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.

'New' England look frustratingly familiar

Four months on from the debacle in South Africa, and disappointment once again reigns supreme in the minds of England fans everywhere. Convincing performances and results against Bulgaria and Switzerland had encouraged some to hint at a revival for the national team, but last night's frustrating draw at home to a gritty Montenegro side has placed such thoughts firmly into context. England were lethargic for large periods, and worryingly short of ideas as to how to break the resistance of stubborn but limited visitors. It was a performance which evoked memories of a summer best forgotten for the thousands of England fans who filled the seats at Wembley, and they duly made their dissatisfaction known at the final whistle. At best, last night's offering is indicative of the fact that Fabio Capello's men still have a long, hard way ahead of them on the road to redemption after the World Cup. At worst, we may now wonder whether they have even started on the journey at all.

First, lets start with the positives. Or rather, positive. There was genuine signs of progress on the wings, with Ashley Young and Adam Johnson catching the eye with their pace, trickery and willingness to commit defenders. The Manchester City wideman was a genuine live wire, providing England's likeliest source of a breakthrough in an otherwise tepid first half. He is the best homegrown player in the country on current form, and it is imperative that he plays every game on the right flank. Villa star Young still has to improve his final ball in an England shirt, but this will come naturally as he grows in confidence and experience. It can also be argued that the threat posed by both men was tempered by repeatedly having to cut inside, but as long as they are supported by overlapping full-backs and have people to link up with in the middle of the pitch, there are no problems.

England's tactical difficulties resulted from the fact that too much of the creative burden was placed on Young and Johnson. Steven Gerrard was the architect of his own poor performance, playing so deep in the midfield that he couldn't influence play in the final third of the field. Instead of moving forward to join up with Rooney and the wingers, the Liverpool captain and his midfield partner Gareth Barry acted as the footballing equivalent of quarterbacks, attempting 30 and 40 yard passes inside the opposition full-backs and into an isolated Peter Crouch.

Everyone knows that England's midfielders have a great passing range, but such a risky pass is unlikely to succeed more than a couple of times in a game. Moreover, by playing so many long passes, Gerrard and co. completely played into the hands of the big Montenegro defence, by eliminating their own technical advantage. It is no coincidence that England's best passages of play occurred in the second half, when Gerrard began charging into the opposition half as the hosts searched for a breakthrough.

Wayne Rooney, as so often recently, was an anonymous and frustrated figure up front. Almost inevitably, given his lack of first-team football with Manchester United of late, England's number 10 looked nowhere near sharp in and around the penalty area. Nor was Rooney's cause helped by Gerrard's deep-lying role in the first half, which forced him to repeatedly come deep in an attempt to influence the game, and led to him attempting a few 'Hollywood' passes himself.

There is no denying that the United frontman is far from his imperious best right now, but this would not be a national crisis were it not for the blunt reality that he is our only top level attacking player. It is impossible to expect Rooney to carry an otherwise unspectacular frontline in every England game, but this is precisely what England's striking situation dictates. When he is below par, our lack of alternatives is highlighted in stark terms.

Undoubtedly the most depressing aspect of last night's performance was the crippling lack of urgency and tempo which undermined whatever there was of England's good work, particularly in the first half. Given that every single member of the squad plays in the most high-tempo league in the world week-in, week-out, the source of the problem is difficult to understand. Top players are also naturally adept at finding space even when it is at a premium, and yet it was a lack of movement from England's Premier League stars which allowed Montenegro's defensive gameplan to work.

And work it certainly did. Aside from a couple of good chances for Rooney, and an early headed chance which Peter Crouch should have made more of, Montenegro were reasonably comfortable. No one can accuse their Croatian manager Zlatko Kranjcar of being over-ambitious with his tactical set-up, but his side showed the defensive discipline worthy of a point, and almost stole a victory with Milan Jovanovic's thunderous half-volley late on. That said, England should certainly have had a penalty for Jovanovic's blatant handball a few minutes earlier, but the strength of the protests from every corner of Wembley highlighted the desperation of the home side.

Fundamentally England were poor. But worse, they exhibited many of the same flaws which undermined any hopes of success in South Africa, in spite of claims by Capello and the FA that the results and performances against Bulgaria and Switzerland had illustrated that progress was being made. The result - a draw at home to Montenegro - is certainly not catastrophic for England's hopes of qualifying for Euro 2012, although it has made a group which previously seemed straightforward now appear potentially awkward. The performance, however, has given no credence to the belief that the national team can achieve anything significant once they get there. It seems that we are as far as ever from troubling the world's best.    

Can Joe Cole transform Liverpool?

