Johan Cruyff, whose fairly useless son, Jordi, spent several years with the club, has today criticised United, amongst others, for the amount of foreigners we have in our team. He reckons football in general is suffering because of the foreigners we have in our league. Right.
“However much English teams reach finals or semi-finals, I’m sorry, I do not buy it,” said Cruyff. “And I don’t buy it because of the players they have out on the pitch, rather than because of the style they adopt. The vast majority of them have been brought in from abroad. There are very, very few Englishmen playing in the big English clubs. You only have to look at the Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United squads to realise that. The English national team – missing out on the last European championships – and football in general suffers as a result of them signing so many foreign players. Doing this weaknens the competition because it is impossible for every player they sign to play.”
Van der Sar, Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Hargreaves, Scholes, Carrick, Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney. Subs: Kuszczak, Giggs, Anderson, O’Shea, Fletcher, Silvestre, Nani.
Of the 18 players in the CL final squad last season, 6 of them were English. Of the 18 players, 9 of them were English/homegrown.
Looking at our squad this season, 14 players are English/homegrown (Ben Foster, Wes Brown, Jonny Evans, John O’Shea, Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs, Darron Gibson, Paul Scholes, Owen Hargreaves, Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick, Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck) meaning Cruyff is totally wrong to lump us in with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.
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Scott the never put Welsh,Scots or Irish in that category even though they know perfectly well what it’s like to put on the United shirt.
And of course his favorite team Barca are full of Spaniards right?Marquez,Toure,Abidal,Alvez,Keita,Henry,Eto,Messi,Gudjohnsen,Sylvinho,Milito and Hleb are all Spaniards?
With my first paragraph i meant that Europeans always want to distinguish England from the United Kingdom.
good article Scott – also thought this was a bit off
perhaps he’s wrong about us, but he’s still right overall.
and giggs, scholes, and neville are really really old, from the early 90′s, before the foreign culture hit, which is exactly his point. i don’t think we need to be so defensive Scott, he’s merely stating what he sees. only established english players are at top clubs, generally, perhaps not at united, young british players arent being brought through.
O’Shea is neither from England, UK or Britain & cannot be considered ‘homegrown’. I don’t want to be overly political but the Republic is no different to France, Spain, Italy etc. in relation to the UK.
Inter Milan
Julio Cesar , Cordoba, Zanetti, Walter Samuel, Stankovic, Maxwell, Ibrahimovic, Julio cruz, maicon, vieira, cambiasso, toldo, muntari, materazzi, chivu, mancini. More like an Argentinian club.
Real Madrid
Casillas, Pepe, Cannavaro, Ramos, Diarra, Saviola, Marcelo, Heinze, (Sneijder, vdVaart, Nistelrooy, Huntelaar, Robben) Metzelder, Raul, Guti, Drenthe, Higuain, Gago.
Err…more like Holland than Spain to me.
Even Chelsea has more home players than these two.
I remember when Johan Cruyff’s son Jordi playing for Man United , he was always praising Man United, the day Jordi left United he started to attack Man United inside out, all what he is doing is the outcome of his son failed at Man United, for him there is no other club than Barcelona.
Pre match publicity from the former barca man. all part of the banter. If he’s tryin mind games though he’s sadly lacking.
Great footballer, but Cryuff’s affection for all things Barcelona has clearly affected his sayings.
By the way, I’m tired of all this excitement about Barcelona. They’re the new Real Madrid, a trend-team that most self-proclaimed “neutrals” (especially women) support these days, because they have celebrity footballers and play beautiful football. Has any of these “neutrals” ever watched United play?
I used to like Barcelona, but the closer the final gets, the more I want United to thrash them.
Great artilcle Scott and well said costas, all spaniards!
I have fond memories of Jordi Cryuff I remember this one match where for some reason he was teasing this enormous african centre back near our corner flag then got knocked the fuck down
He was such a prat the referee didn’t even bother to call a foul and the player came into our box but blazed over otherwise we would have conceded
It’s amazing how high on a pedestal they think that they are.No one plays their brand of football and English teams get where they are because of money.Well,credit to them for playing fantastic football against lesser oppositions and credit to them for making a star out of Messi.But they have bought their success.For every Messi there are the Hlebs,the Henrys,the Toures and the Gudjohnsens.And while Pique is Spanish,it’s safe to say that they gave away a boy and they took back a complete defender.
