England team suffering from foreign influx, says QPR star
Karl Henry - Credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images
QPR midfielder Karl Henry believes that the increasing number of foreign players in the Premier League is having a detrimental effect on the national side.
However, Henry believes that as the England side suffers, the Championship goes from strength to strength, with more and more high-quality players choosing the second tier over the Premier League.
Analysts Deloitte last week reported that, out of the record-breaking total of £630 million spent in this summer’s transfer window, £570m – or 90 per cent – was spent on overseas players.
That came as Football Association chairman Greg Dyke warned that the Premier League and FA must work to reverse the current trend, reducing the number of foreign players, managers and owners.
And Henry, who came through the youth academy at Stoke City and spent seven years at Wolverhampton Wanderers, believes that the national side faces a difficult road ahead.
“Looking at it from an England point of view it’s probably a bad thing,” he said. “You want your best English players playing in the top league in their country and playing regular games.
“It is tough, it has been well-documented that English players are not doing what German players, for example, are doing. But for the neutral watching games in England it is fantastic.”
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He added: “The fact that there are so many foreigners in the Premier League – great foreigners – they are maybe forcing players down into the Championship, so it is getting stronger.”
