“English Players are scared to come abroad” – Ashley Cole

Ashley Cole has departed the Premier League as one of the most decorated players in Premier League History and one of the most decorated English players in World Football, two facts that sound impressive separately but are unfortunately really two sides of the same coin.

At a press conference today former Chelsea and Arsenal legend Ashley Cole had some parting shots for English football as he confirmed his transfer to Serie A outfit A.S Roma. Not one to bite his tongue, Cole has been a source of controversy in the Premier League since his dramatic move from North to West London in 2006 and very rarely misses an opportunity to add to his bad-boy notoriety.

Today however, Cole did make a bold, brash and provocative statement about English football but it was a fair one. Beyond fair even, actually it was a considered, intelligent and above all else, crucial statement made by the left back.

In the cold light of day, now that the dust has settled on the world cup and we very much know where the English stand in International football, we need statements like Ashley’s. There is a fundamental ignorance in English football that due to the Premier League’s dominance in world football, there is nothing to be learnt from the rest of the elite leagues. This is so far from the truth that is actually an embarrassing state of affairs that a player of Ashley’s experience would even need to make the point.

Although you will hear no argument that the English top flight is the best league in world football, our international team actually suffers more from this fact than it does prosper. With the Premier League considered the highest level of domestic football by the majority of the world’s footballers, pundits and staff, space is limited, limited to the very best.  With the majority of journalist, football pundits and personalities deciding that the influx of foreign players into the premier league is having a grievous effect on English youth, Ashley Cole and myself believe that the fundamental problem is a lack of ambition and bravery from our home grown talent.

If our young, English players approached the game with the same lofty ambitions as the foreign players whom have helped shape our league, I have no doubt that our international status would benefit greatly. Football is an education, as much as you are born with, you learn much more and standing still and being stagnant in a league where there just isn’t room for you will get you nowhere. The Premier League is so accustomed to the purchase of foreign talent that it only becomes an issue when international season is upon us and England fall short, suddenly it’s the fault of the players we strive to have at our clubs who have worked their way across seas to ply their trade at the top level as opposed to those English players happy to earn the wage and limit the ambition as long as they don’t have to leave the country.

The lions share of idols and legends for our respective clubs in the modern era aren’t English but that doesn’t faze us, we love it. The problem is that in leagues abroad, the situation is the same.  Not since the days of Gary Linekar, David Platt and more recently Steve Mcmanaman and David Beckham have we had English players making genuine noise abroad. Our more recent exports include Emile Heskey, Jermaine Defoe, Bradley Wright-Phillips and Colin Kazim-Richards, hardly the crème de la crème of English talent.

German, Italian, French and African players are littered throughout all of the top domestic leagues and are our heroes, our cult legends and our idols, there is a distressing lack of English players making that same impact abroad. As Ashley said earlier today “English players feel in their comfort zone in the UK” A perfect sound bite for the problem in our home grown talent. Once a player is comfortable they lose fight and the best way to separate the wheat from the chaff is to take those young, English players out of their comfort zone and see if they really are built to succeed.

With constant mention of the lack of attention paid to English talent in world football, there is only one solution. Earn it. Go out in the world, grab it by the scruff of the neck and tell it you deserve attention, just like all of the foreign talent residing in the Premier League did.

Ashley Cole is a player with three Premier League crowns, seven F.A Cups, one League Cup, the Champions League and the Europa League in a Premier League career that stretches 16 years and over two of English football’s most elite clubs. It could be said that he has been there and done that, however, as one last statement of ambition and intent, Ashley is looking forward to challenging for honors in a whole new country. At 33 years old, Cole still shows more aspiration than many English pros much younger.

‘I came here to play Champions League. Roma is an ambitious club. It’s a challenge for me and I’m prepared to fight for my place”