I know it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted, but here is some recent interesting news for all you footie fans ...

As the Premier League has become one of the most successful leagues in the world, it has also attracted an increasing number of talented players from all over the world, especially in the last few years.
The global popularity of the English league also means that English clubs can now afford the world's best who want to come to the UK and play in the league.

(Spanish player Fernando Torres is one of the many new
foreign players Liverpool has added to its squad this season)

But this increase of players from all over the world has also been a subject of controversy lately.In 1992 only 10% of the starting XIs from all teams were from outside the UK, but this season that number had increased to 56%!! and non-English players have scored 69% of Premier League goals so far this season.

With these figures in mind, one of the most controversial things discussed in the past few weeks has been Fifa president Sepp Blatter’s proposal to place a limit on the number of non-nationals per team on the pitch at any one time as an attempt to allow “homegrown” talent to flourish. A lot of people have already started to shoot the idea down though, saying that’s it’s an illegal EU restriction and that it would never get by the courts. One of the biggest critics is Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger (who happens to be French). Since his arrival at Arsenal in 1996 he has signed 124 players and only 40 of them have been English. But he also rejects suggestions that he is inherently biased against young English players, claiming his system of importing the best foreign talent improves English players in his charge.

He was quoted as saying “You have the biggest economical power, and that means you attract the best players in the world. But if the best English players play with the best world-class players, then they will be even better and develop quicker."

I think the same has also been said about Chelsea and its players, who are now making progress up the league table after some pretty disastrous results following Mourinho’s departure mentioned in my last blog - I’ve heard people say that English players like Frank Lampard have actually improved quite a bit since the club started importing other good players from all over. But as of yesterday Arsenal has been top of the table and in very good form, so we’ll see if this limit on non-English players actually materialises, but it looks unlikely at the moment.