You don’t need me to remind you what a fantastic year 2012 was for British sport and it looks like 2013 is following in its footsteps. With the Olympics and Paralympics being held in London last year, so much expectation was resting on the shoulders of the British athletes and they did not fail to deliver. Well, most of them at least…

As well as all the medals Britain picked up at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Britain also celebrated its first Tour De France winner in Bradley Wiggins, Rory McIlroy won his second golf major at the USPGA championships and Andy Murray won his first tennis major at the US Open.

It has been 12 months since the games that inspired a generation and we have since had more firsts to celebrate. Andy Murray gave the British public what they had wanted for so long and became the first British player to win the men’s singles at Wimbledon for 77 years and Justin Rose won his first golf major at the US Open in June to become the first Englishman in 43 years to win the competition.

Rugby Union saw the British and Irish Lions beat Australia and claim their first series win since South Africa in 1997 in another pulsating encounter.

And of course on Sunday two more English winners took their place in history. Chris Froome won his first Tour De France to make it two British winners of the Yellow Jersey in a row and England smashed the Aussie’s to win the second test and take a commanding lead in the Ashes.

With this being a football blog, and this post being about British success over the last two years, it is sad that I have not yet mentioned football in any form. So lets look at football now. England’s Euro 2012 hopes ended in the quarter-finals on penalties to Italy despite winning their group, and the other home nations failed to even qualify. This year the Euro Under 21’s saw England lose every game in their group, the Under 20’s World Cup ended without an England win and England’s Woman also failed to win a single game. Once again none of the other home nations qualified for any of these tournaments.

Club football isn’t much better and the Premier League is hardly awash with British talent at the moment. The top scorer over the last couple of years has been Dutchman Robin Van Persie who was also the PFA Player of the Year in 2012. Kyle Walker did claim the PFA Young Player of the Year in 2012 but since then has been rather quiet and not pushed on as hoped. In 2013 Welshman Gareth Bale was voted PFA Player and Young Player of the Year but at 23 is already being linked with a move away to Real Madrid and it seems English football is becoming less and less attractive for the big players.

The PFA Team of the Year for 2012/13 included four British or Irish players, Rio Ferdinand, Leighton Baines, Michael Carrick and Gareth Bale, whereas in the Premier League’s first season in 1992/93, 10 of the 11 were British or Irish!

I admit I have only looked at a short space of time, but going back a few years just makes things worse. Nonetheless, lets take a look at the recent history of some of the biggest sports in Britain.

Rugby Union: World Cup Champions in 2003, British and Irish Lions series Champions 2013.

Formula 1: Jenson Button: World Champion in 2009, Lewis Hamilton: World Champion in 2008.

Cricket: Ashes Winners in 2005, 2009, 2010-11, Twenty20 World Cup Champions 2010.

Tennis: Andy Murray: Wimbledon Champion 2013, US Open Champion 2012 and Olympic Champion 2012

Golf: Justin Rose: US Open Champion 2013, Rory McIlroy: USPGA Champion 2012 and US Open Champion 2011, Darren Clarke: The Open Champion 2011, Graeme McDowell: US Open Champion 2010, Padraig Harrington: USPGA Champion 2009 and The Open Champion 2008 and 2009.

Football: …

1966 is the only major honour the England senior team has to show across its 150 year history. Looking at the youngsters, the Under 21’s actually won Euro 1982 and 1984 and also made the final in 2009. However, the Under 20’s and the Under 19’s have never won a major competition, and nor have the Woman’s Senior team, but did get to the final of Euro 2009.

So why is British football failing to compete at the top level, yet in virtually every other sport we have numerous champions, especially in the last 10 years. Considering the amount of time and money that goes into football, this is surely unacceptable. If you ask every Primary School child in Britain what they want to be when the grow up, I guarantee the most popular answer will be a professional footballer. Not a professional cyclist or tennis player, but the next Wayne Rooney or Lionel Messi.

It is widely considered that the more diverse nature of English football is to blame, but the reason for Britain’s lack of success can’t just be down to the Premier League inviting more foreign players and managers in. I think this is a factor, but we were failing to live up to potential well before the Premier League was around. I do think the initial years were very beneficial and 1996 was probably our best chance of winning a tournament in recent times, but since then we haven’t made it past a quarter-final in a World Cup or Euro tournament.

