Is the 'English premium' worth paying?

Big money moves for Henderson and Jones have reignited the 'English premium' debate

After a quiet start, the Premier League summer transfer window has suddenly exploded into life, with Liverpool swooping for Sunderland midfield starlet Jordan Henderson and Manchester United splashing out on Blackburn Rovers defensive wonderkid Phil Jones.

The deals, which could both rise to £20million depending on the youngsters’ eventual level of achievement, signify the ongoing commitment of both clubs towards securing the best young English talent regardless of the cost,  following on from the signings of Chris Smalling and Andy Carroll earlier in the season.

This shared commitment is undoubtedly admirable, but is it wise? After all, the two Premier League giants have now committed to shelling out a combined estimate of £82million on four players who boast just three England caps between them.

It goes without saying that the figures quoted in connection with the names above are, by any normal market standards, ridiculous. They are inflated, disproportionate to the players’ current abilities and unduly distorted by the tantalizing possibility of what they may go on to become.

They are, in short, examples of what’s become known in domestic football circles in recent times as the ‘English premium’ – the somewhat bizarre and often spectacular phenomenon which dictates that top young English footballers command much higher fees on the transfer market than foreign talent of equivalent, or sometimes even superior, skill and experience.

Sounds strange? That’s because it is. But it’s also true.

Jordan Henderson, a promising but relatively unproven young midfielder, has cost Liverpool an initial fee of £16million – the same price that Tottenham Hotspur paid to bring Luka Modric, at the time rated as one of the most gifted young playmakers in Europe, to White Hart Lane three years ago.

Phil Jones has already cost Manchester United more than double what Nemanja Vidic did in 2006, although admittedly the Serbian was an absolute snip at £7million.

And at £35million, Liverpool have paid around £10million more for a 21-year-old Andy Carroll than they did for a 23-year-old Fernando Torres – a player who, even then, boasted a far more extensive and impressive resume – back in 2007.

"Andy who?!? How much?!?"

Of course, player acquisition in football has never been, and never will be, an exact science. 

But even if we assume the likes of Modric, Vidic and Torres were unusually good value for money, the fact remains that, purely in terms of initial transfer outlay, a policy of pursuing foreign talent appears to represent both a far smaller risk of failure and far greater chance of reward.

So why do top Premier League clubs still consider the ‘English premium’ to be worth paying?

There are several reasons, the first of which constitutes the stick which is repeatedly used to beat football in this country. It is this: young English players with elite potential are a rare commodity.

Moreover, when you subtract the likes of John Terry, Jack Wilshere, Paul Scholes and Steven Gerrard, who were fortunate to come through the youth ranks already at one of the Premier League giants, the number of feasible and worthwhile young English transfer targets shrinks even further.

All this means when an English ‘wonderkid’ surfaces at a middling top flight club, the Premier League giants are more inclined to consider an inflated transfer fee a risk worth taking.

Wayne Rooney has amply repaid the £30m Manchester United paid for him in 2004

Manchester United raised a few eyebrows when they made 18-year-old Wayne Rooney the most expensive teenager in football history by paying Everton up to £30million for him in 2004, but they gambled they were signing the best English talent of his generation. So it has proved.

Theo Walcott, who cost Arsenal £9million to prise from Southampton at just 16, has not proved such an emphatic success, but time remains on the side of him and his club.

That’s all very well, you might say, but one question inevitably now comes to mind: Why are English clubs so bothered about signing young English players in particular?

The cynic might argue it’s because of the Uefa Home-Grown Rules implemented at the start of this season by the Premier League, which require at least eight members of each club’s squad to have been trained for at least three years below the age of 21 in the English or Welsh professional system.

However, while this may factor in the thinking of Premier League clubs now, the ‘English premium’ has been around considerably longer than any home-grown restrictions.

Ultimately, the main reason why top Premier League clubs are consistently willing to pay marquee prices for top young English players is because they consider them a more fundamentally worthwhile investment than their foreign counterparts. 

And when you look at the evidence they can summon to back up their case, it becomes hard to argue.

This may seem counter-intuitive given the England national team’s dismal record at major international tournaments over the past decade, but whether youth team products or big money arrivals, the country’s finest footballers have been hugely successful assets for their clubs.

