Poll on Homegrown Quotas

[crokey]

Given that we are running dangerously close to having too many foreign players (17 max) what are your thoughts on the Homegrown rule as a whole?

Even with this rule the England national team is terrible and English teams have generally been struggling in Europe the last few years with the exception of Chelsea.

IMO I would like to see the whole thing abolished and allow clubs to have a squad of the best 25 players they can find, however I'm not English so it's easy for me to say.

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

With the prices of recent years for home grown, or even UK-based players, I don't believe I could root for forcing more home grown players into each squad.

 

[E17yid]

You've got to have an English/British core, otherwise, what's the point?

I was proud when we had the likes of Daws, King, Thudd, Lennon, Defoe etc etc in our team. Likewise, I'm always sad when I see players like Livermore and Caulker leave, not only are they English but they're Spurs. They may not have been the best players in the league (though who knows how much they'll develop given how young they are?) but you could never question their commitment.

Obviously a balance has to be struck, it's no good just having a load of shite British players, but the homegrown quota is a good thing to at least try and address this issue, and also, help clubs find the right balance.

 

[SlickMongoose]

I think clubs should have to have a certain number of their own academy players in the 25 man squad.

I've no idea how workable this is.

 

[Skye Sauces]

One thing I would like to see is an end to stockpiling of players Chelsea style.

Any player purchased must form part of your 25 man squad and the only loanees out should be players developed from within their own clubs.

This buy to loan business Chelsea have been involved with should be outlawed from the game it is absolutely ridiculous that a player is signed and loaned out within the hour equally as much as a player can be purchased for millions and be 2/3 years into a contract yet spend 95% of it on loan!

 

[alfie103]

Given that we are running dangerously close to having too many foreign players (17 max) what are your thoughts on the Homegrown rule as a whole?

Even with this rule the England national team is terrible and English teams have generally been struggling in Europe the last few years with the exception of Chelsea.

IMO I would like to see the whole thing abolished and allow clubs to have a squad of the best 25 players they can find, however I'm not English so it's easy for me to say.

For me, the whole quota thing is a bit of a distraction from the real issues of lack of quality coaching. It shouldn't be a case of forcing British (English really) players into a team to make a quota regardless of their ability. The key is that we need to coach our young players and kids a lot better than we have done and We need to really incentivise people to become qualified coaches so we can get the coaches to the grassroots level and above.

Look at Germany. After a poor Euro 2000, they decide they needed to change their youth set up and the way the game was run in general. Now they have inflicted Brazil with their heaviest ever defeat in the world cup semi final.

 

[mpickard2087]

I don't know if quotas are the right idea, but something needs to be done.

However I would change the rule about becoming home-grown after 3 seasons at a club before the age of 21, so someone like Fabregas qualifies under this rule. I think this is pretty ridiculous. I'd be looking to change this, I don't know how... Most extreme option would be to make it so that only British (and I guess Irish) players count as homegrown, no foreign players count. Other options though would be toughening up the qualification period to 5 seasons before the age of 21, and also you could restrict the amount of foreign home-grown players to maybe like 1 or 2 at a maximum.

 

[crokey]

I think clubs should have to have a certain number of their own academy players in the 25 man squad.

I've no idea how workable this is.

Yeah but what is an academy player? If we buy Origi and stick him in the under 21's for a season does he count?

Hard to define.

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

One thing I would like to see is an end to stockpiling of players Chelsea style.

Any player purchased must form part of your 25 man squad and the only loanees out should be players developed from within their own clubs.

This buy to loan business Chelsea have been involved with should be outlawed from the game it is absolutely ridiculous that a player is signed and loaned out within the hour equally as much as a player can be purchased for millions and be 2/3 years into a contract yet spend 95% of it on loan!

Well, I see your point and I'm not saying I disagree, but there are some limitations to what you suggest. If a player is 21 or younger (regardless of where he is from) you don't have to register him among those 25 at all. So making it mandatory to have new signings be a part of your 25 players isn't that easy.
To maintain what you are suggesting, you could plainly make it illegal to buy and loan out in the same window/season?

 

[crokey]

For me, the whole quota thing is a bit of a distraction from the real issues of lack of quality coaching. It shouldn't be a case of forcing British (English really) players into a team to make a quota regardless of their ability. The key is that we need to coach our young players and kids a lot better than we have done and We need to really incentivise people to become qualified coaches so we can get that coaches to the grassroots level and above.

Look at Germany. After a poor euro 2000, they decide they needed to change their youth set up and the way the game was run in general. Now they have inflicted brazil with their heaviest ever defeat in the world cup semi final.

Yep. I think its just a product of globalization. Given the value of success, every club will continually push the boundaries of each new strategy or ruleset or whatever else is put in place. Improve youth coaching to an elite level and IMO 10 years down the line we will just see foreign players coming over at 14 rather than 24. Which just defeats the point of the HG quota in the first place since they will then qualify.

 

[mpickard2087]

For me, the whole quota thing is a bit of a distraction from the real issues of lack of quality coaching. It shouldn't be a case of forcing British (English really) players into a team to make a quota regardless of their ability. The key is that we need to coach our young players and kids a lot better than we have done and We need to really incentivise people to become qualified coaches so we can get that coaches to the grassroots level and above.

Look at Germany. After a poor euro 2000, they decide they needed to change their youth set up and the way the game was run in general. Now they have inflicted brazil with their heaviest ever defeat in the world cup semi final.

