I wanted to ask the question are British players better than foreign players? I asked myself it when I read an article saying Ashley Williams is better than Phil jones. Admittedly both these players are British but I it also thought that Williams was good enough for any top four club.
I personally agree with this, I think that there are a lot of defenders that would do a job for the top clubs and it shocks me that a consistent English/Welsh/Scottish/Irish defender gets overlooked and the top clubs sign some sh*t Spanish player who played for Barca B so he must be world class…
Why Brendan Rodgers signed Lovren when he knew how established and consistent Ashley Williams was is beyond me. Most probably an age thing but there’s plenty of other young defender he could have signed. He could have gone for either Calum Chambers or John Stones? James Chester from Hull is a little older but will still do a job for Liverpool. Or if he wanted to go right under the radar he could have gone for Harry Maguire from Hull who I have to say is a powerhouse and can spray balls about the pitch just as good as Gerrard...might be an over-exaggeration there.
For me every Premier League team needs that one big British centre-half who is just intelligent, confident, consistent, strong and a leader. Ashley Williams is this lad for Swansea; he’s all the things I mentioned earlier and more for Swansea. But I’m sure Manchester United would rather Rojo and Blind at the back before opting for Williams.
Stoke have got Shawcross who for me is the epitome of the limited defender role. He’s not the best footballer but his intelligence and strength will keep him in the Premier League whether Stoke are there or not. Pulis recently came out and said he should try for Wales because he is getting overlooked by England, if I were Chris Coleman I’d snap him up.
Palace have Scott Dann who I remember had a really good partnership with Roger Johnson for Birmingham a few years ago. Top defender, agile, good in the air and a leader. Another player who will be staying in the Premier League if Palace were to make the drop.
~ I know that Jedinak is captain but surely Dann must be vice-captain? Any Palace fans please feel free to correct me ~
The obvious one for Everton is Jagielka. A top draw centre back who for me just needs to take that next step for him to become big player for England (by this I mean the same step Gary Cahill made when he moved from Bolton). The Champions League can really make a good player a great player it would seem.
Hull are a team with some great players for this role. As I stated before Harry Maguire is a great talent but isn’t getting much games at Hull due to fitness (now been loaned to Wigan). The next players I can think of for this role are Curtis Davies and Michael Dawson. Davies has had a solid season and how he hasn’t had a call up I don’t know; consistent, captain, great player. Dawson for me should have been one of the best signings. Why Tottenham let him go baffles me, a player with great experience and intelligence, but from what I understand has been blighted by injuries this season which has been Hull’s main issue sadly.
Same with West Ham who have James Collins who is a great centre half and very experienced ball winner, James Tomkins who keeps a low profile and sadly doesn’t get credit for his job at West Ham and lastly Winston Reid who has just signed a new contract due to how well he has done and the consistency of his performances. I really enjoy watching West Ham due to the amount of quality British players they always seem to have.
~ Edit: Shortly after writing this piece, silly bollocks (AKA me) realised that Winston Reid isn’t even fucking British. What a twat I am ~
Chelsea obviously have Terry, with Cahill being a suitable replacement when Terry’s gone. West Brom have Lescott and Dawson. I personally like Jason Shackell at Burnley, I think he’s very experienced and is doing well at Burnley with Michael Keane who is another young centre back with a big career ahead of him.
Why wouldn’t Louis Van Gaal go for any of these players instead of some foreign name who is big in the Portuguese league? I’m gonna have to assume it’s a fear thing. Fear that if he were to spend £10 million on Jagielka or Shawcross or whoever then the fans would begin to question him. “Why has he gone for some centre back from Crystal Palace when he could have signed one from Osasuna?”...Osasuna are essentially the Crystal Palace of Spain.
The bad thing is we’re signing Spanish players and giving them game time, whilst in Spain they are also signing Spanish players and giving them game time...Where does that leave the English players? Mooching about in the reserves or going on loan to the lower leagues. This is why we can’t develop any half decent talent.
Then again we all know that if a player like Scott Dann were to sign for Man Utd you know he would just be scapegoat for fans not to blame Rooney and Van Persie and the manager for when they lose. If a team loses it’s a team loss not just one players...or am I wrong?
Arsenal tried signing a world class defender in Per Mertesacker. They paid £10 million for him and his first season sadly was not successful. I thought he’d made an upturn and was doing well but after going on forum sites where fans hated him and then seeing he’d recently been dropped...basically proves my point that foreign is not always the best way to go.
But I bet Arsenal fans loved it when the transfer was announced. He was probably going to captain them to the title with Podolski and Giroud knocking them in for fun...they were some big names so it’s understandable that they thought that. Mertesacker for me is a long, long way off being Sol Campbell or dare I say it Tony Adams…
I don’t think England are too far off creating a solid defensive unit but we do need the bigger more fashionable clubs to take a punt on them. You can’t know that a player will do well for your club but you can make a good assumption if he’s proved it week in week out for a number of years as most of the players in this post have.
But anyway not my decision is it.
~ Anyone who enjoyed this please follow me on Twitter @ThePenaltyKing1 or like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/ThePenaltyKing1 ~
No comments:
Post a Comment