Ten years ago today, Aston Villa took to the pitch at Villa Park against Coventry City for a 4-1 home loss and unknowingly made history. More to the point, they made history when manager John Gregory submitted his team sheet; that would be the last time that an English Premier League team fielded an all-English starting eleven.
Perhaps the defeat was a sign of things to come; you could say that without Trinidad and Tobago national Dwight Yorke, who had been sold to Manchester United in August, Villa struggled to score. Yorke would end the year as the Premier League’s leading scorer and is remembered as crucial piece of the Manchester United team that would win the Treble that same season; they clearly could’ve used his help. Or you could look at the result as an aberration; Coventry City would finish that season in 15th place, while Aston Villa ended up in 6th with a squad that was 83% English.Villa also headed into February at the top of the table; an injury to Ugo Ehiougu (also English) was probably far more responsible for the defeat than the lack of any superstar foreign players.
Whichever way you look at the issue of foreign players in the English league, it’s clear that things have changed significantly in the last ten years. While the reliance on foreign players, particularly at the top of the table, is prevalent, it’s not a barometer for success; Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Blackburn are all sitting at about 19% English, and a simple look at the table tells you that one of those things is not like the others. All of those teams were probably very concerned with the recent ruling regarding UEFA’s 6+5 rule; should the rule be adopted, all of them would have to come up with four starting caliber English national team eligible players in a hurry.
One place they could look: Aston Villa. They’re still a different kind of club. Instead of scouting abroad, they develop within, and a league-leading 58% of their roster is English. While that’s not uncommon in and of itself (Middlesbrough has about the same concentration of English players), Villa’s success this season makes it worth mentioning; should the table hold up, next season would see a predominantly English team in the Champions League for the first time in a very, very long time.
The Last All-English Starting XI
Michael Oakes
Riccardo Scimeca-Steve Watson-Gareth Southgate-Alan Wright
Lee Hendrie-Simon Grayson-Paul Merson-Ian Taylor
Julian Joachim-Dion Dublin
Subs Used: Mark Draper, Stan Collymore, Gareth Barry
Gareth Southgate was a darn good center back in his day. I remember never liking Paul Merson and Lee Hendrie, though. I think that was more me than them though.
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