The decline of English players in our marquee game should worry us

Times

6 hours ago

The marquee match in English football is Liverpool versus Manchester City and it has been that way for eight years. Every title since 2017-18 split between them, plus six League Cups, three FA Cups and the Champions League twice. Players from either City or Liverpool have won Footballer of the Year and Players' Player of the Year throughout that whole time, too.
It is our Clasico, English football's all-star game. Yet next season, when the teams meet, how many Englishmen will start the match? One, two, maybe zero? It is a worrying development. When Real Madrid play Barcelona it speaks to the strength of Spanish football, and the Spanish national team. The same in Germany with Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. Yet English participation in the Premier League's marquee fixture is in sharp decline.
Phil Foden is the sole banker in the two squads and he started only just over half of Manchester City's league games last season.
In 2017-18, City and Liverpool met four times. Including used substitutes there were never fewer than seven English players involved in any of those games, and the Premier League meeting on January 14 featured eight. That day, Joe Gomez and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain started for Liverpool, with James Milner and Adam Lallana coming on as substitutes; Kyle Walker, John Stones, Raheem Sterling and Fabian Delph were all in the starting XI for City.
And times change, teams evolve. Yet as mainstays such as Jordan Henderson or Sterling have moved on, their replacements have not been players from this country. Once Foden withdrew from England's present squad for matches against Andorra and Senegal with mental exhaustion, it left Curtis Jones, who started just half of Liverpool's league games last season, as the only representative of either club. Compare this with the 2018 World Cup: Walker, Stones, Henderson and Sterling in the starting line-up, Delph and Trent Alexander-Arnold on the bench. Similar numbers at the 2020 European Championships and the 2022 World Cup.
City, in particular, have changed from a club that provided the backbone of the England team to one whose influence is increasingly slight. Jack Grealish is leaving, so too Walker it seems. Young players such as Rico Lewis, Nico O'Reilly and James McAtee are not part of Thomas Tuchel's plan as yet. Foden, we must presume, will be at the World Cup, although he is no longer a certain first XI pick, which leaves Stones, who started only six league games last ­season and is being linked with Everton.
Stones's circumstances are interesting given that he was invited to join England's training camp in Girona. His last game was against Real Madrid on February 19 when he left the field injured after eight minutes, City already a goal down and being torn to shreds by Kylian Mbappé. Yet for Tuchel to ask him to continue his rehabilitation with England suggests he is part of the strategy; whether he remains part of Pep Guardiola's is another matter.
As for Grealish, he's done. He won't be part of City's Club World Cup squad and Tuchel has suggested his only way back with England is through regular minutes in the shirt of another club. One by one they fall, Grealish, Henderson, Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Walker, Kalvin Phillips. And in come Jeremie Frimpong, Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch, Nico Gonzalez, Savinho, Jeremy Doku, Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Ait-Nouri. For all the talk of the success of Premier League academies, how many are now revenue streams rather than production lines serving the first team? City's greatest contribution to Tuchel's squad could be Cole Palmer, in the colours of Chelsea.
When Barcelona played Real Madrid most recently on May 11, there were eight Spanish players in their starting line-up and four on the bench, versus four in Real Madrid's line-up, plus one on the bench. The heart and soul of Spanish football is represented in that match. And this is not a plea for quotas or limits or any of the other faux solutions.
The Premier League is founded on excellence and global appeal and clubs should be entitled to pursue that as they wish; not least because the Football Association has appointed a foreign manager so is really in no position to lecture. Teams selected by tick box would kill the competition anyway. But it's a trend that should worry because the biggest game of the Premier League season really shouldn't start taking place with­out us.
Martínez could be a Villa burden lifted if the price is right
Monchi, the grandly titled president of football operations at Aston Villa, wants goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez to stay. The World Cup winner appeared to have said goodbye at the end of last season, amid interest from Saudi Arabia. Monchi wants to seek another way of complying with Profitability and Sustainability Rules.
That is understandable. Martínez has been an outstanding performer for Villa in recent seasons. Taking centre stage in the build-up to the match with Paris Saint-Germain, however, was a mistake. Martínez brought the feud between Argentina and France into his club's Champions League quarter-final and performed poorly.
