If Sepp Blatter had his way, and European clubs had to include no more than five foreigners, which of the ‘big five’ Premier League clubs would have the best team?

admin

5th, October 2007

15 Comments

77055952.jpgCrazy Sepp Blatter wants a quota on foreign players in European teams; each club would only be allowed to have five foreign players in its starting XI. Blatter sees this as the solution to encouraging home-grown talent, but, honestly, we’re too far down the line to go back to such a quota system, and anyway there’s no way the collective lawyers for all of Europe’s big clubs will let this happen.
But in the interest of pub debate, we asked each of our Pies club websites to come up with the best starting XI that could be picked under such rules. They came up with the following (English players in italics):
Man Utd Ben Foster, Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Cristiano Ronaldo, Owen Hargreaves, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Carlos Tevez, Wayne Rooney
Chelsea Petr Cech, Ashley Cole, John Terry, Ricardo Carvalho, Paolo Ferreira, Joe Cole, Sean Wright-Phillips, Steve Sidwell, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Andriy Shevchenko


Arsenal Jens Lehmann, Justin Hoyte, Paul Rodgers, Matthew Connolly, William Gallas, Kieran Gibbs, Cesc Fabregas, Mark Randall, Theo Walcott, Robin van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor
Liverpool Scott Carson, Steve Finnan, Jack Hobbs, Jamie Carragher, Dan Agger, Fabio Aurelio, Jermain Pennant, Steven Gerrard, Xabi Alonso, Peter Crouch, Fernando Torres
Spurs Paul Robinson, Gareth Bale, Ledley King, Michael Dawson, Pascal Chimbonda, Steed Malbranque, Jermaine Jenas, Tom Huddlestone, Aaron Lennon, Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane
I think it’s fair to say that of the big five, Arsenal would suffer the most, by some distance – the English players they would bring in would mostly be young, unproven players, whereas the other four teams listed at least have more choice.
Of the five starting XIs listed, which one do you think would fare the best in the Prem?

Posted in Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man Utd, Tottenham Hotspur, Transfers & Rumours

Share this article: Email

15 Comments

  1. Joe says:

    People actually voted for Arsenal? I suppose it would be interesting to see them field 5 foreigners, Walcott, Hoyte, the tea lady, the custodian and a fairly portly Ian Wright…

  2. Stuart says:

    Man Utd would be ok, thats pretty much there first team anyway, just the keeper thats changed and Ben Foster is sound.

  3. Pat says:

    I doubt Shevchenko would make the Chelsea team if they were limited to 5 foreigners. Replace him with Malouda and I’d go for them.

  4. Pat says:

    I doubt Shevchenko would make the Chelsea team if they were limited to 5 foreigners. Replace him with Malouda and I’d go for them.

  5. m4re says:

    Spurs lineup is pretty much their exact lineup anyway (if we can pretend Ledley King is ever fit), but I can’t vote for them, not after this year’s form.

  6. m4re says:

    Spurs lineup is pretty much their exact lineup anyway (if we can pretend Ledley King is ever fit), but I can’t vote for them, not after this year’s form.

  7. oller says:

    i can’t get near naming 6 english players at arsenal.
    i’d like this to happen, i’m sure if wenger didn’t throw his toys out of the pram. he’d probably start churning out a lot of england players :)

  8. marcel says:

    who cares about how many foreign players u have english born talent is way to expensive-darren bent cost 16.5 million pounds and has down nothing this year. no wonder wenger doesnt buy foreign talent. blatter should shut his mouth

  9. pajodublin says:

    by foreign players i dont think they include players from scotland wales and ireland…

  10. pajodublin says:

    by foreign players i dont think they include players from scotland wales and ireland…

  11. Murfmensch says:

    Blatter really ought to consider some sort of exemption in which one Welsh or Northern Irish player can count. Otherwise, their national teams would be hit disproportionately hard.

  12. SePo says:

    It’s Paulo Ferreira, not Paolo Ferreira.

  13. Scott Pusich says:

    If I recall correctly (which I probably don’t), wasn’t there such a system in place before the Premiership? The EU Maastricht rules came in effect around the mid-90s, as well as the Bosman ruling. Funny, most English teams before the Prem had almost entirely British (if not English) rosters. Whodathunkit?
    As far as who’s considered “foreign”, I do believe it comes down to citizenship, i.e. passports. Unless there’s been a drastic change, those are issued for the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,” which includes the four “home nations”. These are recognized as separate for international football tournaments, but not as separate members of the European Union.
    So, Giggsy counts as “domestic” for bureaucratic (Blatter-cratic?) purposes. (and Van der Sar can go back in goal, when he’s healthy). Same goes for Gareth Bale. Finnan and Robbie Keane are out of luck, though ;-)
    Oh, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that the team most likely to succeed under these potential conditions is the only one run by a Brit (albeit a Scot).

  14. zogonthetyne says:

    How about this for a decent Blatter-pleasing line-up, don’t think Newcastle would fair too badly:
    Given
    Enrique, [Taylor], Cacapa, Beye
    N’Zogbia, [Butt], [Barton], [Milner]
    [Owen], [Smith]

  15. ezyo says:

    id like to know why people refer to there being a “big five” in england. i dont think there is justification for relegation candidates to recieve such hype.