Cruyff is getting old so is his memory of our english players.the best way is to do the talking on the pitch & win the final.
jig- you’re completely wrong…if you lived in the north-west which I’m guessing from your comment you don’t, you’d realise that a considerable proportion of the population are Irish descended/Irish grandparents etc including myself…The Republic of Ireland is very different to France and Spain, political delineation is not the same as cultural and football is culture not politics, culturally we are very close to Ireland and the other countries of the UK…unfortunately for Europeans, they have no similar circumstances to that but that’s not our fault.
Fair point Jake, I agree we’re culturally very close.
Having said that, It irritates people from the Republic when they’re included in the UK/Britain, looking back at our history it’s obviously something the country feels very strongly about. I recognize it’s not intended to offend, it’s just a mistake that’s often made.
Barcelona have spent a fortune on players recently and together with the Virus hoover up all the best talent in Spain. Also i read somewhere a while back that the number of “foreign” footballers in Spain is nearly the same as the Premier League.
Usual “we’re the best team in the world (TM)” drivel.
For such a superb player, the bloke talks nonsense sometimes. He has a history though of putting his foot in his mouth – with AC Milan 4-0 Barcelona the greatest example. More recently, last year to be precise, he predicted that Barca would overcome ‘long ball’ United:
http://www.stretford-end.com/united-news/united-news-archive/april-2008/barca-backed-to-beat-long-ball-united.html
Also – I think what he is trying to get across is that England has to rely on foreign players rather than home grown talent whereas Spain doesn’t have to. End of the day there is a lot of money in England today, but I seem to recall Italian clubs forking out silly amounts of money for players (Crespo, Buffon & Vieri) and don’t Real Madrid hold the record transfer fee for Zidane? Don’t get me started on Denilson’s £22Million move to Real Betis….
English teams are in the spot light as the rest of europe gets annoyed that the Premiership is so successful and starting to dominate in Europe.
Didn’t seem to be a problem when the domination came from Spain, or Italy though. I remember the days English teams used to get torn to shreads by Italian teams. Now it’s time for change. A new world order!
I do agree with what he is saying in practise. I think every team should have more homegrown and English talent in their teams. Untied are actually well placed if the 6 plus 5 rule is implemented. It’s the rest of the English teams that will suffer. And Inter Milan!
@Jig:
Nationality has nothing to do with “home grown” – its a matter of when they joined the club and for how long theyve been there.
On the article:
Cruyff’s right, obviously – but naming United without naming any other team from any other league just proves his agenda.
While Arsenal and Liverpool hardly have any british players in their teams both United and Chelsea got as much national players and any top side from other leagues.
I fuckin hate this idea that the england team suffers because premier league sides buy from abroad. There isnt nearly enough english players that are good enough for the premier league, never mind challenge in europe. Its just bitter europeans trying to find excuses and point blame for their failure in europe
Scott,
this is rightly filed under rants. the guy is way off base and should do his math (and homework) before opening his pie hole. ’nuff said.
This was the two teams fielded in the first leg against Barca last year. Barca had started 3 Spanish players, United 6. Mr Cruyff would do well to clean up his own yard before he comments on the neighbours’.
Barcelona
No. NAME POS
1 Víctor Valdés (G)
22 Eric Abidal (D)
4 Rafael Márquez (D)
11 Gianluca Zambrotta (D)
3 Gabriel Milito (D)
20 Deco (M)
6 Xavi (M)
8 Andrés Iniesta (M)
24 Gnegneri Yaya Toure (M)
9 Samuel Eto’o (F)
19 Lionel Messi (F)
Manchester United
No. NAME POS
1 Edwin van der Sar (G)
5 Rio Ferdinand (D)
6 Wes Brown (D)
3 Patrice Evra (D)
16 Michael Carrick (M)
18 Paul Scholes (M)
4 Owen Hargreaves (M)
13 Ji-Sung Park (M)
7 Cristiano Ronaldo (M)
10 Wayne Rooney (F)
32 Carlos Tevez (F)
So he wants us to become Ajax…………………!!!!
I would ask Johan, if Jordi was not a Cryuff and his son in particular would he have ever played for Barca and United?
BLIMEY BLIMEY BLIMEY 4 DAYS AWAY….AND 900 THREADS TO READ…LOL
Could not stand Jordi, soft fuckin shite.