More mistakes followed. His dismissal on the final day of the season against Manchester United — when a win would have returned Villa to the Champions League — was particularly calamitous. It wasn't just that he took out Rasmus Hojlund, who might not have scored, it was that even had Hojlund scored that would have put United only a goal up — far from insurmountable at Old Trafford these days.
There was no guarantee Villa could have turned a deficit around, but it was so much harder with ten men.
Monchi may just be trying to get the price up, with suggestions in Argentina that United could also be interested — but if Unai Emery wishes for a goalkeeper as good but less excitable, he cannot be blamed,
Brilliant Yamal thrills as England pop pills
When Spain went 5-1 up against France on Thursday night it looked a rather uncommon goal from Lamine Yamal, one taken with his right foot. It was only on closer inspection that the truth was revealed. Despite shooting, right to left, across goalkeeper Mike Maignan, and despite having France's centre half Clément Lenglet on his inside, between him and the goal, Yamal somehow got his scoring shot away with his favoured left while holding off the challenge and at speed. It was, quite simply, one of the most remarkable finishes of the season.
Meanwhile, in Girona, England's players have been taking £60 pills to measure internal body temperature in heated conditions. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a pill to enhance dealing with a player such as Yamal: because he looks rather warm too.
Tuchel's difficult quest to find a true test for Toney
Thomas Tuchel has an Ivan Toney problem. Given England's fixtures, how can he accurately assess the impact of a career in Saudi Arabia? Toney's scoring record may be good and he has certainly enjoyed a successful club season with Al-Ahli, winners of Asia's Champions League Elite. Yet what does it mean? How strong was the competition? And will Toney be able to keep up with undoubtedly higher standards in the knockout stage of the World Cup next summer?
Toney rarely faces elite sides
EDDIE KEOGH/GETTY IMAGES
Tuchel is not going to find out in England's games with Andorra; and does Tuesday's friendly against Senegal represent a true test? The first match to present anything like the challenge that awaits is away to Serbia on September 9. Yet as that is likely to be the toughest fixture of England's World Cup qualifying campaign, won't Tuchel just start Harry Kane? So when can he properly read Toney? Possibly not until the tournament itself. If his striker is short, that's really not the place to find out.
And so we say farewell to Timothy William Osborne, Matthew Columb Cain, Matthew Peter Shayle . . .
Who were they? Nottingham Forest directors appointed when a blind trust was created a couple of months ago, in case the club ended up in the same competition as owner Evangelos Marinakis's Olympiacos next season, and had to demonstrate separation. In on April 29 to meet Uefa rules, out on June 6, deemed no longer necessary.
When Sir Jim Ratcliffe referenced owners who were across everything at their clubs recently he cited Daniel Levy at Tottenham Hotspur and Steve Parish, of Crystal Palace. So the circumstances that may now mean Palace are barred from Europe constitute a rare oversight. March 1 is Uefa's deadline for ownership changes for the following season, but clearly no one at Selhurst Park anticipated what was then a place in the FA Cup's fifth round — Palace beat Millwall that day — becoming a Europa League spot in 2025-26.
If anyone had, then John Textor's shareholding could have been placed in a blind trust like the ones that helped to negotiate convenient paths for other multi-club ownerships at Manchester United, Manchester City or, now, Nottingham Forest. As it is, Palace look stymied. Textor's interest in Lyon, Europa League qualifiers, and Brondby, Danish representatives in the Conference League, could mean they are excluded entirely. Textor is now talking about selling up at Palace but would almost certainly need to do so before the Europa League draw in nine days' time, which is next to impossible without resorting to smoke and mirrors.
Two thoughts. The first is that March 1 seems ridiculously early as the cut-off for ownership change. Why not June 1? Why does everything at Uefa need such a long lead time? Maybe Palace should have thought ahead, but it seems harsh to penalise them for not anticipating the first trophy in their history, plus goal difference dictating that Lyon finished in a Europa League qualifying position, given that eight points separated the teams from second to seventh in France, and so many permutations were possible. The second thought is more cynical: if this problem had affected, say, Real Madrid, do you think Uefa would have been more motivated to find a solution?
