It's a FIFA rule that players can't move til 18 and the EU has an exception that lowers it to 16. There's not a lot the government can actually do apart from maybe relax the work permit requirements for younger players.
Even when there was FoM it’s hard to argue that it really held our players back at youth level. We won two youth World Cups and a youth Euros in 2017 with players that came through in those conditions. Also this government specialises in empty rhetoric and lies so let’s see if they even back any of this up.
Of the 40 players in the squads tonight for Fulham vs Wolves, there are 5 players eligible for England, 13%. Even if you're to extend that to people who were once England eligible (Reid, Robinson, James at Fulham) it only increases to 8 of 40 (20%). Pretty incredible when you think about it. The 8 players rule is completely unfit for purpose as stands. Clearly it makes absolutely no difference when clubs like Wolves are able to operate like this. Also pretty damning that of 40 players neither side has a single player bought through from their own academy even in the squad (Bueno and Rodak are technically academy products, but bought in aged 16/17 from abroad).
Jason Steele getting a chance at Brighton. Quite nice to see a player who was in loads of youth squads finally getting a PL clean sheet. RDZ spoke to Sanchez yesterday. "Jason now is playing better than Robert. He is closer than Robert to my style." #BHAFC— Andy Naylor (@AndyNaylorBHAFC) March 4, 2023
All the Villa youngsters - Iroegbunam, Aaron Ramsey and Archer - scored yesterday in the Championship. Will they get their chances from Emery next season?
Special investigation into major disagreement between Premier League and FA over English clubs’ access to international players. PL want the rules relaxed, FA adamant that won’t happen. Will have a massive impact on the transfer targets of English clubs. https://t.co/LfZPVXgwjy— Rob Dorsett (@RobDorsettSky) March 14, 2023
Injury crisis means Joe Whitworth ('04) makes his PL debut in goal for Palace Your Palace starting XI tonight ❤️💙#CPFC | #BHACRY— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) March 15, 2023
Sunderland vs Sheffield United looks a good watch tonight. Anthony Patterson, Dan Neil, Jack Clarke, Joe Gelhardt, Tommy Doyle, James McAtee and Daniel Jebbison all start.
19 - At 19 years and 15 days, Crystal Palace's Joe Whitworth is the youngest goalkeeper to appear in a Premier League game since Ben Alnwick in December 2005 for Sunderland vs Spurs (18 years, 336 days). Baptism.— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 15, 2023
He certainly scores some classy goals - The Salford Silva. 🪄 James McAtee’s goal has us level. 👊pic.twitter.com/WLwAgz1BKN— Sheffield United (@SheffieldUnited) March 15, 2023
Tommy Doyle whips it all the way home for our second goal! 💪 pic.twitter.com/Ae0wxcRZnj— Sheffield United (@SheffieldUnited) March 15, 2023
Really could go either way with him, couldn't it? He's obviously very talented, but so was Jason Koumas. Still, at least McAtee's making more of his gifts than Dan Crowley ever did.
Gareth Southgate fears his successor as England manager will face a shortage of English players. By @DaveHytner https://t.co/IBDOiGvlCW— Guardian sport (@guardian_sport) March 16, 2023
Thing that irks me about this is the fact it completely overlooks that the pl isn’t the only show in town. There are several top leagues in Europe and if players can’t get minutes at their English club then they should move abroad. If they’re not good enough to get those moves then we need to look at our own youth system and ask why it isn’t producing players to that level. My point is that this is a controllable problem. In fairness, more players are starting to move abroad now in order to further their development but still not in anywhere near enough volume.
I think this is an irony of Brexit for those that thought it would be good for the development of our young players. It's now harder for them to move into Europe as they have to be 18 to go, unless they hold an EU passport. They're stuck at PL clubs for longer now and if they don't sign new contracts they get the bench treatment. It already seems like the mini exodus of young English players to Europe has stopped. The obvious other move for young English players is to sign with Championship sides if paths are blocked. Make their name in that league like Alex Scott who is now being followed by a number of PL clubs. For all the hand-wringing over this a large proportion of our recent squads started out in the lower leagues anyway.
Even though I agree with your reasoning, I still think there are chances for them to move abroad when they turn 18 but are just badly advised imo. I still draw on the Carney decision to move to Chelsea when there was a host of Clubs after him including a good healthy core from Europe but he chose a route that every man, woman, cat and dog could see would be a massive challenge in the Premier League environment and likely struggle to get game time which is proving the case. Players and they’re advisers just don’t help themselves either.
I'm not sure that Carney is a bellweather for this. He's a massive Chelsea fan and followed his heart instead of his head. I'm not sure that it's indicative of advisors telling players to settle for the biggest contract offer. It certainly seems to me at least that there is a lot less movement of England youth players to European clubs now than there was 5 years ago.
Total Minutes by English players still falling this season down to 31.47% (163,603 out of 519,905 total minutes played). Top 5 countries for those interested the rest are all under 3% England 31.47 Brazil 7.26 Spain 5.68 France 5.49 Portugal 4.95
Going abroad is an option but I'd argue it's not ideal. Prospects need to develop without much distraction and moving countries is a huge distraction. We've seen success stories but then we've also seen the likes of Doyle just get lost in the shuffle. It doesn't exactly help that being bilingual isn't exactly common in England/UK either
It’s contingent on the economics. The Premier League is the richest in the world so English players are expensive in terms of both fees and wages. Since Italy introduced tax breaks on top earners they’ve been able to compete on wages which is why we’ve seen a number of English players move there in recent seasons. Recently a number of youth players were moving to European clubs, again a cheap way to acquire talent. It looks like that’s dried up since Brexit and the end of FoM which makes it a lot more complicated or impossible in many cases for English players to move to the continent under the age of 18.
It's always been rare for English players to try play abroad even before Brexit. I think it would take massive shift in mindset especially amongst younger players to attempt to play abroad. I can't see it ever happening.
That's not true. In the 80s a lot of English footballers played in Italy, France and Spain, while Italian and Spanish players were rare sights abroad. Many people thought back then that it is not part of the Italian mindset to send footballers abroad. A decade later the shift happened: Silenzi, Zola, Vialli, Carbone, Ravanelli and co. flooded the Premier League, and since then no one has questioned the fact.
It would require English football to become relatively poor in terms of competition and wages compared to other leagues. Players from Brazil, Argentina, Holland etc go to other leagues more often because they want to play in better competitions and earn more money.