning it

e) Introduce B Teams.

 

[Globule]

There's no way it could happen, and I haven't put a lot of thought into it, so it could (and no doubt will) have major flaws in it but:

Why not introduce a salary cap for young English players under the age of 18? This would give players more reason to choose clubs where they will get more opportunities rather than choosing for money, and might even encourage more English players to go abroad.

Hopefully it would also leave young English players a little more grounded too, and not feel like they've made it before they can grow a beard.

I know this is probably rife with legal issues, but I'd be interested to know why it couldn't be done. Most likely discrimination laws, but surely they could be a way to circumvent those.