The much heated debate.

Since I grew up in the 90s, I obviously began following footie then, circa 1996. 1997/98 I was a hardcore Arsenal fan.

And I have to admit, I liked it with more English players. Fowler, Collymore, McManaman, Adams, Seaman, Dixon, Ian Wright, etc etc etc

Not that i liked all those players, or thought that Collymore was good, but it was just the knowledge that they were English that I liked.

Now, I feel the idea of quotas and the forcing teams to have English players is daft. A club is a club, it's not the international team. The goal of the manager is to get the best players at a reasonable price, and if they're internationals, so be it.

But it does bother me when I think about it. EPL - ENGLISH Premiere League. The league is, of course, stationed in England - but that's as far as the English part goes now. --> My point: the EPL has lost it's English identity.

I find that ashame. And I hope in the near future quality English players are chosen again because their quality outshines the Dutch, Italians, etc. But I will not go as far as advocating quotas and the like. As I said above, that's just daft.

Wenger, who gets the most stick, has tried with the English players. They are either:

a.) Not good enough - for Arsenal at least (Bentley, Sidewell...and soon to by Hoyte)
b.) Too expensive (30mill for Rio Ferdinand vs. 240K for Kolo Toure)
c.) Have attitude problems (Pennant, Cole)

The problems of lack of English players don't lie with foreign owners (Roman), nor do they lie with foreign managers (Benitez, Wenger). They aren't racist, or Anglophobes. Rather, the system lies with the English training system.

Instead of focusing on forcing sub-par English players onto quality teams because of their nationality; time and effort should rather be focused on fixing the institution in England.

Get better coaches. Fix poor attitudes at a young age. Revolutionized the training program, and do so by learning from our successful European counterparts.

Quotas will not produce another Bobby Charlton...or even a Tony Adams, or a Alan Shearer. The only way for England to produce such quality players on a consistent basis is fixing the problem at the grass level.

People are under the misconception that there is a lack of quality English players because the EPL is now foreign-oriented. This belief is simply not true. If English players are good enough, they will make it -- look at Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Ashley Cole, Joe Cole, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, ....and the emergence of Theo Walcott. All these players are English, and they dominate the top three clubs in England.

Now, are most of these players listed as good as England 1966? Or as good as even recent England 1996 or 1998? And are they as good as current Spain? France? Germany? Holland? -- My answer is no, they aren't as good. But that's not the point. The point is that they're good enough to make it in the big clubs in England, and they have done so.

What we learnt from Alan Hansen's 1999 mistake is that if you're good enough, you are old enough. Let's extend that to nationality now. If you're good enough, you're nationality makes no difference --> Not as catchy, but the point is just as valid.

I yearn for the day England are producing top players. I can't wait for the EPL to regain it's English identity again.

Let's be honest, though. The EPL is billed as the most competitive, entertaining league in the world. Can you not say, no matter what team you support, you haven't been stunned by the sublime skill of Thierry Henry? Can you seriously tell me that the pace and ability by Fernando Torres doesn't have you on the edge of your seat? How about the step over, flashy king of the Premiership - Cristiano Ronaldo?

The foreign players are what currently make the EPL the best league in the world. If, the far fetched/implausible aspect of this argument is irrelevant, every club was forced to play ONLY English players in the STARTING 11, it would be so boring and dull. Imagine 11 Hoytes, or 11 average-but-mood Pennant. Doesn't make for speculative viewing, does it?

Quotas at any level would limit the quality of the EPL. Foreign players, even if it means the complete elimination of every English player in the EPL, is needed. Currently anyway. And this is how the situation will stand until something is done with the training at the youth level.