It's time we stood up to protect the soul of the British game

I have some outstanding memories from my career playing in European competitions. Obviously there is the dramatic win in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich in 1999 and some epic contests with Juventus in the Nineties.

But some of the most impressionable moments for me were as a youngster. I remember coming on at Galatasaray for 13 minutes as an 18-year-old, walking into what I would still regard as the most hostile environment I have ever played in. And then experiencing what I would call the dark arts of European football when a tunnel brawl was initiated by the police afterwards.

I remember making my debut as a 17-year-old against Torpedo Moscow at home, then travelling away to Moscow as a substitute, watching Manchester United lose in a penalty shoot-out. I also recall being on the bench in the Nou Camp as Barcelona’s Hristo Stoichkov and Romario ripped through United, winning 4-0. Nicky Butt played that night and Paul Scholes came on.

Tough lesson: Gary Neville watched from the sidelines as Romario and Barcelona tore Manchester United apart in 1994, but was able to learn from he experience, winning the Champions League five years later alongside brother Phil (below left) and other graduates of United's academy



Looking back, I realise now how lucky I was. Firstly, I was at a club who have always valued the importance of bringing players through the youth system. Also, I was the beneficiary of some rules that at the time seemed restrictive.

Then, you were only allowed to play four foreigners in European matches and, for football purposes, Scots, Irish and Welsh players counted as foreign. So in Barcelona, Peter Schmeichel sat in the stands, and maybe I would never have had those important formative experiences if it hadn’t been for those rules.

European law means those limits would be impossible now. And free movement in the European Union means that the issue faced by British footballers are replicated across different industries. But I look at how our game is developing, with managers having shorter and shorter timespans to prove themselves and with more and more owners, coaches, scouts coming in from abroad, and I do think it is time that we stood up to protect the soul of the English game.

I’ve always been a defender of our globalised Premier League. Foreign owners have invested huge sums to bring top stars from abroad and that has driven standards higher. Foreign coaches have brought new ideas and helped us to develop. But there has to be some balance in the equation.

Frank Arnesen, who was the sporting director at Chelsea and responsible for bringing through young players between 2005-2010, was interviewed last week and said: ‘At Chelsea we had fantastic talent, we built up marvellous players, but they needed to be given a chance, and they never were. Managers in England are going out and buying players and it is difficult for them because, if they lose two or three games, they’re gone.’

No chance: Frank Arnesen argued that British talent was never given the opportunity to develop on these shores due to the influx of foreign players

And though he was someone who seemed to have a preference for non-British players at youth level, there is also an essential truth in what he says. Josh McEachran is a young Englishman who came through Arnesen’s system and is now on loan at Middlesbrough. As he said this week: ‘I was playing at 17 and was progressing, but then I stalled a little bit. A lot of it was down to opportunity really.

‘There were a lot of things happening at Chelsea with managers, and when you’re a young player you need to get the trust of a manager for him to play you.’



Stalled: Josh McEachran (right) made his Champions League debut against Marseille as a 17-year-old, but has seen his progress stunted

I’ve always argued that young English players should have to compete with the best talents from Europe and that the cream will rise to the top. I still think that’s true. Players like Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and Paul Scholes would have stood out in any environment. But what about players like me? Players like my brother, Phil, or Nicky Butt.

No one is telling me that Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea have not had players in that bracket of talent in the past few years. I’m not even talking about the obvious talents but players with a good level of ability and a great attitude who need nurturing and a pathway to the first team so they can grow into good players who can make big contributions to the national team.

Take the current Barcelona team. Leo Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta would have come through any system. But what about Pedro and Sergio Busquets? Or Gerard Pique, who was bought from Manchester United after having started at Barcelona?



Then and now: Gerard Pique (left) began at Barcelona, joined Manchester United and rejoined the Catalan giants (below left)

Native talent Percentage of native players at some of Europe’s top clubs this season

Barcelona 68.2 per cent

22 players used, 15 Spanish

Juventus 63.0 per cent

27 players used, 17 Italian

Manchester United 52.0 per cent

25 players used, 13 British

Bayern Munich 45.4 per cent

22 players used, 10 German

Those players are only considered world class now because Pep Guardiola believed in them, took them from Barca’s feeder team and gave them games. A few years ago I would often hear how Jonny Evans wasn’t good enough to be a Manchester United player, that Tom Cleverley and Danny Welbeck weren’t going to make it. But think back to how they played against Real Madrid. That doesn’t come about overnight but is the result of a manager and club prepared to invest time in them.

Of course, teams like United will always also spend millions of pounds on the best foreign players. My point is that you need both. A club without a home-grown core will ultimately lack heart. But how many clubs are willing to take that long-term view on young British players?

There’s no way a manager at Chelsea can because in reality he can only focus on the next six months as he knows the sack may be coming. We will see what happens at Manchester City this summer, where Txiki Begiristain is intending to build from the academy, as he did at Barcelona.

Blueprint: Txiki Begiristain (right) has been charged with rejuvenating Manchester City's academy after joining the club from Barcelona alongside chief executive Ferran Soriano

Arsene Wenger may have taken risks on young players in the past but most of them have been brought in from abroad. You might be seeing a more home-grown generation coming through now in Jack Wilshere, Carl Jenkinson, Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott and Kieran Gibbs but that is a new development, and only Gibbs and Wilshere have been at the club since being schoolboys.

Maybe Wenger has been hit hard by the departures of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri. He said recently that it would be easier to persuade a player like Wilshere, who has been at the club almost all of his life, to stay when at the age of 23 or 24 they are considering other options.

The best clubs always have a core of players at the club that set the tone for the dressing room and establish standards for the long term. Usually they are home-grown or at least from the same country as the club they play for. At Chelsea, they haven’t brought through their youngsters but John Terry, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole have been vital to their stability.

Think of AC Milan in the Nineties. They had superstar Dutch imports in Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten. But the heart of the club was Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Costacurta, Franco Baresi and Demetrio Albertini. There are exceptions, such as the Arsenal Invincibles of 2003-04, but I would argue that is not the rule.



Home made: While the all-conquering AC Milan had the likes of Ruud Gullit (second left), Frank Rijkaard (Second right) and Marco van Basten (right), their success was underpinned by Italian talent such as Demetrio Albertini (left)

Look at the leaders in the major leagues around Europe. Barcelona have used 22 players and 15 or 68 per cent are Spanish, Juventus have used 27 players and 63 per cent are Italian, United have used 25 players and 52 per cent are British, while Bayern Munich have used 25 players and 45.4 per cent are German.

Surely the penny must be dropping that the path to long-term success requires a core of players developed within the club that provides stability? Maybe the introduction of UEFA and the Premier League’s Financial Fair Play rules will demonstrate to clubs that you cannot always be spending £35million on a player to fill a gap.

The Premier League’s insistence on leaving eight slots free in 25-man squads for home-grown players is a step in the right direction because British football needs to do all it can with the law to encourage its own.

The boy done good: Danny Welbeck, in action against Reading, was given the chance to climb the ranks at Old Trafford

And maybe clubs will recognise that building a British core to their team is in their interest because they will see how fragile a club it can be with players who don’t have long-term ties. Maybe we are witnessing a return to clubs based on more organic values.