If teams could only play their english players

Mitch Connor

Article here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1157357/It-Sportsmail-proves-Premier-League-club-field-English-XI.html?ITO=1490

It can be done! Sportsmail proves every Premier League club can field an English XI
A decade on from the last all-homegrown XI in the top flight, England still expects

By Sportsmail Reporter
Last updated at 10:18 AM on 02nd March 2009

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It's 10 years to the day since the last all-English Premier League XI started a match when Coventry thrashed Aston Villa 4-1 at Villa Park - and with the influx foreign players looking likely to continue it could be some time until that feat is matched again.

Sportsmail Online has taken a look at what the potential line-ups would be if all 20 Premier League clubs we forced to field an English only team this weekend.

Indicative of the dearth of English players in the Premier League at present, some sides include many reserves and even youth players as we struggled to fill the team sheet and if you notice two right-sided full backs or the odd attacking midfielder up front, that'll be because we've had to shuffle the pack a little to get a team together.

The clubs with the strongest sides include Manchester United, West Ham, Everton, Tottenham and Aston Villa who boast many internationals and former internationals among their ranks and the notable strugglers would include Arsenal, Liverpool, Wigan and Sunderland with Blackburn fielding six reserves!

Judging by some of the potential line-ups we're sure fans of the Premier League will be grateful for the foreign invasion!

Here's the teams
MANCHESTER UNITED

Ben Foster

Gary Neville Wes Brown Rio Ferdinand Richard Eckersley

Owen Hargreaves Michael Carrick Paul Scholes Lee Martin

Wayne Rooney Fraizer Campbell

CHELSEA

Sam Walker

Jack Cork John Terry Michael Mancienne Ashley Cole

Joe Cole Frank Lampard Jimmy Smith Lee Sawyer

Scott Sinclair Shaun Cummings


LIVERPOOL

David Martin

Jamie Carragher Jack Hobbs Stephen Darby Robbie Threlfall

Steven Gerrard Adam Hamill Jay Spearing Paul Anderson

Craig Linfield Nathan Eccleston



ASTON VILLA

Stuart Taylor

Luke Young Curtis Davies Zat Knight Nicky Shorey

Steve Sidwell Nigel Reo-Coker Gareth Barry James Milner

Ashley Young Gabriel Agbonlahor

ARSENAL

Manuel Almunia

Gavin Hoyte Kerrea Gilbert Paul Rogers Kieran Gibbs

Jack Wilshere Henri Lansbury Mark Randall James Dunne

Jay Simpson Theo Walcott


WIGAN

Chris Kirkland

Peter Moore Emmerson Boyce Titus Bramble Luke Ashworth

Lewis Montrose Ben Watson Lee Cattermole Michael Brown

Daniel Barrie Matty Hampson


STOKE

Steve Simonsen

Andy Griffin Danny Higginbotham Leon Cort Ryan Shawcross

Danny Pugh Micahel Tonge Rory Delap Matthew Etherington

James Beattie Dave Kitson


EVERTON

Carlo Nash

Tony Hibbert Jack Rodwell Joleon Lescott Leighton Baines

Phil Neville Leon Osman Phil Jagielka Dan Gosling

James Vaughan Lucas Jutkiewicz
lescott

Playing for the jersey: Joleon Lescott has had a good season for Everton

BLACKBURN

Paul Robinson

Stephen Warnock Jonathan Bateson Dean Winnard Alex Marrow

David Dunn Rostyn Griffiths Andrew Haworth Marcus Marshall

Matt Derbyshire Jason Roberts


MIDDLESBROUGH

Ross Turnbull

Justin Hoyte David Wheater Chris Riggott Andrew Taylor

Stewart Downing Gary O'Neil Nathan Porritt Adam Johnson

Jeremie Aliadiere Jonathan Franks

WEST HAM

Rob Green

James Tomkins Jordan Spence Mathew Upson Calum Davenport

Kieron Dyer Mark Noble Scott Parker Lee Bowyer

Dean Ashton Carlton Cole

MANCHESTER CITY

Joe Hart

Michael Ball Nedum Onuoha Micah Richards Wayne Bridge

Shaun Wright-Phillips Michael Johnson Kelvin Etuhu Ched Evans

Daniel Sturridge Darius Vassell


FULHAM

David Stockdale

Paul Konchesky Chris Smalling Elliot Omazusi Adam Watts

Julian Gray Danny Murphy Giles Barnes Wayne Brown

Bobby Zamora Andy Johnson


SUNDERLAND

Martin Hunter

Phil Bardsley Anton Ferdinand Nyron Nosworthy Peter Hartley

Kieran Richardson Dean Whitehead Grant Leadbitter Nathan Luscombe

David Dowson Michael Chopra


TOTTENHAM

Carlo Cudicini

Michael Dawson Ledley King Jonathan Woodgate Jamie O'Hara

Aaron Lennon Jermaine Jenas Tom Huddlestone David Bentley

Jermain Defoe Darren Bent
.
.
.
.
.
So, how do you reckon the league would look with those sides?

