Someone called Alan Pardew and someone called Gordon Taylor stated that Arsenals historic victory in two legs over 9-times European Champions Real Madrid was “not an English victory”. I did a bit of research. Mr Pardew manages a small football team in East London called, confusingly, “West Ham”. His team scored a recent victory over Arsenal. As you know under ancient mediaeval bye-laws, this victory confers the right to stand on common land in London, grazing a herd of sheep, carrying a sword, and spouting a lot of snide bullshit about your betters whenever you feel like it. Mr Pardew will perhaps be aware of that the rest of the freedoms granted by the City of London; being hung by a silken rope and buried in St Paul’s Churchyard. I for one can’t wait for him to receive his full privileges. Alan Pardew had an illustrious playing career at Crystal Palace and Yeovil, Charlton and Barnet. That in itself is qualification enough to criticise Arsenals lack of quality English players. He knows whereof he speaks, having met actually met quality English-born players in an FA cup final once. And were he a mite younger, Pardew himself could … never, ever play for Arsenal in a million years.

One thing to say about Mr Pardew before we talk about Mr Taylor; we can posit that - despite his recent wafflings - he is probably not a complete idiot. I say this because I trust that, were they West Ham players, he would undoubtedly play “World Cup Winner” Thierry Henry instead of Marlon Harwood, “World Cup Winner” Robert Pires instead of Matt Etherington and “World Cup Winner” Gilberto Silva instead of Nigel Reo-Coker. I also believe that German international Jens Lehmann, Swedish international Freddie Ljungberg, England Internationals Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell and Dutch international Dennis Bergkamp could all get in the West Ham side. The paucity of overseas talent available and willing to play for Mr Pardew might have increased the acidity of the man’s grapes somewhat.

Mr Taylor is shop steward of a union called the PFA (yes, I was surprised to learn that ancient guilds of like minded tradespersons still existed as well. I thought Maggie Thatcher had the members all shot back in the late eighties).  This particular union  -not to be confused with the Polyurethane Foam Association - represents the interests of football players who are members. Do you have to be English to be one of the 4,000 members of the PFA, though? Mr Taylor’s website doesn’t say. Assuming you can, I think that it is a disgrace that foreigners are allowed to be members of prestigious British unions. What next? Johnny Foreigner will be building his cars in our country or something.

Assuming you can’t be a member if you are foreign, then the PFA strikes me as very much the wrong organisation to be lecturing anyone about kicking racism out of football. Why, suspicion of foreigners and not letting them in is a seminal creed amongst the nationalist fraternity. I’ll say no more. By the way, membership of the PFA costs a whopping £75 per year. Must be a bit of a strain on some of those football players.

Mr Taylor is also Honorary President of a players body called (Fifpro). You might wonder at him holding senior positions with two different representative bodies, but I’m sure there’s nothing dodgy about it. I must say I wish there was more English influence in Fifpro though. Only two of their starting 11 are English and their registered office is actually in Hoofdorp in the Netherlands.

FIFpro has been negotiating to undermine a recent deal on transfer fees made between Uefa and the EU. This deal would have guaranteed transfer income to clubs who lose young players they have brought through their academy systems, because of freedom of contract. This is interesting because it directly discourages clubs from nurturing young English players and instead will encourage them to hire the services of journeyman professionals from Europe who are fully fledged and much cheaper. Good work Gordy!

Regardless of the activities of Fifpro, Arsenal have had a very good record of encouraging English born youth talent (we were the last back-to-back winners of that trophy and that was only in 2001). Consider for a moment that the team that beat Real Madrid could so easily have been comprised of English born Arsenal first team players, many of whom played FA youth football for Arsenal:

Stuart Taylor, Matthew Upson, Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole, Justin Hoyte, Ryan Smith, Steven Sidwell, Jermaine Pennant, David Bentley and Theo Walcott

Bench: Kerrea Gilbert, Graham Stack, Ryan Garry, Rohan Rickets

Bloody good team that. All that stood in the way of a putative All-English Arsenal first team was …15 of the best players in the world, some shocking injuries and a slightly bonkers level of personal ambition. There was terminal impatience amongst a few of the above with the manager when they were not automatically slotted in at the expense of Freddie Ljungberg the moment their balls dropped. Jermaine Pennant, for instance, joined former Gunners Matthew Upson and Julian Gray at Gordon Taylors beloved Birmingham City. The Blues (currently in the relegation zone) have yet to play in the Champions League but that maybe because they have pinched only three former Arsenal trainees so far. Or maybe because they persist in having so many English players. Even strikers of the quality of Emile Heskey might not be sufficient to get the Blues to a two-leg fixture against Real Madrid, sorry to break that to you. But the above three ex-Gunners plus 7 foreign Brum players of the quality of…erm…Jiri Jarosik, might. Whatever, I say don’t loan those seducers any more of our boys. They might tempt them with the sweetmeats of championship football, when all we have to offer them is top flight football and usually Champions League football and a winners medal of sorts every other season, playing in a 60,000 seat stadium in the nations capital. No contest!

That English youngsters haven’t stayed and fought to get into this Arsenal team is a great shame. Logic dictates that if Cesc Fabregas can cut it as a 17 year old in the Arsenal first team, then age is not a barrier, only ability is. Bentley and Pennant would have played more if they’d stayed, I’m almost certain of it. Some of the others might not, but quite a few never really got their heads down and worked for it, frankly.

The lack of an English representative on Wednesday night was categorically not for the want of trying in the transfer market either. David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, John Terry and Joe Cole would all get in the Arsenal team, but we couldn’t afford them. Frank Lampard is too fat to get in the Arsenal team. But if he went on a crash diet … then we couldn’t afford him either. Imagine a world without Roman Abramovic (and quite a few Russian oilworkers can probably describe in panavision, technicolour and surround-sound what a wonderful world it would be)? What would have happened to Terry, Lamps and Cole? They would have been sold to pay off the astronomical debts at the Bridge. And if we’d had the money, we’d have been right there in for all three of them (we’d have probably had to sort out an image rights contract for Frank with Nutrasweet in order to offset his salary, mind you).

Another thing that bothers me a bit about the “non-English” accusation is that, apart from Henry, the players on show had an average age of 23. These are all youngsters who are coached by Pat Rice, David Court, Neil Banfield, Liam Brady, Martin Keown, Dermot Drummy, Gerry Peyton and Steve Bould  (along with help from two “foreigners” Arsene Wenger and Boro Primorac). Frankly why can we not acclaim the work of the coaches from these isles who have had a hand in developing such quality? Well that would seriously undermine the jingo wouldn’t it? Don’t stop Mr Taylor when he’s on his soapbox.

The most important criticism I have of both Pardew and Taylor is criminally overlooking Ashley and Sol in their assessment and not applauding Wengers bold investment in the prodigy Walcott. It’s almost like “if you want to stick the knife in, you’d better do it now, before Arsenal turn around and there’s three Englishmen in their starting line-up”.
My point is that Arsenal are currently victims of circumstance. They are not going round hamstringing promising English youths and laughing maniacally. They are still taking on local youngsters and inducting them into the marbled halls. Right now they can’t put an English player on the pitch against one of the best teams in the world. But the fact is, the club elected to re-build in the same little corner of North London and are there to stay. Arsenal are London’s best supported club and London is both the most cosmopolitan and polyglot city in the world and, coincidentally the capital of ENGLAND.

When Gordon Taylor looks out of the window in Hoofdorp, perhaps he’d do well to remember that many a proud Englishman is looking at 110 x71 yards of English grass, seeing 11 players in red shirts with a gun on the breast, and welling up with a pride every bit as powerful as his own.