Jamesf – “By the way, I’m tired of all this excitement about Barcelona”
Tell me about it mate, been saying it for weeks about the medias love in with Barca the over rated cunts. Lets see who is best in Rome!!
BY THE WAY, have we won the title??????? Was locked up in the closet still nervous and still praying…lol lol lol lol lol lol lol.
Na guys….apologies for my absence…Sat morning wathed the game on telly….no tickets for game. Watched a game a nervous wreck, went absolutely bonkers from 2.43 to 3.43pm. Lets just say MAD is the understatement of the century. Then i skittled of to OT rapidly to soak in the atmosphere outside the ground….that consumed the whole day in and around the ground..the city etc.
Nephew wanted some gear from megastore….then bloody trafford centre.
Sunday was the same….in and around mancs.
Monday back down to earth…..tuesday took me best part of the whole day to read all the thread and every single comment. Im not going to miss a thread nor 1 comment, not after all these years. Never would. Being supersticious also lol.
So that was tuesday and here i am wednesday…phew what a few days!!!!!!
Right if scott allows me to go off topic…here s my summary of the week.
1. North east clubs sue us??? FUCK YOU. Not our fuckin fault you couldnt get your house in order earlier. Flamin barca fielded an under 8 ‘s team last week….no one bloody complained there. Bloody whingers. I want SAF to field the academy kids…not event he reserves.
2. Iniesta and Henry fit??? FUCK….lucky twats both could have had potential serious injuries..knee ligaments and thigh tears normally are 3 month jobs…lucky they got off so lightly.
3. Rio…..im not liking this news….” he’s going to be fit…should be ok..maybe ok…has to pass sunday test…blah blah blah”. Each day the news changes and with Rio its always worse than whats its initially made out to be. Eg his back…each and every week he was supposed to be fit and coming back…yet in the end missed 10 bloody game. Please Rio come through.
4. Tevez…always backed the lad. But even im getting sikc of his self pity martyrdom videos. Stop your rocky impressions and sulks…get fuckin playing. Tell your KIA prick to lower his ludicrous exorbitant demands….and YES we want to keep you and YES we will buy you. Stop being such a melodramtic queen…..cos after utd its downhill pal. You should be trying your utmost and martydom on KIA…NOT SAF or GILL…or the fans.
5. Rome….typical UEFA and italian authorities…..fuckin Barca ultras and Rome ultras ready to attck and kill our fans…..told us to avoid half of the city…..what the fuck is this…beirut? Kabul? Baghdad? Fuckin sort it uefa or ban those barca fans. Why should our fans be victimised.
6. Im With King Eric…..fuckin hate this barca LOVE IN. We play the right way..we play great…we are the peoples club….we are beautiful….we are poetry…..we deserve this and that…WELL FUCK YOU CRYUFF YOU PRICK. You got dumped by the scousers…got dumped by us…got dumped by chelski 4 times in 6 years…..just about beat arsenal who played with 10 men for 80 minutes. And fuckin got through to the final by uefa and ovrebo having a continental ” foreign” agenda. We all know you are loved by the heirachy at Uefa and Fifa. But dont make ludicrous comments such as these.
Fuckin jealous prick……Barca have recruited more foreign players than any other team in history….bloody hell….they ve bought galacticos style players for years…not to mention the whole dutch squad on numerous times.
Just because we have the BEST…the STRONGEST…the most POWERFUL…….the RICHEST league in the world….you dont need to throw your toys out of the pram. JEALOUS PRICK. You know that it should have been another all english final.
And by the way…you only score 900 goals and win games 10-0 because the opposition in la liga is SO CRAP. Barca inter et al wouldnt even finish in the top 8 in the prem lge. You can bully your getafes espanyols…BUT YOU WOULDNT LAST A MINUTE ON A RAIN TRODDEN NIGHT AT THE JJB…OR THE BRITTANIA OR AT THE REEBOK OR EWOOD PARK…..itd be lambs to the slaughter.
Yes you pass the all well and have top players….but what….. 7000 side ways passes and 1 shot v chelski. NOW F OFF.
Why dont you tell Uefa to just hand you the trophy
We played more English players against Barca is last years semi than Barca played Spanish players.
Fuck off Cruyff.
