Ins and Outs

[WTF11]

Germany England Switzerland Sweden Scotland Macedonia France Holland Poland Ghana New Zealand Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland Spain are all in our current squad, it's as international as it's ever been

And what is the balance now, and how would you have expected us to fare against a middling La Liga team, 3/4 of who are Spanish?

[WTF11]

Should always be a case of being chosen on ability instead of race. If the locals aren't making the grade or are being poached by others clubs, then of course the club are going to have to look further a field.

The F.A has simply taken to long to invest in grass roots football and it's only in the last couple of years they have taken it seriously.

How many of our whole squad have been poached by anyone? Cook, Byram, McContract, Taylor, who else of any note? If the "locals" aren't making the grade (for Leeds) maybe the scouting team should be given a shake up? Of course, thats what has happened, except their focus is now on the Iberian peninsula, rather than anywhere in the UK.

[LeedsFTW]

How many of our whole squad have been poached by anyone? Cook, Byram, McContract, Taylor, who else of any note? If the "locals" aren't making the grade (for Leeds) maybe the scouting team should be given a shake up? Of course, thats what has happened, except their focus is now on the Iberian peninsula, rather than anywhere in the UK.

Or more likely the comparison of what Leeds can recruit for the under 23's pales into insignificance when other resources are compared.

The ground work needs to be done long before Leeds players sign their pro contracts, but with no restriction on how, when & where premier clubs can sign youngsters from, Leeds are taking the smart option and reviewing more sources in an effort to find the talent to swell the Leeds ranks.

[whitestomper45]

Shows how easy it is for those who wish to do so to delude themselves into believing things.

What I ACTUALLY posted was that it was an unwarranted risk to allow Jansson, Wood etc to go on international duty when there was a challenging domestic competition to play for.

My views on the national squad are just as clear, I've said many times that there is something rotten at the heart of the English game, with our national squad reduced to a laughing stock because the rules cooked up by the FA, FIFA & EUFA allow clubs to field teams made up of more or less entirely foreign line-ups and our PL (and increasingly Championship) clubs having taken advantage of that ability to a far greater extent than other leagues around Europe and elsewhere, in the pursuit of success at club level.

Do a bit of digging, see if you can find where I've said otherwise, you won't. Then again, why spoil a snide post with anything approaching the truth eh?

Eh ...at from your "reasoning" no players would be available for International qualifiers during the season as there is always some pending important match...It's why there is an International break in the first place, and you never grasp that for some playing for their country is a privilege... The Premier League/Sky money not the FA is the reason so many overseas players are in theplastic league. That and young homegrown players who take bad advice and are happy to sit on benches/continuously loaned out for big wages.

[CLIVETHELEEDSFAN]

Just imagine if there were only English Scottish Welsh NI and Irish players in England's 4 divisions, all of a sudden our players might actually improve as they'd be playing games

[WTF11]

Just imagine if there were only English Scottish Welsh NI and Irish players in England's 4 divisions, all of a sudden our players might actually improve as they'd be playing games

Glad somebody picked up the comment about rules that allow the proliferation of foreign players employed by our top clubs in pursuit of the Sky millions.

One fosters the other, cause and effect.

[WTF11]

Eh ...at from your "reasoning" no players would be available for International qualifiers during the season as there is always some pending important match...It's why there is an International break in the first place, and you never grasp that for some playing for their country is a privilege... The Premier League/Sky money not the FA is the reason so many overseas players are in theplastic league. That and young homegrown players who take bad advice and are happy to sit on benches/continuously loaned out for big wages.

Precisely. It won't happen, but yes I'd have a ban on Internationals (particularly friendlies) during the season, why would I change my mind on that?

As for Sky vs FA/FIFA/EUFA, it's not an either or, it's both. The Sky money fosters demand for success at club level, rule changes on foreign players are the governing bodies response to that demand.

[CLIVETHELEEDSFAN]

It worked for teams like Italy Germany Spain and France, having their best players playing in their top league, u21 players got first team football which allowed them then to play for the full international team. Our best players can't get games anymore

[whitestomper45]

Precisely. It won't happen, but yes I'd have a ban on Internationals (particularly friendlies) during the season, why would I change my mind on that?

As for Sky vs FA/FIFA/EUFA, it's not an either or, it's both. The Sky money fosters demand for success at club level, rule changes on foreign players are the governing bodies response to that demand.

The proliferation of foreign players in the Plastic League is not in the interest of the FA, the PL purely runs on the basis of making as much money as possible for its now usually foreign owners. You can't have your cake and eat it...not wanting fixtures during a league season, not wanting players called up for national squads, then have some soundings about the lack of home players in the Leeds squad. If LUFC came out with a statement saying "in the future we will only sign players who have a cat in hell's chance of becoming international standard"...that am sure would give you something else to moan about...

[Tichi1]

It worked for teams like Italy Germany Spain and France, having their best players playing in their top league, u21 players got first team football which allowed them then to play for the full international team. Our best players can't get games anymore

BOSMAN