England's Squad Selections

So then, Hodgson has picked his 25 man squad for the friendly against Scotland on Wednesday. But this has come to my attention now, how come England don't win Euro's/World Cup's? People say our expectations are too high, other say our squad isn't good enough etc. Well, I think in my own opinion, the reasoning behind this is that our Squad isn't good enough.

Do you think these players for Norwich (John Ruddy), Southampton (Rickie Lambert) and West Brom (Ben Foster) are good enough? All credit them, they've been on top form for the majority of this season, but surely, if they were that good of players, they'd be getting big moves to big clubs? That's what England need. They need their players to come from big clubs.

Look at Spain for example, or even Germany. They are both considered the best 2 teams in the World, this is because they're squad is full of players that do not play outside the Champions League. Understandably, teams do drop out of it i.e. Valencia (this season) but Soldado was regarded as one of their best players. But, the majority of there team is made up of Barcelona and Real Madrid Spaniards and maybe a couple from other clubs, but, the fact is, if anyone from Barcelona/Madrid's Spaniards are out, they still have Champions League quality players to step in and do a job. That is why they win so many Trophies, because they still have quality to step in.

If Joe Hart got an injury for this game, are John Ruddy/Ben Foster considered Champions League quality? No. If Casillas got injured, Valdes would step in. If Rooney got injured, would Lambert be able to step in and give off a quality impact like he does for England? All be it, these back-up players for Spain might not give the same impact as Barca/Madrid players, but they still give a quality impact to help them through because they are Champions League ability players.

This is because the Youth Development of Barcelona and Madrid's Spaniards are he best their is right now. No one if close to being at the quality of these clubs' Youth Development because they have better Youth Facilities. Maybe if teams in our country stopped plummeting all their money into transfers and maybe put a large chunk into the Youth Development System, we actually start to compete some more. But the fact of the matter is, when will this happen, or a better question, will it happen? For me, it's a must.

Some countries (I know Spain and Germany etc don't but) across Europe have Rules that you can only have so many European players/Non-EU players in your squad. It's something like 4 Non-EU players for the countries that have this Rule and 7 European Players maximum during this time. Maybe if these Rules came into place, we'd see not only more players come from the Youth, but more success for England. As a England citizen, I'd love to see more success for my country rather all of these big name players come in all the time.

It is a clear system because Barcelona do it out of choice, there's no Rules like that in Spain. But it's a system that clearly works because Barcelona is the best they'll ever be for Youth Development the way it is going, but, maybe if our Top English Teams were encouraged to do this more (i.e. The Rules for some countries) then we may see more success, not only as clubs, but as a Country as well.