Every time I stray onto the football pages of a paper I read about another hack, manager, player or pundit blaming the England team's flacid performances on the number of foreign players in the Premier League.

Do I not like that.

It seems to be utter bilge for two reasons:
a) Surely English players benefit from playing alongside the best, as in any comparable situation in sport or life in general.
b) There's nothing stopping English players from going to play abroad if they want to play in the best team that will have them.

Indeed, I think it's quite likely that the almost total lack of non-English footballing experience amongst the England squad is probably one of the reasons they flop.

Mind you, I guess it might be hard for a player to get a decent pie at half time on the continent.