This is of course very true, and a huge amount of work still done on this aspect of the game, but then if you do sort this out and improve the production line I do think you need some sort of tool to make sure that these kids are getting a chance. The 'spend money, buy players in' approach is far too ingrained in chairmen/DOF's/managers and the ever increasing pot of money available to PL clubs doesn't help this.

Take us for example, over the last 10 years there has been a hell of a lot of hard work, time and resources put into the academy and we are finally getting through decent prospects. You get a manager though like AVB, who on his arrival at the club it seems agreed to giving young players a chance (based on Levy's statement upon his appointment) and yet when it came to it showed no interest in it. This happens too often in the Premier League in my opinion, it is unique because the amount of money available means it is far too easy for clubs to go out and buy another player to plug a gap in the squad, rather than showing a bit of patience and nurturing a young player into the first team squad as may happen in other countries because they don't have the luxury of a choice. Because of this, I think rules may need to be in place regarding a certain number of academy players in a squad/matchday selection.

 

[Dharmabum]

Me, and several others, expressed that when those new rules about home grown players were enforced that the richer clubs would find a way around it - and they did.
Teams like Manu, and, particularly, ManC and Chelski, are stockpiling "home grown" players by paying them much more than teams like Totteham can afford and thus driving up their prices. If Luke Shawn had not been English and still to be considered home grown, he would have cost half of his £34million transfer fee.
So in theory I am all for teams being forced to field more players from their respective home countries but in practice, with the present rules, it's the big clubs that gain benefits while the less richer clubs are losing out.

 

[eddiebailey]

I feel more connected to the club when the players (and the coaching staff) feel connected to the club. I hate the idea of Spurs becoming a revolving door for overseas players (and coaches) who see us simply as a stepping stone in their career. What is the point of supporting a club that does not have an identity? One of the most exciting times to support Spurs was under Martin Jol who bought into the club totally with Spurs legends Hughton and Allen as his assistants, and the club hoovering up all the young English talent.

There are too many mediocre foreign footballers (and coaches) in the Premiership and too few opportunities for talented young English players (and coaches) to show what they can do. Couple that to a lower tier where footbal remains in the stone age and talent is coached out, and it is no wonder that the national squad is enfeebled.

 

[LukeBB]

I'm English and I voted for letting in more foreign players, why should we spoon feed our own youngsters? It's sport, if you're good enough, you'll play. The problem isn't that there are so many foreign players, the problem is in we don't know how to educate our own youngsters and help them make the jump from the youth sides to the senior teams. It's obvious we struggle with developing talent, countries like Spain, Brazil, Germany and Holland are pooping out youngsters yet we get excited whenever we stumble across a Wilshere or a Barkley etc leading us to scramble for players like Januzaj desperately trying to convince these players they're English. We're too conservative and I really hope this WC will be a kick up the arse, but it won't, it'll be 10 years from now before we begin to realise we need a drastic change.

 

[Geyzer Soze]

All or nothing i say. Either all players should be British, otherwise no restrictions.

 

[poc]

It is the English Premier League it should contain some English/British players. The number of Average overseas players is astounding to me, I have no doubt that British players could do a job if they had time to mature in a role within our teams. Teams/Fans always wanting a finished article of a player or a foriegn name definitely inhibits the progress of youngsters in this country. The only way this will be fixed is to use quotas as changing the mindset of people to give managers time to develop British kids is something I do not believe will happen anytime soon. (maybe wage caps would be another way? FFP could have an impact here Im not sure)

 

[poc]

Yep. I think its just a product of globalization. Given the value of success, every club will continually push the boundaries of each new strategy or ruleset or whatever else is put in place. Improve youth coaching to an elite level and IMO 10 years down the line we will just see foreign players coming over at 14 rather than 24. Which just defeats the point of the HG quota in the first place since they will then qualify.

This is already the case isnt it?

 

[bat-chain]

The rules now are pretty good I think.

8 Home grown in PL squad (three years at English clubs before 21)

8 HG in Europe with 4 of the 8 being club home grown.

I love seeing how grown players come through but it's nothing to do with the England national team, I love the fact that Tottenham have enabled Nabil Bentaleb to develop and fulfill his dreams as a professional footballer. In an age where football is quite ugly this is still a very beautiful thing, same for Kane, Townsend, Carroll, Caulker, Livermore, Mason, Smith, Pritchard it is a awesome thing to see Tottenham creating professional footballers.

If you are a real football club as opposed to just a play thing for a rich guy bringing through players should be at the core of any clubs objectives and obligations. If a kid can't walk through the gates of a football club and be developed into a professional what's the point of the club.

The quota's give the club the extra incentive needed to enable these kids to reach their dreams, that can only be a good thing for football and for society. Honestly without the quotas I don't think we'd have our amazing new training ground, it gives any club the chance to succeed based on the quality of it's coaching not just the size of it's bank balance, a great thing for any club but particularly one like Tottenham.

 

[Mullers]

If you force more British players into the side, England will still be shit and the price will go even more.
We had a policy of going after young British talent, we abandoned it to a degree. The bottom line is the chairman of the top clubs don't care whether a player is British or not and nor do most of the fans, they just want players who will get them success regardless of where they come from.

 

[TaoistMonkey]

I want good players at THFC. Don't really care where they are from.