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Don't blame us for England mess



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SYLVAIN DISTIN today told English football: Don't blame us foreigners.
The Pompey defender admitted he is fed up with being pinpointed for the demise of the national game.

Distin's blast came as Italian Fabio Capello succeeded Steve McClaren as international boss.

English football plumbed new depths following the dismal failure to qualify for Euro 2008.

But Distin refuted the idea the influx of foreign players was the reason for the terrible state of the senior team.

The 28-year-old, who has been in majestic form for his team this season, felt the problems ran a lot deeper.

Distin pointed to the success of France at international level, despite the high number of foreigners in their domestic game, as evidence that argument is flawed.

He said: 'I am surprised when I read in the paper that England doesn't succeed because of us foreigners.

'Nobody forces us to come here. I have been asked to come in here and I have.

'I feel good here. I haven't stopped anyone taking my place if they are better than me.

'So I don't understand it. People always look for excuses when they fail but I don't understand where it has come from.

'Why do we want to talk about it? I only talk about something when I think it is important or personal.

'It is not important to me because it means nothing.

'It is not because of the number of foreigners that English football fails. The problem's more than that.

'In France we have many foreigners and have succeeded.'

Distin backed the English team to come out of the doldrums following Capello's appointment by the FA.

He felt there was the homegrown quality to match that of the world's top footballing nations.

And he reckoned having foreign players could help rather than hinder their development.

He said: 'A lot of teams have a lot of foreign players because they are attracted to the Premier League.

'Everyone wants to come here. Players who are in the top 10 in the world want to come here.

'That's a good sign. The stadiums are always full, everything works properly and people enjoy watching the games.

'For me it's not a problem to have that.

'Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.

'This time England have lost but they have a quality team with great players.'

The full article contains 398 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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  • Last Updated: 14 December 2007 5:49 PM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: Portsmouth
 
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1

spyglass,

cheltenham 15/12/2007 08:59:34
maybe he can explain why arsenal, chelsea and liverpool field almost no english players and vie for the preimiership every year and that the fortunes of pompey have improved dramatically in the past few yewars with the advent of foreign players. most of these palyers come, not because of the quality of our football, but because the huge amounts of money that sky pays the premiership has led to wages that have reached the obscene and are now not only undermining the national team but threatening to kill off the lower divisions altogether in the not too distant future.
2

thommo-senior,

Kiti 15/12/2007 10:56:32
I concur with Sylvain, we do have homegrown talent, but unless they come from a fashionable club or are favourites they don't get a look in. take for example the terrific job Gary O'Neil did as captain of England U21's, but because he then played for Pompey, no chance of senior squad also Matty Taylor.
3

velocityfan,

15/12/2007 12:19:33
half the problem, as fabregas pointed out today, is that no english players move abroad. That is where england is behind, other nations have lots of forergners in their team, but to balance it out they have players also playing abroad
4

blue_prince,

Madrid 17/12/2007 11:29:05
i will admit that not many players move abroad but I don't think that is vitally important to whether a national team does well or not. Spain has so many foreigners in the league and up until only a couple of years ago, hardly any players went abroad. Most of them now are in England. I think that the problem starts at the grass roots level and then what happens to them at the clubs. I think England is well behind in all of those departments in terms of facilities, treatment, nutrition, training etc. Although I wouyld have preferred and Englishman in charge, Capello could help change the fortunes of English football dramatically. Not necessarily on the pitch winning the World Cup but evaluating and revamping the whole structure of the national team set-up and maybe what happens at cluns around the country. he has been at some of the best clubs in the world and that experience can only help to serve for the good of our game. i would go some way also to put a limit on the number of foreigners in the starting line up though. Well, lets see what happens over the next 4 years!
5

mothman,

17/12/2007 12:51:47
Do you know something, I get so annoyed with some people on here, we lose a game and all of a sudden pompey are rubbish, players are rubbish and people saying players should be dropped and even more ridiculous the manager should be sacked!! People still don’t appreciate being in this league they seem to forget what nearly happened a few years ago, Harry said the problem with having a good season last season is that the expectation would be sky high, boy is he right (as usual). People should be happy we are in the top division and be happy they have the chance to go watch there team play against the best sides in the country week in week out. But no instead there moaning because we lost 1-0 to a spurs team who in the last two seasons have finished 5th,saying that there a team in ruins and we should of beaten them its absolute nonsense, spurs will be right up there come the end of the season, yeah they had a dip in form but that was many weeks ago, they've got a new manager, a top manager and there climbing the table now. I saw the game and yeah we didn’t play well but were not going to every week. People say we are the best fans in the prem, don’t know if they would think that if they saw some of the comments on here. I get fed up with reading negative comments that are put on here week in week out by a few people, I wont name names because we all know who they are, you call yourselves pompey fans, it comes across your happy to see the team loose. So to all those that keep coming on here every week and slate the manager and the team would you shut up, either get behind the team you apparently support or go be a glory fan and support one of the top four, maybe your be happy,(you'd probably still find something to moan about one of them even) we aren’t man u we are pompey and we have come a very long way in a short time, lets get behind the club and enjoy this experience together. Play up pompey!!
6

Gary the Enforcer,

20/12/2007 13:19:52
I reckon it's Distins and the other foreign players fault for the England mess, he thinks so too otherwise he wouldn't be so quick to deny it.
7

Gary the Enforcer,

20/12/2007 13:22:14
I reckon it's Distins and the other foreign players fault for the England mess, he thinks so too otherwise he wouldn't be so quick to deny it.
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