Sad end? Ange can sit back, polish his silverware and watch offers roll in
It really isn't the sad ending some imagine for Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham Hotspur. Yes, he deserved the chance to see if he could build on the club's first trophy in 17 years, but he landed that, took them into the Champions League and can now wait for the offers to come in. And there will be offers. Few could make sense of Erik ten Hag's time at Manchester United, his buys were poor and his team lacked direction. Yet he won a trophy in both campaigns and landed a good job succeeding Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen as a result. Winning the Europa League makes Postecoglou's name on the Continent, there is mitigation for the poor league form, and he goes out a winner. He'll be fine. And while we all admire Thomas Frank, with Tottenham, can we confidently say the same?
Chelsea's strength in depth could be weakness
Chelsea have nine goalkeepers on the books. This would suggest they are spoilt for choice. Not necessarily. When Rudi Völler picked five forwards for Germany's squad at the 2002 World Cup it didn't mean he had five great goalscorers; it meant he didn't have one he felt he could trust. Chelsea appear to have stockpiled for the same reason. Djordje Petrovic looks the best of it but spent last season at Strasbourg. Hence the apparent interest in France's No 1, Mike Maignan, of AC Milan, who has a year left on his contract and would therefore be available at a competitive price. Sometimes a glut indicates weakness, not depth.
Leicester victims of PSR quadruple jeopardy
Leicester City would like to make a managerial change; that much seems obvious. Ruud van Nistelrooy won four league matches in his tenure, two of which came after relegation, against teams that, like Leicester, were already down. They cannot move, however, because of Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR). Leicester already fear a vindictive 12-point deduction in the Championship next season, and paying off Van Nistelrooy would make their financial predicament worse. Any player who may be considered an asset, such as goalkeeper Mads Hermansen, will have to be sold, weakening them further. Russell Martin, considered a managerial target, has now taken the job at Rangers, and there is a worry that two other candidates, Danny Röhl, of Sheffield Wednesday, and Sean Dyche may be lost to them too.
Leicester erred with Van Nistelrooy, and that's what PSR does — it cements mistakes in place, with no second chances. So Leicester will be relegated, suffer a points deduction in the league below and conduct a fire sale of what little talent the club do possess, while being stuck with a manager who has shown little aptitude for the job. No one is arguing the club have not been run poorly, but PSR ensures they get no opportunity to change course. This isn't double jeopardy, it's quadruple jeopardy. It is almost as if the Premier League won't rest until it kills a club, just to show it can.
No winners in minnows' qualified success
Fifa will, no doubt, regard it as a great triumph that Jordan and Uzbekistan have both reached the World Cup finals for the first time. What had been four guaranteed places for Asia is now eight, and this is the result. Whether it is a good result depends on your view of inclusion versus excellence. Is it good for the players and people of Jordan and Uzbekistan to be involved in this festival? Undoubtedly. There are talents such as Abdukodir Khusanov, of Manchester City, who may never have featured on this stage. One thinks of George Best and George Weah, who were thwarted by smaller tournament numbers and the limitations of Northern Ireland and Liberia during their careers.
Yet Jordan were comfortably beaten by Qatar in the final of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup — and Qatar were the poorest team at the 2022 World Cup, one of only two to lose every match, with a goal difference of -6. Does the 2026 edition need entrants that are, potentially, worse than that — given that Asia has three other qualifiers still to come, with a fourth entering a play-off?
And don't think this is the end. There is already consideration for a proposal to expand the 2030 event to 64 teams and once Fifa notes this summer's Club World Cup is taking place without Barcelona and therefore the world's most exciting player, Lamine Yamal, don't think it will stick to 32 entrants either. 'Every idea is a good idea,' Fifa president Gianni Infantino said at the recent Fifa Congress, a view for which the phrase 'go boil your head' seems to have been invented. Not a joke to make in Uzbekistan, by the way.
Ronaldo's international career still alive and kicking
Critics have been trying to end Cristiano Ronaldo's international career for some years now. He's been holding Portugal back, we are told, for a decade. Yet when Portugal were propelled into Sunday's Nations League final, defeating Germany in Munich, who was it who scored the winner? A certain 40-year-old phenomenon, while Diogo Jota, Gonçalo Ramos and Rafael Leão looked on from the bench. It was the 137th goal of his international career. Detractors insist Portugal would be better without him and one day he will be gone and we shall decide. While he keeps helping them to finals, though, one can see why Roberto Martínez let's the man do his thing. Portugal had never won a trophy or even reached a major final until Ronaldo came along.
Fear and loathing in Harrogate