Photo: Jose Castellanos / Prost Amerika

Richard Fleming is a veteran corresponding of the BBC having covered World Cups and European Championships. He now works for the Colorado Rapids in MLS as their play by play announcer, and is a regular columnist on Prost.

Fleming: EPL is to blame for English mediocrity

by Richard Fleming

Well, England certainly made hard work of their opening game of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, needing a stoppage-time header from Harry Kane to edge Tunisia 2-1.

Some of the sorry finishing was woeful, and had me trotting out a well-worn phrase my dad would often yell when watching England: “That fella couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a shovel.”

To be fair, the hype surrounding the England team is not what it was, though it probably took more than 40 years from the solitary World Cup win – in 1966 – for those expectations to be a closer reflection of the reality. But then I blame the Premier League.

Yes, the cash cow competition, revered around the world, is also the reason that the England team is now firmly among the second tier of soccer nations.

Kane is about the closest that England has to a world-class player. The rest are handy, but they’re not world-beaters. They have a few tricks, can pass well, and have pace, but there is a distinct lack of technical ability.
And, yes, it is the fault of the English Premier League.

I do smile when I read snarky remarks from this side of the pond about the England team, in the same breath as the Premier League, as though the two are linked. They are not.

In the same way that MLS and the US national team have a disconnect, so too do the Three Lions and its domestic league. The issue with England is that the Premier League is a domestic league in name only. Owners, managers, and a majority of the players are classed as foreigners. Now, that’s great for the product, but terrible for the national team.

The English don’t export well. Few, finding meaningful minutes hard to come by at the highest level in England, step away from their home comforts. Instead, they have been known to sit on the bench, or drift away from the leading club sides.

Harry Kane is England’s only true world class player says Fleming
Photo: Tottenham Hotspur FC

Those running the Premier League want the best product, and that does not necessarily bode well for the development of the best English talent. Indeed, most academy teams now contain foreign players, so the homegrown hopefuls have hurdles at an even younger age. The depth, also, in key areas is not what it was.

It is a similar tale in the United States. The league and national federation have different agendas. MLS wants the best American players plying their trade at home, in order to lift the profile of the product. Jurgen Klinsmann was the first – and he’ll not be the last – who advised the best Americans to test themselves against the best, in the best leagues in the world, be it Germany, Spain, England, or France.

So, the EPL is awash with foreign players, and that impacts the national team. The USA will likely see more of their top talent chancing their arm in foreign lands, and that will impact the domestic league. Can there be room for both? After all, a successful national side lifts the profile of the game in any country, while a strong domestic league should offer up more options for the national team boss.

In the meantime, I’ll hope that this latest crop of England players can surprise us all and go deep in a major tournament (and NOT go out on penalties).

Oh, and the other Fleming favorites in times of trouble in front of goal were:

– “He couldn’t hit a barn door from a yard.”

And:

– (As the effort sails high, wide, or high and wide) “I’ll get it!”

I suspect both will get an airing before the group stage is over.