The downward plight of English football

Surely no one can be surprised at today's news that English players account for about one third of playing minutes in the Premier League.

The question, I guess, is: does it matter?

Personally I think it does matter. It can't be right that an ENGLISH League has:

• more foreign players than home players
• foreign owners
• foreign managers

What is English about the English Premier League?

The grounds and the referees.

And even on the subject of grounds, "they" came up with some bright idea of playing a "39th" game abroad a few years ago!

And on referees, some called for Pierluigi Collina to take the whistle in English games a few years ago.

It seems that nothing is sacrosanct in the modern times of global shrinkage.

The problems are:

• The England team has about 75 players to pick from - and yes, the success of the England team does matter in the long run.
• Nearly all the money in the game goes to players, so that's 2/3 of a huge amount of money going OUT of England in the long run (not good for the economy).
• Every bubble bursts in the end.
• There is no foundation to the short-termism that plagues the English game.

What can be done about it?

I'm no lawyer so I don't know what laws are in place or would be broken to try and fix this. 

• Player quotas have been mentioned, but sound unlikely in the European Union (despite plenty of non-European players in the league).
• I guess we can't insist on home ownership.
• Perhaps we need UEFA or FIFA to put in place some rules that mean that leagues are representative of the country.

For the moment though, I weep at the downward plight of English football.

Managerial merry-go-round in full panic

The madness of the managerial merry-go-round is in full swing.

Carlo Ancelotti sacked at Chelsea. No appointment yet
Mark Hughes resigned at Fulham. Martin Jol appointed at Fulham.
Gerard Houllier resigned at Aston Villa.
Billy Davies sacked at Nottingham Forest. Steve MacClaren appointed at Forest.
Alex McLeish resigned as manager of Birmingham City. Resignation rejected.
Aston Villa have now asked to talk to McLeish.

Fun, isn't it?
And funny how clubs believe that managers who have failed at other clubs will succeed at theirs. It was the old manager's fault that he failed at their club. It was the old club's that the new manager failed there.

Blind optimism? Blind panic? Blind stupidity?

There's got to be some fun during the summer when there are no games to keep us occupied!

Managers changed in England in 2009: 49

Forty-nine managers have left their posts in the four English divisions in 2009, the latest, of course, being Mark Hughes.

But even he wasn't at the highest club. It seems a long time ago, but Luiz Felip-Scolari was sacked by Chelsea only in February as Chelsea struggled with their form! Then, four months later, Guus Hiddink also left Chelsea - but at least this time it was by agreement as Hiddink returned to Russia to try (and ultimately, fail) to get them to the 2010 World Cup.

Other premiership managers to leave their club in 2009 have been: Tony Adams (Portsmouth in February), Ricky Sbragia (Sunderland, May), Steve Bruce (Wigan, June), Tony Mowbray (West Brom, June), Paul Hart (Portsmouth, November).

Of the 49 managers losing their jobs, the breakdown by division has been:
Premier League:           8
Championship:            14
League One:               14
League Two:              13

Of the 49 clubs who have changed manager, their success since has varied:
Better:      18
Same:       10
Worse:     21

Hardly seems worth the trouble, does it?