John Terry, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney have all been integral as Manchester United and Chelsea have shared the last seven Premier League titles between them, while Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher both played key roles in Liverpool’s sensational Champions League triumph in Istanbul in 2005.

Steven Gerrard inspired Liverpool to an astonishing comeback in 2005

The best young English footballers invariably mature not just to make up the numbers at top Premier League clubs, but to help form the spine of successful teams.

Their native knowledge of the English footballing culture and style of the Premier League, combined with their superb ability, means they can provide the sort of leadership which, even in the most illustrious of dressing rooms, may otherwise have been lacking.

Another reason why the Liverpools and Manchester Uniteds of this world consider the ‘English premium’ to be worth paying is the greater longevity of service top English players tend to provide.

There are many disadvantages to the Premier League being the all-consuming monster that it is, but one of the biggest plus points of having such a strong domestic club game is that, with the odd exception (I’m looking at you, Mr Beckham), English youngsters tend to grow up wanting to play for Liverpool, Arsenal or Manchester United, rather than Real Madrid, Barcelona or AC Milan.

What’s more, having this added familiarity with the environment they are in means top English players are far less likely to become unsettled and want to leave for non-footballing reasons. Even domestic transfers of high-profile English players between the country’s top clubs have been extremely rare in the Premier League era.

When top young English players sign for Liverpool and Manchester United and succeed, they invariably stay. This inevitably has a massive bearing on the sort of prices the clubs are willing to pay for them in the first place.

Kenny Dalglish will have far fewer objections to spending over £50million on Andy Carroll and Jordan Henderson knowing that the fee is being paid with a view to the pair seeing out their careers at Anfield, rather than spending a couple of seasons on Merseyside before wanting a new challenge. The same applies to Sir Alex Ferguson and Phil Jones.

That said, there is no denying the risk inherent in paying the ‘English premium’.

Having committed a huge amount of money towards the procurement of some of the country’s finest young talents, both Manchester United and Liverpool can now ill afford to fail to bring the best out of them.

But it is equally clear that United and Liverpool have made their investments with their eyes wide open.

They will have thoroughly run the rule over their new arrivals many times over the past year or so, analyzing all their strengths and weaknesses before agreeing to a deal. They will be as confident as can be of producing the next generation of English superstars.

Paying the ‘English premium’ will never be a safe bet. But one thing is for certain: If you win, the rewards are enormous.

Welsh collapse tempers England praise

Bent's goal wrapped up the points for England after 14 minutes

It was confident. It was clinical. It was frustratingly unfulfilling.

There was much to commend about England's win at a sell-out Millennium Stadium on Saturday. The likes of Ashley Young, Darren Bent and Scott Parker all showed signs that they are finally feeling at home wearing the three lions, while Jack Wilshere offered further proof that he is not merely the future of the national team, but rather a key part of its present.

John Terry produced the kind of dominant and uncompromising display which lended weight to the arguments of both those who agree with Capello's decison to reinstate him as captain and those (like myself) who are of the view that he should never have been parted from the armband in the first place.

Capello's experimental 4-3-3 formation was also a pretty unqualified success, thanks in large part to prudent choice of personnel - the discipline of Parker allowed the more creative instincts of Wilshere to roam unchecked, while the attacking disposition of full-backs Cole and Johnson ensured England never lacked for width.

Above all, it was the steely resolve with which England took to their task in the opening moments which most impressed. In an intensely hostile atmosphere rife for intimidation, the visitors remained unbowed, and ruthlessly dispatched their opponents inside the first 15 minutes.

From the moment Darren Bent followed Frank Lampard's confidently taken penalty by sweeping home Ashley Young's cross, England never looked anything other than home and dry. The intensity among the players dropped off as they sensed victory; an instinct for self-preservation emerging as some of the Premier League's big names took the opportunity to conserve energy for crucial club battles ahead.

The only bum note struck from then on was the stupid booking picked up by Wayne Rooney for a needless foul on Joe Ledley, which rules him out of Switzerland's visit to Wembley in June.

