The English league is the oldest in the world and it has a peculiar characteristic, that it has never been purely English. I don't think any English clubs, especially in the top divisions, ever fielded any team that's 100% English players. It's British by nature traditionally, with Scots, Welsh, N. Irish and even Irish admitted as local players as a matter of course without immigration or work permit qualifying terms and conditions.
The breakthrough came in 1980 when Tottenham Hotspur signed Argentinian World Cup winners Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricky Villa; then it was on a 2 foreign players quota (foreign meaning non-British and non-Irish). There wasn't much problem with that, as Kevin Keegan made the breakthrough from the other side 2 years earlier getting signed by Hamburg of West Germany. He was soon to be followed by Tony Woodcock with Cologne also of West Germany and Trevor Francis with Sampdoria of Italy.
The European Union 1992 Maastricht Treaty changed all that and opened the floodgate. Freedom of movement of labour within EU countries includes footballing and other professional sports too. With the floodgate opened wide, the top and richest clubs felt they might as well source players from all over the world, since the limitation of foreign players per team quota broke down under the EU freedom of movement of labour directive. Non-EU players also can't be limited, as long as the immigration and work permit formalities and paperworks are complied with.
Actually, the first culprit of deAnglicising an English club was Chelsea under Claudio Raineri. In the his years at the helm (mid 90s to early 2000s) he frequently fielded 10 foreigners + 1 Englishman (usually Dennis Wise, captain and token). Chelsea under Raineri was proxy for an Italian B team. He got nowhere further than a consolation European Cup Winners' Cup, so insignifant that this competition was abolished.
Then came Jose Mourinho. To be fair to him, even though he's Portugese, it was under him that Chelsea regained some Englishness as a club again. It was under him that English players like John Terry, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole etc. flourished. And he was rewarded, or rewarded the players and the fans, with two English league titles. Like Sir Alex Ferguson, he managed internationalisation and retaining Englishness well.
The no-hold-barred internationalisation and frenchisation fanatic is Arsene Wenger with Arsenal. He's been quite successful though, surely more successful than Ranieri with Chelsea. However, his Arsenal team has always been more or less a proxy for France. Littel wonder that when France won the World Cup in 1998, Arsenal also won the English league. But why would the English league and the English fans want to host and support a team in London that breeds and trains and French and foreign players so that France can beat England? Beats me. But I'm sure it doesn't beat Wenger. Look at his team. French-speaking from France, Ivory Coast preferred. Makes things easier for him, yes? I'm sure he speaks better French than English.
The same trend of foreign managers biased to signing players who speak their native language was earlier seen in Raineri with Chelsea. It can now also be seen with Rafael Benitez with Liverpool who's looking like a very confused man now, cause he looks like really wanting to do it but is less blatant than Raineri or Wenger. It can also be seen in L-F Scolari's short stint with Chelsea, whose first knee-jerks were towards looking for Brazilian and Portugese players. Good club managers dont come in and change the club culture to his convenience. Good club managers manage the culture.
I think that L-F Scolari should go back to managing Brazil or Portugal, and Arsene Wenger should apply for the manager's job with France or another French-speaking country. I can't understand how Londoners and Englishmen can cheer for Arsenal.
