Young Guns

The Barclays English Premier League (EPL) is arguably the best league in the world at the moment amongst club football. One of the strongest evidence to prove English clubs' capabilities could be seen in this year's UEFA Champions League as all 4 English clubs has progressed to the quarter-final stage.

It's quite amazing that how English clubs has finally taken over the Europe's dominant forces from Spain and Italy such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and of course the holder of Champions League, AC Milan.

To tell the truth, football clubs in England such as Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool wouldn't have achieved this by relying on local talents from their respective youth system as more and more foreign players coming into EPL. Yes, those top 4 clubs in England relies on foreign players to achieve these kind of success. Heck, not only foreign players but as well as foreign managers and coaches.

Sir Alex Ferguson is from Scotland, he is not an Englishmen.

It's a cruel and very sad fact for local English youngsters who dreamt to play for their favourite clubs because those top 4 clubs tend to overlook their local talents for talented young foreign players. Those clubs would pay crazy money for them to buy their way to success.

Take Manchester United as an example. This club was very famous for producing local talents that turned into World Class players for the past 50 years. They have produced player such as Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, and damn, even the primadonna David Beckham are one of the best product came out of the Red Devil's successful youth system. Don't even get me started to mention those legends from back then.

But look, Sir Alex realised that depending on local talents aren't always successful to bring them up to World Class quality. For example, Kieran Richardson was a failure. Chris Eagles, what the hell he is a joke! All he has got to do is dreaming to be the next David Beckham, dream on!

Paul Scholes is aging and he won't be able to play forever and Fergie had headache looking for his replacement. Therefore, he made a move that surprised everyone in the summer of 2007.

He freaking bought a 19 years old Brazilian from Porto named, Anderson Luis de Abreu Oliveira for £18 million. That is a huge amount of money to spend on a youngster. FYI, most Brazilians who came to the the Premiership has little success to cheer about. But Fergie took the risk and so far, it's paying off. Anderson sparkled in the middle of the park, tackling hard like Roy Keane, run with the ball challenging defender like Ryan Giggs. He's a workaholic that anyone would love to have in their team.

There, a replacement for the Red Head Ginger, Scholes but how about Ryan Giggs? Of course, Anderson can't split into two. SO, about the same time when Fergie bought Anderson, he snapped up his long term target from Sporting Lisbon named, Nani who he believed to be able to replace Ryan Giggs as well as immitate Cristiano Ronaldo's success ( C.Ronaldo was from Sporting Lisbon as well). He came to United and showed everyone he's capable to cope with the pressure to succeed the great Ryan Giggs and he possesed tremendous skills. The scariest part is, he's like Ronaldo's clone.

Man Utd has made a move they believed could prolonged them as a dominant club in the world but the other 3 top clubs in England has done their part as well to keep pace on United.

Arsenal's youth system consist alot of foreigners and I personally think they have the talents to grow into World Class quality. One of them has succeed, Spain borned Cesc Fabregas has become from an unknown kid to a World Class player.

Expected to fill the boot of influential ex-Gunner Captain, Patrick Vieira who left a huge gap in the middle of the park for Arsenal but since then, Fabregas has been able to mature steadily and make a name for himself in the world of football. His passing are World Class. His visions are peerless. His determination is unbelievable. He has done more than enough to fill Vieira's boot.

But not only Fabregas is maturing. Look at Gael Clichy, Denilson, Eboue, Bendtner, Diaby and one more to look out for, Mexican wonderkid, Carlos Vela.

Now, most youngsters I mentioned up there appeared in recent Arsenal matches except for Carlos Vela. Who is this fella? He is a predator, a prodigy, a winger that will strike fear on defenders. He may not be able to play for Arsenal yet due to working permit restriction but he was loaned to several clubs and now he's at Osasuna, Spain. He shone and appear under the limelight during his time there and received high praise as the next big thing. Do look out for him Gunner's fans.

As for Chelsea, a club that famed in recent years for spending crazy amount of money to buy players. Some of them worth it, some of them not. But they have been able to secure 2 Premiership in a row before Man Utd snapped their streak. So, it wasn't a bad idea to buy your way to the title actually.

Yes, they bought players that are growing older such Nic Anelka, Andriy Shevchenko, Michael Ballack (Chelsea snapped him up for free as his contract with Bayern Munich expired), Claude Makelele and Juliano Belletti. But those players are the ones that could bring priceless experience into the club and they are the mentors for Chelsea's younger players.

One of those younger players who benefited alot by learning from them is John Obi Mikel.

He is a Nigerian central midfielder and has caused alot of controversy when he came to Chelsea. At first, Manchester United announced that they have agreed with Lyn Oslo (Mikel's previous club) to sign Obi Mikel. He went to Old Trafford, signed the contract and hold the number 21 shirt in a press conference to announced his arrival. But soon after that, he went dissapeared after rumours of him receiving threats from phone calls. IN FACT, he was at London negotiating with Chelsea and announced that he was forced to join United and he supposedly wanted to join Chelsea. It caused alot of controversy but still he was finally transferred to Chelsea after they agreed to pay Lyn Oslo £4 million and pay Man Utd as well for £12 million.

In spite of all those controversy, he was able to settle down and played well for Chelsea. He is one of Chelsea's main engine this season as he produced great strength and tackling all over the place that has kept Chelsea midfield as tight as possible. His good form has restricted playing time of veterans, Makelele and Ballack.

For the past 15 odd years, Liverpool has been living in the shadow of Man Utd, Arsenal, and now, Chelsea. They tried to revive their dominance in the league by purchasing foreign players as well but each of them has gone down the drain such as Djibril Cisse. But during the summer, they have finally bought someone with tremendous talent and ability to take them back to the Premiership summit. His name is Fernando Torres aka El Nino. Dispite his good looks, he showed everyone that he is a here for real business. On his debut season he has scored goals for fun, 2 hat tricks in a row was the clear evidence of his ability and as well sending out warnings to United, Arsenal and Chelsea that he's here to change Liverpool for good.

All the players that I've mentioned here are all young guns and surely they are the future of their respective clubs. Next post, I will predict what they could do for their clubs and analyse more young guns, stay tuned :)