But even that may eventually play out to England's advantage, for Capello will fancy his side's chances of seeing off the uninspired Swiss even without his star man, and suspension may grant Rooney the summer break he seemingly needs to emerge fit and firing from the most frustrating twelve months of his career to date.

After the bright opening in which the game was won, it was, in essence, a walk in the park for England. And that is the problem.

For the bottom line, harsh though it is, is this: England won convincingly and impressively, but against an opposition who were so passive, so toothless, so devoid of quality of any kind that it rendered the achievement almost insignificant. But it could have been so different. 

Gary Speed's young Wales team had a rare opportunity on Saturday. It was not simply a matter of pouring misery on 'the old enemy' in front of legions of their countrymen and heaping the pressure on Fabio Capello at the end of a week in which his stock had fallen even further with his ham-fisted treatment of the captaincy saga.

It was a matter of reassuring the Welsh fans after a disastrous start to Euro 2012 qualification that there is, after all, reason to be optimistic for the future of their national team.

It was a test which should have been a cause for Welsh inspiration; instead, it bred self-destruction - first through James Collins' clumsy hack on Ashley Young after the big centre-half had been caught badly out of position, and then through defensive organisation which wouldn't have looked out of place on the school playground as Darren Bent gleefully tapped home his third - and simplest - international goal.

Aaron Ramsey looked overburdened by the responsibility of captaincy in what remains early days after his horrific leg break last year. A bad combination of ring-rusty and overly-ambitious in possession, he toiled gamely throughout, but to no avail. There is little doubt the 20-year-old will grow into his new role, but a home nations grudge match against England was always likely to prove a baptism of fire.

And while much was made pre-match about the absence of Gareth Bale through injury, it is unlikely that Spurs' flying winger would have been able to significantly affect its outcome, no matter how devastating he has looked this season. That he would have significantly enhanced the threat of the Welsh attack is undoubted, but must also be tempered with the knowledge that the defence would have been no less porous in the face of English pressure.

If Gary Speed was under any illusions as to the size of the task facing him with the Welsh national team, he is perfectly aware now.

Out-thought, out-fought and out-played in each of their first four group matches and with their dreams of qualification already dead, the 41-year-old must now rebuild this young team's fragile confidence and try to create a new mood of optimism in the group before the race for Brazil 2014 begins. On recent evidence, it will be a long, hard road.

There is of course, the argument that England forced their opponents to play badly through superior organisation, pressure, and work rate. It is has an element of truth to it.

But Wales are a team ranked 116th in the world by FIFA. They had lost their opening three qualification games prior to Saturday's clash, and their starting XI was one which, aside from a few notable exceptions, consisted of players plying their trade in the football league. Such a team would require no great encouragement to play badly from the group of established Premier League names Fabio Capello was able to field. And, as it turned out, they didn't.

Victory at the Millennium Stadium, and the manner in which it was achieved, does not even consitute the best performance of England's qualification run thus far. Both the demolition of Bulgaria at Wembley last September and the triumph over Switzerland in Basel four days later were more comprehensive scorelines over teams vastly superior to Wales.

Those results failed to capture the public imagination for two reasons: firstly, because the games followed hot on the heels of the disappointment of South Africa and were achieved by largely the same team which had been responsible for it; and secondly, because any progress thought to have been made in those matches was quickly exposed as another false dawn by frustrating stalemate at home to Montenegro a month later, followed by a friendly defeat to France which was far more comprehensive than the 1-2 scoreline suggested.

Of course, there is plenty to suggest genuine progress is being made this time. Half the players in the squad Capello picked to face Wales were not involved at the World Cup.

Moreover, these new faces have not just been included to make up the numbers - Hart, Dawson, Wilshere, Young and Bent are making compelling arguments to become permanent components of the spine of the team, and it is to be hoped that the likes of Parker, Carroll and Adam Johnson can go on to do the same in the coming weeks and months.

But it is frustrating that Fabio Capello's brave new faces were not significantly tested on Saturday, and that the match could not tell us anything substantial about whether they or the tactics employed could work against more formidable opposition.

Perhaps Ghana at Wembley on Tuesday, friendly though it is, will provide a better indicator. What is certain, however, is that sterner examinations must be passed by Capello and his men if England fans are truly to be convinced that better times lie ahead.