Until today, it was fair to say that, free-spending Manchester City aside, this summer's transfer window had failed to capture the imagination of many Premier League fans. With most top clubs and players unwilling to consider transfer negotiations until after the World Cup, significant developments in the market had been at a premium. But now Liverpool have come up on the rails to beat Tottenham, Arsenal and possibly a few others to the signing of Joe Cole, prompting former Reds legends such as Ian Rush and Alan Kennedy to publicly congratulate Roy Hodgson on pulling off such a coup, and even leaving rival fans grudgingly impressed.

There's no doubt that, as a free agent, Cole was an inspired signing waiting to happen for any ambitious Premier League club, and Liverpool rightly deserve credit for securing his signature. The natural flair which he exhibited as a youngster at West Ham always marked him out as a special talent, and under Jose Mourinho's guidance at Chelsea this ability was complemented by an indefatigable work ethic and willingness to track back - rare qualities in a creative midfielder, and one which would make him a significant asset to any side.

But the impact of Cole's signing is not limited to the talent he possesses on the pitch. It has the potential to be a statement of intent - to show that Liverpool are not yet out of the business of signing top players, despite their lack of Champions League football and financial troubles. It can also serve to convince the top players already at the club that their future successes lie at Anfield. In one area, this potential has already been realised, with talismanic captain Steven Gerrard effectively committing his future to the club in the wake of the signing. Fernando Torres included, Gerrard is the most important player at Liverpool - not only for his invaluable contribution on the field, but also because he is an integral part of the club's identity. As a consequence, his departure would have dealt a catastrophic blow to Roy Hodgson's attempts to rebuild Liverpool as a major force.

However, whilst the impressive capture of Joe Cole must be given its due credit, it must also be placed into context. Liverpool finished 23 points off champions Chelsea last year, and comfortably missed out on the fourth Champions League spot. They were exposed as a woefully limited side, far too reliant on the drive of Gerrard and goals of Torres, and therefore unable to cope with the loss of form and fitness of these two key individuals. The sale of Xabi Alonso also proved a mistake, as it took his replacement Alberto Aquilani the whole first half of the season to overcome his own injury problems, and much longer to adapt to the rigorous style of the Premier League. This term, he will surely be better, but Liverpool's task to regain their position in the 'big four' has become much harder. Manchester City continue to operate in accordance with the mantra that 'money is no object' in their pursuit of their lofty aims, and Tottenham's budget and playing squad will be strengthened by the financial rewards of achieving Champions League football last time out. With Aston Villa and Everton also likely to be competitive once more, Roy Hodgson will know that overseeing an Anfield revival will be far from easy.

It will take more than Joe Cole to remedy the problems which Liverpool faced last season, and to adequately prepare them for the challenges posed by the current campaign. Whilst he will certainly lessen the creative burden previously thrust entirely upon Gerrard's shoulders, another quality striker is desperately needed, either to deputise for Fernando Torres in his absence, or to partner him on the field. The Spaniard is undoubtedly a world-class forward, but based upon the evidence of the last 18 months, it would be optimistic to the point of foolish to rely on him to have an injury free season. Moreover, it remains uncertain whether Torres will even be a Liverpool player for much longer, with several rumours linking him to both Chelsea and Barcelona. He may require more assurances than Gerrard that Liverpool will soon once again be challenging for major honours, and Hodgson will surely consider this one of his biggest priorities.

A new midfield enforcer may also be required, with Javier Mascherano's Anfield future growing more doubtful with every message which Roy Hodgson is forced to leave on his voicemail. Pepe Reina remains one of the best keepers in the country, an assertion borne out by the fact that Liverpool boasted the third best defensive record in the league last season, despite their poor overall performance. Nevertheless, a recognised left-back is urgently needed after the sale of the disappointing Emiliano Insua and the inconsistent Fabio Aurelio, and the addition of a pacey young centre-back to the squad would complement the more physical qualities of Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger.

There is, of course, well over a month to go in the summer transfer window, making it perfectly possible that Joe Cole could be the first of several big names to arrive at Anfield. Certain indications, however, suggest that this may not be the case. The huge debt that Reds owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett have saddled the club with has been well documented, and worryingly for Liverpool fans, these financial restraints appear to have manifested themselves in a 'less is more' approach to transfer dealings, with the emphasis thus far being placed on securing free agents and promising youngsters for minimal fees. Whilst it must be said that Liverpool have fared particularly well in their pursuit of the former, with talented internationals Maxi Rodriguez and Milan Jovanovic joining alongside Cole for nothing, the fact is that quality free agents are extremely few and far between, and therefore it seems inevitable that significant outlay will be required if Hodgson wishes to make further top additions to his squad.

The capture of Joe Cole is undoubtedly a significant statement of intent from the Liverpool hierarchy that they intend to regain what they consider to be their rightful place in the 'big four' of English football. Only time will tell whether they have the pockets to match their ambition.