PHB

It wouldn't be Lee Martin, it'd be

---

Foster

---

-Neville--Brown--Ferdinand--Eckersley--

---

Carrick----Hargreaves

---

--Welbeck

---

Scholes

---

Campbell--

---

Rooney

---

Not a bad bloody team. 7 first team players, and 3 fairly talented youngsters.

I'd imagine it would be between us and Villa [if it was just first 11 ]

Cudicini?

Is he qualified same as Almunia?

Headshot

Deleted User wrote: »

Cudicini?

Is he qualified same as Almunia?

Carlo Cudicini has not played in a competitive match for Italy so in the case that he is granted British nationality he could theoretically be eligible for England

Mitch Connor

The spurs team looks quite strong too - but they they look strong irl and are sucking it up in a relagation fight regardless.

Nalz

Christ Villa would be well on top there!

Mr_Roger_Bongos

Yeh Villa's team would be very impressive.

What's the story with the foreign player limit coming back in?

If we're talking next 5 years, clubs will have to start thinking about off-loading some of their foreign squad players, if it happened soon, imagine the glut of excess foreign prermiership players on the european market!

redout

Looking at that United would probably still be champions with Villa giving them a good challenge. Pointless

eagle eye

PHB wrote: »

It wouldn't be Lee Martin, it'd be

---

Foster

---

-Neville--Brown--Ferdinand--Eckersley--

---

Carrick----Hargreaves

---

--Welbeck

---

Scholes

---

Campbell--

---

Rooney

---

Not a bad bloody team. 7 first team players, and 3 fairly talented youngsters.

I'd imagine it would be between us and Villa [if it was just first 11 ]

While he plays as an England international he is not English.

matrim

Villa's team would probably be

Stuart Taylor

Luke Young Curtis Davies Zat Knight Nicky Shorey

James Milner Nigel Reo-Coker Gareth Barry Ashley Young

Emile Heskey Gabriel Agbonlahor

The bench include
Steve Sidwell
Craig Gardner
Nathan Delfouneso
Marlon Harewood

As well as another couple of promising looking youngsters

eagle eye

eagle eye wrote: »

While he plays as an England international he is not English.

:rolleyes:


And yet Almunia/Cudicini are mentioned in the original post and you didn't cross them off too.........



IMO on paper itd be between Villa, Spurs and United but in reality it'd be between Villa and Untied.

West Ham are strong there too.

Liverpool and Arsenal would be lucky to stay up.

eagle eye

Deleted User wrote: »

:rolleyes:


And yet Almunia/Cudicini are mentioned in the original post and you didn't cross them off too.........



IMO on paper itd be between Villa, Spurs and United but in reality it'd be between Villa and Untied.

West Ham are strong there too.

Liverpool and Arsenal would be lucky to stay up.

I was about to do exactly that but seeming you have done it now I won't bother.

mike65

Liverpool relegation certs! But would win Champions League.

GavRedKing

I think what we can draw from all the teams here is that at the moment there is a lot of good youngsters coming through. Will they be good enough to cut it in the future only time will tell but some of the above mentioned have played more then a handful of games for there clubs and look promising.

Mitch Connor

eagle eye wrote: »

I was about to do exactly that but seeming you have done it now I won't bother.

Yeah, you just thought you'd put your effort into having a pop at United instead. how odd.

He is English, he has english parents and is thus English.

Xavi6

MANCHESTER CITY

Joe Hart

Michael Ball Nedum Onuoha Micah Richards Wayne Bridge

Shaun Wright-Phillips Michael Johnson Kelvin Etuhu Ched Evans

Daniel Sturridge Darius Vassell

Lol FAIL!

Ched Evans is Welsh

eagle eye

Aliadiere is French. Theres another one.

eagle eye

Xavi6 wrote: »

Lol FAIL!

Ched Evans is Welsh

And Onuoha was born in Nigeria

eagle eye

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Yeah, you just thought you'd put your effort into having a pop at United instead. how odd.

He is English, he has english parents and is thus English.

Where was he born? Where did he grow up?

mike65

Sure most of them could prolly play for Ireland anyway.

Mitch Connor

eagle eye wrote: »

Where was he born? Where did he grow up?

