Stuart Pearce and England`s priorities

[Questions]

Stuart Pearce has asked for a decision from English football on what is more important ?
Club football or international success.

Who`s going to tell him ? The Premier league ? The FA ?

 

[BensGrandad]

Why ask such a stupid question when the answer is so obvious from the fans point of view club success is of the paramount importance and England doing well is an ancillary. Simalrly from the clubc point of view.

 

[Questions]

Why ask such a stupid question when the answer is so obvious from the fans point of view club success is of the paramount importance and England doing well is an ancillary. Simalrly from the clubc point of view.

My thoughts exactly. Its irreversable nowadays with the Premier league in essence owning the product. I think fans would accept a scaling down though if it helped the national side but the bosses of the Premier will never help in that cause though if it affects their pockets.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Stuart Pearce has asked for a decision from English football on what is more important ?
Club football or international success.

Who`s going to tell him ? The Premier league ? The FA ?

Depends who you ask. In fact Scudamore has already answered this question from his perspective when he said the England national team is not his priority. His Premiership shareholders are.

 

[keaton]

It's a pertinent question in that one of the major factors in the setting up of the Premier League (and the one that got the FA to agree to it) was that it would help the national team

 

[Easy 10]

"The FA's prime objective is establishing the England team at the apex of the pyramid of playing excellence. The FA Premier League will be governed by a committee of the FA and will consist of 18 clubs, to forestall a break-away league which would be driven by commercial considerations rather than a desire to elevate the England team."

The FA Blueprint for the Future of Football, June 1991.


I'd say, overall, that was a fairly epic fail on their part.

 

[Brovion]

My thoughts exactly. Its irreversable nowadays with the Premier league in essence owning the product. I think fans would accept a scaling down though if it helped the national side but the bosses of the Premier will never help in that cause though if it affects their pockets.

It's not just the 'bosses at the premier league' or even premier league fans who don't care about England. Before the World Cup there were quite a few threads on here along the lines of "Brighton to get promoted or England to win the World Cup?". I think at best the polls showed a 50/50 split and most people who posted said something along the lines of "No contest, Brighton every time."

I can understand (even if I can't accept) the Premier League owners, managers players and fans being disinterested in the national side because of the money and the Champions' League, but why do lower league fans put a bog-standard promotion from the 3rd division above a World Cup win? The answer is because as BG pointed out above club success is of paramount importance, no matter how low-level that success is.

I do think this ambivalent attitude towards England is an extension of the antipathy towards the FA Cup. For some reason league position has become the be-all and end-all and nothing else matters except climbing the tables.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I agree with you, Easy.

I admire Stuart Pearce for being a fiercely patriotic man and speaking his mind, but can you imagine the conflict he'd get into with Prem managers (especially the foreign ones) if he ever got the England manager gig?

In reality the effect of the Premier League on the England team has been pretty neutral. We've done no better or worse with it since 1992. What the English players gain by playing with top quality foreign stars they lose by not having enough game time when they break through.

 

[brunswick]

national football is dead.....or at least dying.

players are OWNED by their clubs these days due to the money....end off.

 

[Brovion]

national football is dead.....or at least dying.

players are OWNED by their clubs these days due to the money....end off.

But the players have always been 'owned' by the clubs and the 'cub v country' debate is as old as international football itself. My point still stands though - how come Brighton fans see England as secondary? Is it because they think "Well no one else gives a shit about England so why should we?"

 

[Postman Pat]

My point still stands though - how come Brighton fans see England as secondary? Is it because they think "Well no one else gives a shit about England so why should we?"

Because the vast majority of the 'stars' in the England team don't seem to care either, therefore why should we? I would rather have a squad of 23 players with less quality that show passion than the pathetic effort that was displayed in the last world cup and some of the recent qualifiers.