There are a lot of people, Sepp Blatter, Howard Wilkinson, Trevor Brooking ........... 'Chopper', who think that the influx is stifling domestic talent, not only in England but Scotland too.

I'm not against the Bergkamps and the Zolas but surely, surely, a team like Arsenal can include SOME locally produced talent? Last night's starting lineup was an all foreign affair, yet again. Is this not a slight on the Arsenal Academy that none of their own local lads can be developed into first team players?

I said it in another thread, why give a work permit to someone from the 96th ranked country? Are our kids that bad that they can't get a game ahead of a Zimbabwean?

Why consider Almunia as a potential England #1? He's not even Spain's #3! Are Robinson, Green, James, Kirkland, Hart, Foster, Carson et al really that bad?

We have loads of loccally produced talent in our youth squad, as we saw earlier! The most successful one from Arsenal is probably Ashley Cole, you know, that guy, the England left back!

Trevor Brooking is Head of Youth Deve;opment, what he actually does is complain that foreigners are taking over, not really the idea, he's such a twonk! Sepp Blah blah has been spouting rubbish from Geneva since he was appointed, he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about, and all he's done in his presidency is annoy and anger people!

And i say again, it is not the Premiership managers duty to produce talent for the England team, it's the FA's!

Is itHow many lads did Arsenal release this season that never made a first team appearance? All Arsenal are doing is developing talent for the lower divisions, not developing first team regulars or even first team squad players.

This is the sum total of Arsenal's English contingent's contribution this season:
Justin Hoyte 10+2
Theo Walcott 15+13 5 goals
Kerrea Gilbert 0
Mark Randall 1+1 0
Kieran Gibbs 1+1 0
Henri Lansbury 0+1 0

If you look at Premier League games it's even worse:
Justin Hoyte 1+1 0
Theo Walcott 6+10 2
None of the other English lads have played in the League, just the League Cup.

Forget England and clubs not being morally or otherwise bound to assist the national team, this is about developing local talent that is capable of playing first team football but not being given a chance to develop because the club buy in foreign imports and play them first.

I wouldn't give a work permit to ANY non-European nationals which would force clubs to develop what's available locally, for their own first team not, Rochdale's or Macclesfields or some other lower league side's.

its not our fault if they aren't that good! You can't force them to be good by developing them, they don't have the skill or confidence on the ball as foreingers do! It's not in English nature to play like that, it's all about hoffing it up top to see if we can get a quick goal!

And back to the Benjani thing, why would you pay over the odds for a mediocre English player, when you can get a cheaper foreign import who is twice as better!

So why bother having an Academy, why not just buy ready made foreign players and forget about trying to develop local talent?

Arsenal have to have an Academy, all Premier League teams must, but why bother having ANY local kids in the Academy when you can 'pinch' kids from Europe or Africa for pennies? Simply to make up the numbers they're required to have at each age group. This isn't a dig at Arsenal as it might appear, it's endemic throughout the country with the big clubs. Where eaqually skilled labour is available just as cheaply locally you'll find the number of foreigners much, much, less. If a small club can't aford even a cheap import they'll develop their youth system with whatever funds they have available. But the big clubs don't need to do that, so why bother?

I'd send him home for two reasons, 1) to embarrass Mugabe's regime and 2) as he's not an EU national we can and should deny him a work permit as he's taking the job of someone who under the Treaty of Rome is entitled to work here. He's not automatically entitled so in order to protect the rights of those who are, I'd refuse ALL non-EU citizens a permit. Even if it was a top Brazilian, Argentinian, African or whatever. Keep them out!

Arsenal and other clubs do use their academies, but only a few good players come through at any time. I'd prefer to see good football playe by foreingers than seee a load of English kids punt the ball forward hoping to force a mistake from the defender! If the FA put into place some proper regulations for developing young talent from a very young age, like they do in Brazil, we wouldn't be in the situation where English kids aren't good enough to play good football! Until this changes, we're just going to be stuck in the same old rut!

Wenger wants players that can play te game well, with skill and creativity, English kids are not like this, and it is not something that they can learn either, so developing them would be a useless exercise anyway! Arsenal, to the best of their ability, do develop young talent, as we have seen with Ashley Cole and Justin Hoyte, but if the good players aren't in North London, what else do you expect them to do!

Having a first team full of foreigners is bad enough but here's Hearts reserve side against St. Mirren:

Basso, Thomson, Zaliukas, Tall, Kancelskis, Ivaskevisius, McGowan, Screpis, Mackle, Beniusis, Mole

Spot the Scot?!

FOREIGNERS OUT! says 'Chopper'.

yeah, but as i say, Hearts is an exception because you have a Lithuainian dictator who thinks he knows best, its not really the manager's fault!

There are so may kids trying to get into football these days but have no chance of getting anywhere because clubs tend to get foreign players in. U have to be an exeptional talent like Rooney to get anywhere in today's game which is why the England squad gets no-where in competitions. All the foreign players get first team football week in week out. How many full England internationals do???? I bet you are hard pressed to find an English team that boasts a full line up of English players but please correct me if I am wrong!!!!!

But wouldn't you say that only exceptional talents like Rooney deserve to come through, cos if you're not good enough, why would you get picked in the first place! The England squad being crap recently is nothing to do with foriegners, it's to do with rubbish coaches like Sven and Mclaren! The foreign players get first team football because they are better than the English players, BUT, if young English players are good enough, they will come through, that's the way it works!