I'm going to come out and say it, but I think the Premier League is to blame for England's poor performance. These big clubs in the top flight constantly splash millions of pounds out to buy the latest new talent from another country who had one or two good seasons in their home country. When they get them, they disappoint on the pitch and end up leaving for half of what was originally spent on them.

The FA need to really lay down the law on some of these big clubs and make sure that they invest in strong local talent to give England's future any sense of hope come future tournemants such as Euro 2016 & World Cup 2018. I understand how much money is needed for the PL and its role in European Football, if not World Football, but its quite frustrating into how its all become money now for these clubs and there's no thought about training the next footballers for the future seeing as so many young people really want to pursue it as a career.

And before anyone asks, I'm not some secret racist communist closet BNP member who believes that the English spirit is dying and all that rubbish. Because I know somewhere along the line I'll be accused of that on this thread

Are you a secret racist communist closet BN... Oh ok.

Any idea why there isn't or couldn't be hundreds of English players playing in France, Spain, Holland, Germany? Not good enough or just not hungry enough?

Basically you want to weaken the premier league to bring though another bunch of English players who won't be good enough at international level

Everyone I know has said the same thing, we don't have good enough home talent in our Premiership teams to then play for England, they are all from another country. I don't really follow football but since watching the world cup I have realised all the killer strikers in all the other country teams happen to play for Manchester, or Liverpool, etc.

Maybe one day they will make rules so teams like Manchester United have to have players born within a 50 mile radius, same with other regional teams.

Agree with this, not enough English players are willing to play abroad, definitely indicates a lack of hunger.

There is young English talent but the top Premier clubs hoover up all those that look promising and stick them in their youth/reserve teams on silly wages - it used to be clubs could only sign from within their areas but Premier clubs had the rules changed, so they can sign from anywhere (Spurs and Chelsea for example have deals set up in Portsmouth's catchment area).

Youngsters used to sign for their local club, develop and move on up, now they go straight to a top club on good money and get few 1st team chances, and lower division clubs can't compete with the wages.

There's also no incentive for English players to go abroad as they get more money here, and that's also why so many foreign players come here now, its not the standard of the football but the money.

Don't the majority of the Spanish team play for the top three clubs in Spain?
They were pretty much invincible for 6 years.

Youth coaching in this country is still mostly a joke. They don't provide enough decent players with the right skills.

Other countries are miles ahead of us in implementing the best training techniques at a young age. In this country we still have football classes which mainly comprise of just running around a lot and not much technique practice, favouring the tall and strong.

Time and time again I see English footballers having the ball ping off them like in a pinball machine. Woefully inconsistent ball-control. I'd wager if they'd had a more tailored mix of technique/match training in football classes when they were very young they would have much more ingrained ability to receive and use the ball under pressure in their professional years.

The best we can hope for is that there is a sea change in how kids are taught football in this country and benefits can be received 10-15 years from now. But it won't happen.

Silva, Mata, Torres, Alonso and quite a few others all played in England.

for me that is by far the biggest issue that would need to be resolved

too many promising kids are not even getting the opportunity to play regular competitive football as the big clubs prefer to buy anyone that looks decent and throw them in the reserves just to stop other clubs getting their hands on them

Spain started their good run in 2008. So probably building the squad since 2004/2006

Silva joined the PL in 2010
Torres 2007
Mata 2011

Alonso and Fabregas are two that were in the PL before 2005

I agree 100%

Our technique, ball control and passing is vastly inferior to the better nations and our mentality is all wrong as well.

It's something that has needed addressing for a long time, but I don't see anything changing.

Two of their most important players then.

There is no problem if a player is a regular in an English champion's league club, but if they are sitting on the bench or playing for a mid-table side I would like to see them move abroad to further their career rather than stay in a comfort zone.

A couple of things

1. We have to have EU players. We dot not have to have russian, asian, african, american players. Stop giving them work permits.

2. UK players are overpriced. Managers do better by buying cheaper and better foreign players. I have no idea why UK players cost so much.

England were shit in the 70s too and there were no foreign players. That's pretty easy scapegoating.

And a communist BNP member would be a hell of a thing!

Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish and Irish players are 'foreigners' regarding the England national team.

If you're good enough and have the hunger you will always rise to the top. It's no good having 100 players the equivalent quality of the likes of Jenas, Parker, Vassell etc. That's all you will get if you limit foreigners in the league.

The coaching needs to be producing world class players, not average squad players. Get payers comfortable on the ball, and somehow give them the required footballing brain to be able to pick a pass or make a run.

Are we saying that if we had less foreign players in the PL then that would have stopped Chris Smalling tw**ting the ball into the stands 3 times in the space of 5 minutes?

I doubt it - unfortunately for England players its like they've got the brain cells from one person shared out between 23 players.

I think the main problem is that domestic clubs are so focused on their own ambitions and trophies that they disregard the national team to some extent. There's so much pressure put on these clubs by the fans and owners to win trophies, of course the manager is going to go out and by the best players, instead of bringing on younger talent. It's the we want it now generation.

It's quite telling that some of the best teams have all featured players from either the lower PL teams like Norwich, Aston Villa etc and even Championship sides. Any player can be made to look good when surrounded by the best players in the world, but he really has to work when surrounded by average players, and thats where England are failing>

We look to Rooney and co to score goals, like they do week in week out when playing with the best. So do they loose some of that "get up and go", are things just to easy?

If English youngsters went abroad to play, that wouldn't necessarily mean that England would become world beaters. If you look at the youth teams of the clubs in England you will see many foreigners trying to make it here, why can't English kids do the same.

They don't have to go to the Munich's and Barcelona's of this world. There are plenty of decent teams available.

What needs to change for England to become a top team is the coaching, Spain and Germany produce far more coaches than England. Even Belgium have changed they way they approach youth football and now they are reaping the benefits.

Is club status really that important? A goal was scored last night by a Cardiff City striker.

And a Norwich player scored for Holland, proves you don't have to just pick players from the top 5 or 6 teams

UK players attract high prices and wages not because of their footballing ability but because of their commercial potential. UK (and particularly English) players put bums on seats and shift replica shirts. In addition, the Premier League is run as a billionaire's playground, where obscenely wealthy businessmen flaunt their money in order to outdo the others.

It's meant to be. It's God's 11th Commandment:

'England shall not play good football'

Amen!

It's also telling that European clubs don't tend to appoint English managers either. It's a vicious circle - managers stick to what they know, and English managers will generally be more open to signing English players, but English managers don't get top jobs in this country, let alone anywhere else.