Statistics from the European Football Players' Labour Market have shed some interesting light on the trends in the major European league. With all the discussions in England about the lack of English players making the national team unsuccessful, and Blatter's looming attempts at imposing homegrown rules, statistics from other leagues throw the whole issue in doubt.

The 2006-07 review was based on 2,744 players employed by the 98 clubs in the 5 top European leagues (England, France, Spain, Italy and Germany), and 24.3% of these were "homegrown". This was a 2.5% decrease on 2005-06 results, and France was the worst affected with a 6.8% DECREASE in home-grown players, although they still had the highest percentage of homegrown players with 33.3%.

The lowest percentage was in Italy, where only 14.6% of the players were homegrown. Take note of this all those people who complain about foreigners ruining the English national team - who won the last World Cup?

Overall, the amount of foreigners in these leagues has increased by 0.5% to 38.9% overall, with the Premier League being the most international, with 55.5% foreigners.

Regarding the foreigners with the most numbers, Brazil is the most represented country with 140 players. The USA has had the highest increase in exported players of any nation, and foreigners from Eastern Europe, North America, Asia & Oceania have increased overall, with the number of Western Europeans and Latin Americans decreasing. There are 92 nationalities represented in these top 5 leagues.

Well... not madness per se, but again a great example of how British players just seem to cost so much more than they need to.

Dave Nugent has signed for Portsmouth for a fee of  just over £6 million. He joins from Preston North End, where he has played well enough to earn an England cap (and score a goal too).

The former Bury youngster is only 22, and has a bright future ahead of him, but the fee is still on the higher side, considering that he has no Premiership experience and that his record of 33 goals in 96 games for PNE is hardly prolific.

I think Nugent has chosen well with Portsmouth though. He could have signed for Sunderland, but at Pompey he doesn't have to have the pressure of relegation and expectation, and he's also got an experienced manager who knows how to get the best from his players. He'll have better players around him as well, and be in a settled team that is financially able.

John Utaka also signs for Portsmouth from Rennes. The fee is undisclosed, but is probably around the £3-4 million mark. This is a transfer that has been going on for ages, and Utaka let the media know a while ago that he was looking forward to joining his compatriot Kanu at Portsmouth.

Utaka is a good, but inconsistent player; very talented, but seemingly very raw at times. He's 24, and Redknapp will need to work on him a bit. Still, he's tall, strong, fast, and an exciting dribbler. He's skillful, although a hit-and-miss finisher, and is also not too bad in the air. This is going to be an exciting signing for Pompey fans, and it's nice that they have options in attack now.

Hopefully you cringed at that photo, I know I did. Well gimpy, chavvy, wannabe enfant terrible Craig "Bellers" Bellamy has signed for West Ham for a reported fee of £8 million. EIGHT! Somehow... Liverpool managed to sell Bellamy on for a profit. A player who signed for £6 million, scored just 7 league goals in 27 games, got arrested for hitting a girl in a nightclub, and hit a teammate with a golf club, has somehow been sold on for a profit. Lovely!

Bellamy is a serious talent - quick, tricky, left-footed and with a powerful shot, but he has the personality of a menstruating Satan. He first arrived in the Premiership at Coventry, as a replacement for the Inter-bound Robbie Keane. Since then, he's gone to Newcastle, Celtic, Blackburn, Liverpool, and now West Ham all in the space of 6 years (giving Anelka a run for his money). Anyways, good luck to West Ham, Eggert Magnusson and "Bellers".

Jason Koumas, has signed for Wigan for £5.3 million. This probably tops the list of ridiculously priced transfers, and furthermore the present Wigan manager Chris Hutchings has one of the worst transfer records ever. When Jewell left Bradford, it was Hutchings who stepped up from Assistant to Manager, and spent about £10 million (that Bradford couldn't afford) on awful players, got them relegated (and was sacked), and they are suffering in League One now. Wigan are a stronger side than that, and chairman Dave Whelan has money, but spending this much money on Koumas is wild.

Now don't get me wrong, Koumas is a talented guy, as he kid he was very highly rated and in West Brom's first season in the Premiership he had some great moments. He then went through a huge slump, and was out of favour and on-loan at Cardiff. But last year at the Baggies he had a great season, helping them to the playoffs, and was named the Championship player of the year. But he's 27 now, and has only really had ONE season at the top of his game, and that too in the Championship.

After Liverpool have painstakingly gone ahead with meeting Atletico Madrid's massive transfer demands, they now have to face up to the prospect of meeting exorbitant wages for the increasingly diva-like Fernando Torres.

El Niño has apparently asked for a massive £31.2 million contract! He has allegedly demanded a 6-year deal, worth £100,000 per week, because those are the same terms that Inter Milan offered.

I have no doubt that Inter offered ridiculous wages, but were they even serious about signing Torres? They've already got Ibrahimovic, Crespo, Adriano, Julio Cruz, Alvaro Recoba and now David Suazo. Perhaps they offered Torres this ridiculous contract as a means of trying to coax him into making his situation with Atletico very sour, and thereby lowering the transfer fee? Who knows.

In any case, Liverpool will have to negotiate trickily with this one, because there are very few players in the history of the Premiership who have been on £100,000 per week or higher. Thierry Henry, Michael Ballack, Andriy Shevchenko, Steven Gerrard and Cristiano Ronaldo are all proven talents and performers, and even Frank Lampard and John Terry haven't been able to bump their contracts up to that level. Not only will Torres earning that much ruffle a few feathers, but given Torres' inconsistency and the fact that he is not yet at the top of his game, it will be quite a financial burden on the 'Pool.

Of course it could all just be paper talk. After all, only a week ago it was rumoured that Torres' had the words "You'll Never Walk Alone" on the underside of his captain's armband, and that he was desperate to join Liverpool.