Trevor Brooking, English soccer’s director of development, blames the mass importation of foreigners by English Premier Leagues for the lack of depth at key positions on the England national team that is in a fight to qualify for Euro 2008.
Research by the BBC showed that only 37 percent of starters on the first weekend of the 2007-08 EPL season were English — down from 76 percent on the first weekend of the first Premier League season in 1992-93.
Of the 118 goals scored this season, only nine have been scored by English strikers.
“[The national team] has to be under threat — the numbers show that,” Brooking, a former England international, told the BBC Inside Sport program. “I don’t think you can underestimate it. It’s a major concern.”
Brooking predicted the number of English starters will soon drop to less than a third in light of the heavy spending on foreigners over the summer.
“Will there be first-team opportunities for some of our youngsters between 17 and 21?” Brooking asked. “If you look at Italy when they won the last World Cup, I think they had over 70 per cent of their league made up of domestic players. Spain, France, Holland, they’re all up there, too. Germany aren’t much better than us but we’re the lowest. The more that goes down, and the pool of choice reduces, we must come under pressure.”
England finds itself in danger of not qualifying for Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria, but England coach Steve McClaren has had to call Emile Heskey, no callups for the last three seasons, and uncapped Ashley Young for its depleted frontline for games against Israel and Russia on Saturday and next Wednesday, respectively.