Newcastle United ‘Lead’ The Way In Overseas Recruitment
Back in August 1992 when the Premier League kicked off, there were 177 players of English nationality who started in the opening weekend’s fixtures. This represented 73% of the total number of players.
This past weekend saw 75 English players start in the ten Premier league matches, a figure that represents only 34% of all the starting line-ups.
This figure is way behind those in Italy, Spain, France and Germany.
As for things changing, of the first 61 incoming Premier League transfers, only 12 were English, which equates to just under 20% of the total.
As for Newcastle United, this was our line-up at the Etihad;
Krul, Debuchy, Coloccini, Taylor, Mapou, Ben Arfa, Sissoko, Tiote, Jonas, Gouffran, Cisse
Which breaks down to;
5 France
2 Argentina
1 Holland
1 Ivory Coast
1 Senegal
1 England
Steven Taylor has been our only real automatic first choice English player and whether he will get back in straight away if Mapou and Colo gel is open to question.
In the very short-term, this Saturday against West Ham could see potentially Santon and maybe Marveaux come in for Taylor and Jonas.
A team of eleven Geordies was never going to be a reality but a team without any English or even British players is a step too far for many people, especially if it is also failing.
If you would like to feature on The Mag, submit your article to contribute@themag.co.uk