So what - he has english parents, you gain nationality through your parents - it isn't ALL about where you are born.

My Aunt was born in Austrailia, and lived there for the first few years of her life before the family moved back to Ireland. Does this mean everyone else in the familly is Irish except her - she is 100%, and can only ever be considered to be, Austrailian.

hargreaves was born to an English couple, he is english. Anything to have a pop, eh?

eagle eye

Mitch Connor wrote: »

So what - he has english parents, you gain nationality through your parents - it isn't ALL about where you are born.

My Aunt was born in Austrailia, and lived there for the first few years of her life before the family moved back to Ireland. Does this mean everyone else in the familly is Irish except her - she is 100%, and can only ever be considered to be, Austrailian.

hargreaves was born to an English couple, he is english. Anything to have a pop, eh?

I'm not having a pop ffs, I'm just pointing out that he is Canadien. I was just browsing the page and seen that one of the first posts. As you see I mentioned others as well.
What makes you think I want to have a pop at Manchester United. Is is the fact that I don't like Alex Ferguson(even though I make it clear he is a brilliant manager) or is it just that you don't like anybody who doesn't rate Rio as the best defender ever:rolleyes:

I don't have anything against United, I enjoy watching them play, I think they are a brilliant team but I will point out things that I believe are untrue imo.
Of course like any soccer fan I do like to see competitiveness at the top of the division and as such I do like to see other teams improve.
Its not just United I point things out about either, ask the Rafa lovers.

Mikeyt086

If he was Canadien he would play for Canada.

Im pretty sure you cant play for England without being legitimately English... Either way he counts as eligable for this 1890's League we are looking at.

Running Bing

Sweet, United Spurs and Villa challenging for the title and Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool for the drop.


Bring it on;)

PiE

Liverpool would probably do quite well in La Liga with an all Spanish team. Championship at best with an all English team though.

redout

Didnt Giggs play for England at youth level before he played for Wales ?

Highsider

Liverpool champions i'd say with arsenal for the drop.

podge018

Why would people on an Irish board care if a club had a good group of English players or not, and who'd win this hypothetical league?

jaykay74

redout wrote: »

Didnt Giggs play for England at youth level before he played for Wales ?

went to school on england and played for english schoolboy team. not english in any way afaik.

Fratton Fred

PORTSMOUTH
David James
Mark Wilson Glen Johnson Sol Campbell Martin Crainie
Jerome Thomas Sean Davis Hayden Mullins Glen Little
Peter Crouch David Nugent

Which part of England is Marc Wilson from then??

good old Daily Mail, if the facts don't work for you, jsut make them up and hope no one notices:D

mike65

podge018 wrote: »

Why would people on an Irish board care if a club had a good group of English players or not, and who'd win this hypothetical league?

Well it touches on a subject that is pertinent to the game in all countries these days - local/native talent being squeezed out by imports.

podge018

Think that's a problem in a minority of countries to be fair.

SectionF

podge018 wrote: »

Why would people on an Irish board care if a club had a good group of English players or not, and who'd win this hypothetical league?

Because, when it comes to football, we are a deeply confused people? :P

Nalz

podge018 wrote: »

Why would people on an Irish board care if a club had a good group of English players or not, and who'd win this hypothetical league?

Out of interest I suppose, especially with the new rules that are talked about to be coming in. Its hardly a sin now to be fair. All the same, people on an Irish board should at least care as much about their own league and groups of Irish players!

astrofool

jaykay74 wrote: »

went to school on england and played for english schoolboy team. not english in any way afaik.

yep, though they tried:

wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Giggs wrote:

He represented England at Schoolboy level (using the name Ryan Wilson) playing at Wembley Stadium against Germany in 1989. Ryan changed his surname at the age of 16, two years after his parents' separation, so "the world would know he was his mother's son."[6] Lawrie McMenemy, then-coach of the England under-21 team, checked to see whether Giggs was eligible to play for England. However, he was rebuffed after finding that Giggs had no English grandparents, and was only available to play for Wales and Sierra Leone, the home of his paternal grandfather.

I think he'd have been bigger than Beckham had he played for England (in merchandising terms). Even as a welsh man, he seemed to purposely turn his back on the media side and concentrate on the pitch. Great player.

Bounty Hunter

I could swear i saw on SSN that the 5 + 6 idea was given a legal ok the other day even though there had been talk before that the EU would consider it breach peoples right to work or something, anyone hear anything similar? as i only saw it for a moment, but obviously down the line if true it could have implications towards turning the league back a bit more like this thread.

redout

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

I could swear i saw on SSN that the 5 + 6 idea was given a legal ok the other day even though there had been talk before that the EU would consider it breach peoples right to work or something, anyone hear anything similar? as i only saw it for a moment, but obviously down the line if true it could have implications towards turning the league back a bit more like this thread.

