There’s been lots of talk about Liverpool needing to buy British this summer, with only two members of our starting eleven hailing from the country where football originated. The question I keep asking myself is why? Why do we need to buy English?
Now we know about Uefa have been hinting about the idea about a set number of players needing to be from the clubs country but I think this is unrealistic. Whilst it may be backed by foreign clubs in weaker leagues the clubs in the Premiership won’t have it. The only reason this rule would be implimented would be to try and stop English clubs dominating in Europe as they have done for a number of years. The richest league in the world have considerable influence over UEFA decisions and will ensure that this rule is never put in places, which makes the argument that we should buy English less valid.
Another problem I have with English players is they are expensive, really expensive. It seems that as soon as a player has had a couple of games in the England team their value goes up by about £5 million. A prime example of this is Stuart Downing over at Middlesbrough. From what I’ve seen of him, which is a lot, he’s about as good, if not worse than our Spanish winger Albert Riera. Yet because England have called him up a number of times to player on the left, a very weak position in the England squad, he’s worth £15 million plus whilst Riera isn’t worth more than £10 million.
We’re not a patriotic club, we’re not a patriotic city, that’s another reason why we should be looking at English players ust because they are English. We’re Liverpool, we’re proud to be from this city because of all its been through. This is a city that was crippled by a Conservative English government under Thatcher, why should we be patriotic?
In my opinion the future for us is in our youth team. We’ve seen some brilliant players come through it, a large number being Scouse reds and reds from around the country who want to give their all for the club. we need to see more Gerrard’s, Owen’s and Carragher’s, even if some were Blues at birth!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against buying English players, I’m just against buying them just because they are English. if an English player is the best fit for the position then snap him up, but if he isn’t don’t just pay an extortionate price for him if there’s a better, cheaper player from somewhere else in the world.
M.Owen