How many Italians have Inter been playing the last few years?
suhayl : welcome back mate.i had guessed rightly that you must have gone to OT after the game on Sat.just need your prayers for Rio and start preparing for plenty of +ves & -ves only for the final.
7. LAST BUT NOT LEAST…..i know THE BASTARD must be hurting….and that must REALLY HURT…REALLLLLLLLLLLLY HURT. And rather than us retorting or responding…..just take a minute to think…what he must be feeling at this present moment in time…..what pain he must be going through…..cos his antics backfired….cos no matter how much like a pig he behaves…we HAVE HAD THE BIGGEST AND BEST LAUGH AND THE FINAL SAY ON THINGS. Take comfort in that YOU FAT SPANISH WAITER…YOU ARSEHOLE.
We dont want you congrats. You showed yourself up BIG TIME……showed yourself to the world as CLASS A SULKING BITTER MOANING WHINGEING BITCH. The whole world laughing at you.
SO.
Fuck you murderside
Fuck you Fat Spanish twat
Fuck your fuckin bullshit facts
Fuck your thieving scum fans
Fuck your council house
Fuck your vermin team
Fuck your tranvestite
Fuck your captain diver
Fuck that sloth
Fuck that avrams grants kid
Fuck your fat piehole
Fuck your shite top
Fuck your shite team/club
Fuck your ludicrous accent
Fuck your transfer seeking captain
Fuck your ugly players
Fuck your ABU pundits
Fuck you Tyler, redknapp, souness, lawrenson, hansen, green etc etc etc
Fuck your murdering fans
Fuck your chav asbo thieving murdering crminal unemployed, dole dossing hub cap stealing, council house living, drug taking, binge drinking people and the hole they live in.
FUCK YOU YOU FAT SPANISH WAITER.
How does it feel to win us twice crappily luckily, lose less games than us, score more goals than us. YET STILL STILL STILL STILL STILL STILL STILL NOT get your hands on OUR yes OUR OUR OUR OUR OUR OUR OUR TROPHY.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Thats my 4 days worth over with.
Thanks Wazza….good to be back…..Nerves are kicking in though. Was ok Sat Sun Mon and Tues for obvious reasons. But now even though still a week away getting the jitters again. Praying mate….
Hope you guys are well…not being on ROM even for 1 day is seriously painful..lol
PS. And FUCK OFF YOU SCOUSE BASTARDS.
AND PARDON MY LANGUAGE IF ANYONE WAS OFFENDED.
Just get over emotional.
Sul, mate that is a work of art!
I fuckin hated Jordi Cruyff he was shite and he looked like the villian out of Passenger 57, twat,
Thanks Stephen me old mucker…i try..:-)
Suhayl!You are alive!Now i am relieved!
Stephen Jordi did look like that villain,lol!But when he lost his hair he looked like Woody Harrelson!
Thankyou Costas…lol
Yep like the phoenix from the ashes….
Im back to make you even more nervy for the next week…ha ha ha ha.
Got to head off…catch you guys later in eveing or tmrw.
” ‘long ball’ United” what a fucking pitiful statement, he clearly hasnt watched one minute of a united match in a long time, fuckin thick…
Fuck off Cruyff, Our most important players this season included
Rooney, Giggs, Scholes, Carrick, Fletcher, Evans, Rio, and many others if you want to include academy boys, how many spanish players are there going to be in barca’s starting eleven next wednesday?
at the end of the day we have a manager who believes in home grown talent, and investing in them, only arsene invests in academy and youth as much as fergie but his lads arent english/british. the FSW and any recent chelsea manger hasnt
how, the hell, is football suffering by playing foreigners in english league? can anyone explain that? English football, maybe, football as itself in general….? are you nuts, Cruyff?
Cruyff also said that barca could put out 8 homegrown players in the final, where united will put out 2 or 3?
Rio, Scholes, Giggs, Carrick and Ronney will defonitley start, think thats 5! and if it wasnt for inuries then so would Brown and Hargo and if homegrown players is your thing then evans, O shea and fletcher (suspended) could count aswell,
If barca put 8 spanish and we out out 8 english with a few to spare for the bench we’d still beat them, his comments are ridiculous and just as stupid as the FSW Facts speech,
Being a genius on the pitch doesn’t correlate with your credibility off it. Cruyff obviously hasn’t done his research.
