++ [ originally posted by Andy ] ++
It's just a load of crap, that's all it is. The reason why England lacks many top quality forwards is because they lack TALENT in the area, not because foreigners have taken over the country. In Italy we have several top class Italian forwards, along with several foreign strikers who are some of the world's best...Gilardino, Cassano, Toni, Vieri, compared with Sheva, Adriano, Martins, Zlatan. What would happen without these foreigners? The league would suddenly reduce drastically in quality and that would be a major setback for upcoming prospects. Why? Because they would lack world class competition and not receive any help from the best players in the world. Taking foreigners out of any league will reduce the quality of the league, and therefore reduce the quality of the domestic players as well. Play with the best, become the best.
He said Italy does bad in major tournaments because the foreigners here play too much and know our game too well. This statement is just poor madness. Foreigners would not know how the Azzurri plays just by playing club football in Italy and as I said before without players from other countries the quality of the league would fall and there would be no advancement of Italian players. If you have the talent you will play, if not the foreigners will play instead.