England – a Team Full of Landon Donovans…

July 28th, 2008 | by: Daryl | View Comments

Interesting recent quote from Fabio Capello, concerning Frank Lampard’s on-off (most likely off) move from Chelsea to Inter Milan:

“As England coach I would prefer it if Lampard remained in England. He would have less travelling to do that way,” he told the Sun.

“I’m worse off than (Italy coach) Marcello Lippi, than everyone. I have Welsh players, Scottish, Irish,” he said.

“In the Premier League only 35 per cent of the players are English. In Italy it’s about 72 per cent.”

True enough. And despite the huge of recent imports to the Premier League, I’ve always felt that the England team (but not the English league) has suffered by playing host to the majority of the Welsh, Irish and Northern Irish national teams, as well as about half the Scottish national team.

But while keeping Frank Lampard in England might help keep that low low percentage of England based England players from dropping even lower, it’s not exactly a long term solution is it?

I’d argue that if you can’t beat ‘em then join ‘em. One way to deal with the lack of England internationals in the Premier League is to get more of them playing outside of the Premier League. Right now there’s juts David Beckham. And with all due respect to LA Galaxy, it’s at least one full step below the top European leagues (though Galaxy did recently recognize the abundant rubbishness of Abel Xavier and get rid of him, so at least there’s that).

Speaking of Galaxy, the England team is basically a bunch of Landon Donovans. And I don’t mean they’re short and prematurely balding.

I mean they’re scared to go and play some soccer outside the motherland. Frank Lampard moving to Inter would have been a great start, especially if he’d succeeded in Serie A. So though I’m loving Fabio Capello’s England tenure so far, I think it’s a shame that he’s publicly discouraging England players from playing abroad.

It’s not just about growing some balls and learning another language, it’s also about learning and adapting to new styles of play, which if enough players did it would be a huge boon to the England team as a whole.

Because right now the England only knows how to play the Premier League way. And without all the expensive foreigners, the Premier League way doesn’t work.