What annoys me is that people rarely take into account the homegrown members. I think those such as Fletcher and O’Shea will know and feel as much for the club as the English lads. I still feel it means as much for the aforementioned players in a local pride sense, say, as much as Rio.
what is it with great european ex players shooting their mouths about OUR game?! first the fat faced little french racist Twatini bangs on about clubs in debt being barred from europe and singles out English clubs. How many times have Real had their debt cancelled by the spanish government (twice to my knowledge)? and now Crufts starts slating English clubs for too many foreigners!! I didn’t know the stats on other european clubs like Barca, Inter, Real etc and their foreigner count until some of the wise sages on this site highlighted it. I’ve had a radical idea chaps……why don’t UEFA and these so called legends try and solve the real problems in football, like corruption (surely not at your beloved Juve, eh Twatini? he’s been awfully non vocal on that one!), or racism (like when the Juve fans abused Balotelli from Inter cos he was showboating, surely not at your beloved Juve, eh Twatini?), or football violence (this report coming on the same day that travelling United fans were warned not to visit tourist attractions when visiting ‘beautiful’ Rome, or use the tube, or cross a certain bridge for fucks sake!!). Yeah, Mr Crufts, you’re right, i guess the amount of foreigners in english football is the biggest evil in european football. arsehole.
“fuckin hated Jordi Cruyff he was shite and he looked like the villian out of Passenger 57, twat,” Fuckin quality Stephen.
Suhayl- Good to have ya back, your posts keep me amused for hours pal!
It’s incredible that Rome was given the final in the first place. They’re fans are scum and the Italian league is the most corrupt in Europe, so what do Uefa do? reward them for it, unbelievable.
“Fuck your ludicrous accent” Loved every one of em Suhayl but this one is gold!
King Eric…….Hating those scousers…comes naturally to us mate. lol
I blame the fucky scousers for all the hate we get in Europe, in the 70′s and 80′s went to games in euro cities and trashed the place the they go to turkey and Greese and made a holy show of the english league rat worshipping scabs
Team for sunday:
Amos
Eckersley Rio Chester Nev
Fletch Gibson Scholes James
Martin Wellbeck
Sorry about the 2 ‘foreign’ players ( fletch & gibbo ) but seeing that
they all came up via the academy that should suit Platini as well
(Ben Foster, Wes Brown, Jonny Evans, John O’Shea, Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs, Darron Gibson, Paul Scholes, Owen Hargreaves, Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick, Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck)
Foster, Neville, Scholes, Carrick and Rooney are English.
Rio is half St. Lucian, half Irish.
Brown is of mixed heritage.
Hargreaves is Canadian.
Evans, O’Shea and Gibson are Irish.
Welbeck is Ghanaian.
Giggs is Welsh.
Rio, Rooney, Hargreaves and possibly Carrick are the
only players who will regularly get into our Starting XI.
Rooney is of Irish heritage but fair enough, he’s English
and Carrick seems to be an Englander.
Two Englishmen.
Tinsel “pedantic” Tony – It doesn’t matter what blood they have in them, if they are entitled to play for England, then they are English as far as the English/homegrown ruling which Cruyff was talking about goes.
“There are very, very few Englishmen playing in the big English clubs. You only have to look at the Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United squads.”
Yeah, just like Manuel Almunia and Carlo Cudicini.
It’s quite a hypocritical statement when you look at the Barca squad too.
Keita (Mali), Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, Pique, Henry(France), Eto(Cameroon), Milito(Argentina), Messi(Argentina), Gudjohnson(Iceland), Valdes, Krkic, Sylvinho(Brazil), Toure(Ivory Coast), Alves (Brazil), Abidal(France), Marquez(Mexico), Cáceres(Uruguay), Hleb (Belarus).
Tony -
Ben Foster – played for England
Wes Brown – played for England
Rio Ferdinand – played for England
Gary Neville – played for England
Paul Scholes – played for England
Owen Hargreaves – played for England
Michael Carrick – played for England
Wayne Rooney – played for England
Danny Welbeck – played for England (U-21)
Manuel Amunia – never played for England
Carlo Cudicini – never played for England
Well .
At Least Our Attacking Trio Of Rooney Berba Ronaldo Consist Of One English .
Compared To Their Henry Etoo Messi .
Which Scored Almost All Of Their Goals .