For those of you out there who aren’t as familiar with La Liga beyond Barcelona and Real Madrid and don’t have a knowledge of Athletic Bilbao in particularly, the Basque club’s triumph over Manchester United in the Europa League in March served as an eye-opener to their intriguing club policy. Bilbao are pioneers in their so-called ‘Cantera’ policy which translates as ‘youth academy’ or ‘farm team’ in Spanish. In other words, since 1912 the club has only recruited players from the geographical reaches of the Basque region alone, and to this day, the policy remains intact with Fernando Llorente, Javi Martinez and Iker Muniain arguably the cream of the current home-grown crop You would think the club might suffer from not engaging in the hugely popular transfer market surrounding foreign imports but Bilbao remain competitive, currently lying 8th in La Liga and indeed ready to contest the Europa League final with Atletico Madrid in six days’ time. It has been a mark of their youthful-looking squad, that they have recognised these achievements.
Given the relative success of Bilbao’s cantera policy, would such a system be a hit in the Premier League and would it be sustainable enough to maintain a respectable league finish? It would be interesting to see Newcastle United field an entire XI of Geordies or Liverpool field an entire team of Scousers. Let us take a metaphorical journey into the pros and cons of such a system if introduced on these shores.
Firstly, Bilbao are traditionalists in many ways and only signed their first sponsorship deal in 2008 after rejecting the ideal for over 80 years. It may leave a sour taste in your mouth that the Basque’s are rigid, narrow-minded and prejudiced in their refusals to embrace non-Basque talents but you can’t help but be intrigued by the ideal that the club reflects its immediate community perfectly by schooling players from an early age, overseeing their upbringing, and then thrusting them into the senior ranks in front of familiar faces and family, representing their region patriotically with an almost international identity. You could presume a greater attachment would be felt between fans and team and therefore greater patience would be the likely result; factors certainly under question in this country.
This homely description is unfortunately at odds with the culture of the Premier League however with rising overseas imports over the years coinciding with greater attacking fluency, theatrical conduct and a more exciting spectacle as a whole. It has become second nature for fans to witness clubs and their scouts dabbling in the transfer market, bringing talents from all four corners of the globe, and designating them in squads alongside the home-grown lads in a multi-faceted approach. At the inception of the Premier League in 1992/93, just eleven players named in the starting line-ups for the first weekend of matches were foreign. On the contrary, in 2009, the average Premier League team had an average of 13 foreign players at their disposal. These stats clearly represent semi-conscious refutations of possible English Cantera’s and convey that the English game conceivably had lesser worth before the international brigade came along and added their wondrous sparkle.
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It is only now in recent years that several punditry panels and onlookers alike have questioned the impact of the international influx, claiming they have blocked the path of many youthful English talents who frustratingly reside in the academies, with only a handful overcoming the stereotype that many don’t ‘make it’ as such and go on to play further down the English pyramid as an inevitable result. With the national team failing on the international stage since 1966, many fingers have ben pointed at blocked pathways and just whether enough talent comes through.
Perhaps the closest example of a Cantera in English football is that of Crewe Alexandra in League Two whereby a large number of the squad are Cheshire-born 20-somethings that have been immediately thrust into the senior ranks, following a distinct and trusted pathway from the academy. It has been a mark of Dario Gradi’s legacy that the club have moulded and sold on many renowned names over the years and the club finished a respectable seventh this term, sneaking in to compete in the end-of-season play-offs which gives them a chance of promotion to the third tier. Although lower down the scale, Crewe represent that young, hungry pros can be competitive and can cut it amongst elder statesmen in the division, Alan Hansen and his popular belief still may be proved correct if play-off failure represents ‘you can’t win anything with kids!’
We do see local lads come through each season, with Merseyside being a particular hotbed of home-grown talent with Wayne Rooney, Jack Rodwell and Ross Barkley at Everton and Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Jay Spearing and John Flanagan at Liverpool representing the local flavour, but the fact the international stars have thankfully given so much to our proud Premier League, it is very unlikely that we are going to see a revolution in the deployment of an-all regional squad anytime soon. The closest we might’ve come to such a phenomenon was probably during Middlesbrough’s FA Cup Fourth Round Replay with Sunderland in February whereby as many as nine academy products from the surrounding Teesside area made up the Boro eighteen that evening.
The simple fact of the matter is the demand for success or survival in the top flight nowadays far outweighs fan patience in being experimental with the squad. If it weren’t for competitions such as the Carling Cup, the young pro would undoubtedly suffer in their exposure to first team football. In an ideal or metaphorical world as we have envisaged today in this article, it would be an interesting proposition to see an all-regional XI but gallant stereotypes run deep and it is deep-rooted that success coincides with expensive European imports. Perhaps we should blame foreign owners and their big bucks, but the successful multi-national Premier League is here to stay and the English Cantera remains just a mere dream-like proposal. For Athletic Bilbao, their vision lives on and success in Bucharest in the Europa League final would be a remarkable achievement for one of football’s last traceable traditionalists.
How important are foreign signings in yielding success? Could an all-regional side cut it in the Premier League nowadays? Follow me @ http://twitter.com/Taylor_Will1989
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