by FULL ENGLISH
It’s a reasonable quiz question. What is the importance of the band of players? Michael Oakes, Steve Watson, Riccardo Scimeca, Gareth Southgate, Alan Wright, Paul Merson, Ian Taylor, Simon Grayson, Lee Hendrie, Julian Joachim and Dion Dublin. Don’t read on for the answer…yet. Go ahead, have a guess. Some of you will know that this lot played for Aston Villa in the 1990s, others will note that this is an all English XI. Astute readers of the Football Daily mailing list might have guessed that this was the last time an all-England XI was fielded in the Premier League. They would be right, and today marks the 25th anniversary of that game. But rather than being something to celebrate, a post-Brexit ‘very used-to-be-a-country’ love letter to the glory of yesteryear, it should be noted that Villa were genuinely hopeful of 27 February 1999, struck. 4-1 at home to Coventry, who boasted luminaries such as John Aloisi (Australia, two goals that day), future Villa legend George Boateng (Netherlands, two goals that day), Magnus Hedman (Sweden), Roland Nilsson (Sweden) and Gary McAllister (Scotland).
The Premier League was already better at bringing in foreign players, but John Gregory, Villa’s English managerial maverick, seems not to have got the memo. Even the representatives at Villa that day were all English – Mark Draper, Gareth Barry and Stan Collymore. This is not to say that this was a bad football team: Villa would lose their next three games before rallying to finish sixth that season, above Gérard Houllier’s Liverpool side. Merson, Collymore, Southgate and Hendrie were England internationals and young Barry, controversially signed from Brighton a few years earlier, became the all-time Premier League appearance holder. Via Opta, 52 all-England starting XIs have been named in Premier League history – 19 of those coming from Gregory’s Aston Villa side between October 1998 and February 1999, but Villa won the first 4-1 25 years ago most recent.
A few teams have come close to taking the title since then. The Middlesbrough XI that Steve McClaren started on 7 May 2006 featured 11 players with an average age of 20 years and 181 days – the youngest starting line-up in Premier League history. Fifteen of the 16 players in his squad were born within 30 miles of the Riverside Stadium, but James Morrison was capped for Scotland two years later in May 2008. And of course Burnley, under Sean Dyche, fielded 10 English players at starting alongside Czech striker Matej. Vydra four separate times between June 2020 and February 2021.
And so 27 February 1999 remains in the history books. Later that year, on Boxing Day, Chelsea fielded the Premier League’s first foreign XI, in Southampton, to much fanfare on the platforms and in the media. Even Big Website joked that “Chelsea will soon be accepting euros at the club shop” and that skipper Dennis Wise, who was absent on the day, could change his name to “Dennis Raisonnable”. Mercifully these days, we can (for the most part) get on with enjoying the great football in front of us, without worrying about that sort of thing. But for anyone who is upset that there aren’t that many Alans, Gareths, Ians, or Lees playing in the Premier League anymore, rest assured that only the current best player in the division is still a member. Kevin’s name.
LIVE ON A BIG WEBSITE
Join John Brewin now for MBM’s coverage of Italy’s 3-1 Lionesses in their international friendlies, while Rob Smyth will be in situ for the FA’s round the clock coverage of the fifth round this evening from 7.30pm.
STATEMENT OF THE DAY
“How can you not taste that at the end? I thought the Coventry fans were great. I don’t think they were just supporting Coventry but also Maidstone, deep down. No one can take this moment away from us. We have created so many beautiful moments and not only for our community but globally. We have inspired so many people around the world with how we went about it. For me, football is the winner, because football brings communities together and inspires so many people around the world” – George Elokobi praises his players and supporters after their Cup adventure FA come to an end with a 5-0 shellacking of the Championship side.
DAILY FOOTBALL LETTERS
Although Nick Livesey is clearly a bit cheeky in suggesting that the Etihad is the only national venue for Manchester and its environs (Football Daily letters yesterday), I just want to question the rich characterization of South Manchester, which leaves the controversial question of it. government funded redevelopment of a currently foreign/non-family owned football club. While there are certainly leafy (and expensive) areas around Chorlton, Hale Barns, the Heatons and the like, and much of Trafford is generally well off, the south of the city still needs major investment and is certainly not it is one of the richest areas of it. the country. Moss Side, Wythenshawe for two obvious examples, and the area of Old Trafford and Stretford where the stadium is located is evident, on the contrary, it only takes a glance at the Index of Multiple Deprivation map to see it” – Mark Read.
If Chris Wilder is right that it happens all the time throughout the series ‘pyramid’ (News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition), this does not really fall into the category of things we do’. t want to see in football but really love to see? A slot for team mates tantrum of the month on Match of the Day would be very welcome” – John Myles.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. The winner of our letter today is … John Myles, who is offering a copy of Pat Nevin: football and how to survive, published by Octopus Books.
