Originally Posted by Nimmy

you can look at it several ways tho. how much did it cost man united to bring through scholes, beckham, giggs (technically half english), butt, nevilles etc.... yet they are or were worth high prices, man united also paid in excess of 25 million for juan veron who did nothing at man united, same as schevchecnko at chelsea, whereas they brought in john terry through the youth system and lampard for around 8 million. they are the most important part of the team. it works both ways. just because a player was expensive isnt always based on their country.

my team celtic have wasted money on fiorgein players over the years the team now has a real scottish core and we have achieved more this year in europe than in the last 30 years excluding Seville. we have Riordan, Caldwell, Miller, McGeady (born scottish), did have Maloney, Wilson, Hartley, Beatie and i could go on further who have secured the league and took us far in europe.

however celtic wouldnt have been the same team without the likes of Larsson, Boruc, Nakamura etc.. without these forgein players. good teams need a mix of national and international players to succeed.

arsenals 2003/2004 undefeated team had 2 english players in the side as a core beng Campbell and Cole who were outstanding, and as reserves there were the likes of Pennant. Go back furtehr when arsenal initially made a big impression when Wenger took over the team still won the league but did it with the likes of Ian Wright,David Platt, Winterburn, Bould, Parlour, Seaman, Dixon, Adams and Keown.

Celtic won the 1967 European Cup (i know its a long time ago but amazing fact), with its full squad born no more than 30 miles from the stadium.