It was not given an official ok. It was given an ok by some crowd FIFA hired to look into it only. Not UEFA or the EU.

ctrl-alt-delete

Do i not remember a team playing an all english X1 not so long ago? as in not 10 years??

McClaren at Boro for some reason im thinking, might be wrong, or maybe west ham

GLaDOS

ctrl-alt-delete wrote: »

Do i not remember a team playing an all english X1 not so long ago? as in not 10 years??

McClaren at Boro for some reason im thinking, might be wrong, or maybe west ham

The 10 years was referring to both sides having all English I believe

ctrl-alt-delete

ScienceNerd wrote: »

The 10 years was referring to both sides having all English I believe

ahh right thanks

Pepe LeFrits

Not that it matters but Dunne, Gilbert and probably Rodgers wouldn't be in Arsenal's team. Bartley, Thomas, Afobe and even Murphy are a lot higher rated than those three, who will all be gone in the summer.

Bobalicious93

Mitch Connor wrote: »

STOKE

Steve Simonsen

Andy Griffin Danny Higginbotham Leon Cort Ryan Shawcross

Danny Pugh Micahel Tonge Rory Delap Matthew Etherington

James Beattie Dave Kitson

Another mistake there.....

~Rebel~

Mitch Connor wrote: »

So what - he has english parents, you gain nationality through your parents - it isn't ALL about where you are born.

My Aunt was born in Austrailia, and lived there for the first few years of her life before the family moved back to Ireland. Does this mean everyone else in the familly is Irish except her - she is 100%, and can only ever be considered to be, Austrailian.

hargreaves was born to an English couple, he is english. Anything to have a pop, eh?

As a bit of an aside to this, bit of trivia i found recently meant to post and forgot about. My folks used to live in Canada for years. A few months ago, one of their old friends traveled back to visit, he's an ex-pat. He's fairly high up in the canadian league system, and was saying Hargreaves dad still plays sunday football! The chap i know is on the disciplinary panel, and Hargreaves dad has had to stand before them 3 times in the last season, for violent conduct. Apparantly not a violent guy, just cant tackle. Though did have some sort of altercation with a ref.

Anywho, apparantly Hargreaves does consider himself to be Canadian, but his dad does plan on moving back to England to be nearer Owen in the medium to short term.

TonyD79

Yeh id swap Giggs for Hargreaves in that case since he was BORN in england!!!!!! Liverpool would be in real trouble if Gerrard got injured in that team..suppose nothing would change!!!Atleast Rooney wouldlnt get messed around all the time.

CHD

Babybing wrote: »

Sweet, United Spurs and Villa challenging for the title and Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool for the drop.


Bring it on;)

Lol, that Chelsea team is only betterd by Villa, Manu and Spurs imo. Wud neva be near the drop.

mikemac

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

I could swear i saw on SSN that the 5 + 6 idea was given a legal ok the other day even though there had been talk before that the EU would consider it breach peoples right to work or something, anyone hear anything similar? as i only saw it for a moment, but obviously down the line if true it could have implications towards turning the league back a bit more like this thread.

I've not heard of the 5 player quota but I can't see it getting past the EU.

Interesting thread though, Villa look very strong

Mitch Connor

TonyD79 wrote: »

Yeh id swap Giggs for Hargreaves in that case since he was BORN in england!!!!!! Liverpool would be in real trouble if Gerrard got injured in that team..suppose nothing would change!!!Atleast Rooney wouldlnt get messed around all the time.

No he wasn't. If he had been, he would have been able to play for England. That was never the case, so what the hell are you talking about?

SectionF

Is there a fantasy football equivalent of this? It'd make for an interesting league table.

Xavi6

SectionF wrote: »

Is there a fantasy football equivalent of this? It'd make for an interesting league table.

The best performing English XI of the season so far (in a 4-4-2) is -

---

Green

---

Carragher

---

Jagielka

---

Bramble

---

Lescott

Gerrard

---

Lampard

---

Barry

---

Young

---

Agbonlahor

---

Cole

---

Subs: Kirkland, Terry, M. Taylor, Crouch

SectionF

I was thinking of players restricted to their current teams. It would probably mean having to include reserve matches.

eagle eye

---

Green

---

L. Young

---

Jagielka

---

Terry

---

Lescott

Gerrard

---

Lampard

---

Barry

---

Young

---

Agbonlahor

---

Davies

---

Subs: Kirkland, Turner, Carragher, M. Taylor, Milner, Heskey, Rooney