As the Premier grew into the greatest league in the world, more and more foreign stars were appearing and meant young British talent was pushed backwards and out of the limelight. This can be backed up by comparing the past winners of the PFA Player of Year and the PFA Young Player of the Year awards.

The players are not what is important here, it is their nationalities. In 21 Premier League seasons, 17 of those produced a British or Irish PFA Young Player of the Year award winner. However, the PFA Player of the Year has only had 12 British or Irish winners. Of the British or Irish players that won the young player award, only four went on to win the main award, with Gareth Bale actually winning the main award two years before winning the young player award.

If we were to compare the winners of the English award with those of the Spanish, Italian, German, French or any other of the big European league’s, what would the splits be like on those lists?

La Liga have only recently started naming an official Player of the Year, won by Lionel Messi every time, but Serie A have named one since 1996/97 and in 17 seasons have had 7 Italian winners. This is a lower percentage of locals than the Premier League. Interesting.

Looking further into this I found that Player of the Year awards are not all the same as I had wrongly expected they would be. Germany, for example, has a German player of the Year which can be won by any player playing in Germany or a German playing outside of Germany. Since its inception in 1960 only three non-Germans have won this award.

I digress, my point is that it appears all the big leagues have a lot of talent from other countries, and even Spain who have most of the their national team playing for either Barcelona or Real Madrid have Messi and Ronaldo claiming most of the awards over the past few seasons. I think the main difference is that whilst England have probably as many ‘star players’ in the Premier League as Spain have in La Liga or Germany in the Bundesliga, there are very little English in other countries. When was the last time an English player won an award in Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Holland or any other league other than the Premier League? Maybe England needs a selection for players that are used to playing in Spain or Italy so when England face them in a major tournament have some experience of the style of play needed to beat them.

If you look even deeper and not just at the big players but the rest of the league, the evidence is clear. For the 2012/13 season, only 36% of the Premier League were eligible to play for the England national team. That is slightly over a third meaning there are almost twice as many players brought in from other countries. Spain on the other hand, winners of the last two Euro’s and the World Cup have 61% of La Liga to chose from. Their Under 21’s also won Euro 2013 this summer, more evidence that their home grown players are getting the opportunity to perform on the big stage and develop into future world beaters. France, Germany and Italy all have higher percentages than England and all three have been more successful in World Cup’s and Euro’s in recent times.

A couple of years ago I read a book called ‘Why England Lose’ which delved into the issue of England’s disappointing record by looking at some statistics. Taking into account (relative to rival countries) the size of the country, the population and the amount of money spent on football the overall conclusion was that England are not underachieving at all! In fact they are overachieving! Make of that what you will, but it is an interesting point. Why are we so expectant of England winning a World Cup? We have only failed to qualify for one tournament since 1994 and usually give the fans something to get excited about. How many countries are there that can only dream of that sort of consistency?

The new facilities at St George’s Park have been set up to give England the best opportunities for all the teams, from the men to the women and from the seniors to the youngsters. However, with so many foreign players and managers in the league the young British talent are not getting the chances they need to grow and progress. People commented on how good it was to see a British manager take one of the biggest jobs in the world at Manchester United, but Manchester City and Chelsea both appointed foreign managers who are much more likely to bring in foreign players and this is the problem.

The Premier League needs more sides like Aston Villa and more managers like Paul Lambert. Having lost several big players for various reasons, the situation was largely forced upon the Scottish manager, but nonetheless he stuck by his young players and now the rewards are starting to pay off. Names like Matthew Lowton, Ciaran Clark and Nathan Baker were unknown a year ago, but after playing the majority of the season are now well integrated within the club. As a Manchester United fan I was delighted to see Fergie signing young English talent over his final few years as manager, with the likes of Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Wilfried Zaha accompanying United Academy graduates Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley who all look to be future England regulars.

I would love to see England win the World Cup next summer, but at the same time I am realistic and know Spain and Brazil are both a class above at the moment, and there are several other sides who would fancy themselves to beat England over 90 minutes. Only the Republic of Ireland have a realistic chance of qualifying alongside an England side that have not yet qualified themselves, but they will expect to finish the job and win the group. It is possible I will never see England win a major tournament, but I would rather not think like that. Forever the optimist yet always left wanting more.