The question at the moment is why are English players unjustifiabily expensive?
You might think this is a case of supply and demand. That the global clamour for English talent has created a world shortage.
is the premier league feeling the effects of the emerging Chinese and Indian leagues.
A look at the situation suggests not! English players in serie A - 2, in liga - 0, bundesliga - 0, French league - 0. We can conclude that the demand for English players outside of our island is pretty much non existent.
And on these shores? The fact that someone at least once a week - usually Greg Dyke blames the problem of the national team on the number of foreigners in the premier league suggests that nobody here much wants English players either.
Unless of course, the absence from the rosters is due to a genuine shortage of English players. That the price of Mr Clyne and Lallana, like that of gold, is based not on any intrinsic usefulness but merely on there rarity! Yet wander round the local parks on a Sunday morning and you will see dozens of English lads all of whom are more than capable of running about for 90 minutes, bellowing “100 percent all the way boys”, “communication” and “don’t foul” while occasionally pointing to the spot where they think the pass they miscontrolled ought really to have been played.
Are the English players then so highly valued because they are more talented than their foreign counterparts? Is that why they cost more? I hardly need to go into that here. What can it be? In the end I have to conclude that premier league clubs are motivated by altruism. They are spending lavishly simply to save the the vulnerable English footballer from top flight extinction in much the same way the world wildlife fund battles to save the hawksbill turtle and black rhino. And for this they should be
applauded. Biodiversity is important for the survival of the planet, and Troy Deeney is as much a part of that as the Yangtze finless porpoise.