Masked by the sugar rush of a new season and breathless clamour for exotic signings came another of those sobering facts. This time it was to inform us that no English player scored a goal in the Premier League’s opening round of games for the first time.
It is a tough one to swallow even if you accept the logic that a number of the prime marksmen have moved on.
Harry Kane feasts on goals in Germany these days, Ivan Toney in Saudi Arabia. Marcus Rashford hopes to find some in Spain to revive his career. Jamie Vardy is a free agent considering an offer from Celtic.
Others were frustrated. A blistering free kick by Eberechi Eze was wiped out on a technicality and Dominic Solanke was sat on the bench watching Richarlison make a strong case to be Tottenham’s centre forward under Thomas Frank.
Jack Grealish started his new chapter among the substitutes. Danny Welbeck didn’t get on. Ollie Watkins and Cole Palmer were thwarted on the opening day by English goalkeepers. Morgan Gibbs-White dazzled without finding the net. Bukayo Saka, Jarrod Bowen and Anthony Gordon drew blanks.
Others were absent. Phil Foden is being nursed back from an ankle problem. James Maddison will spend most of this season recovering from a serious knee injury. Raheem Sterling is in the wilderness at Chelsea.
No English player scored a goal in the Premier League’s opening round of games for the first time in history last weekend – pictured: Liverpool’s Italian substitute Federico Chiesa
It comes after the likes of Harry Kane (left) and Ivan Toney (right) have left the Premier League
A blistering free kick by England international Eberechi Eze was wiped out on a technicality
All of which goes hand in hand with an ever-diminishing number of English players in the Premier League.
Just 77 of those who made an appearance in the competition last weekend were eligible for England, which is a record opening day low, down from 93 the year before.
Of those 77 only 54 started, representing less than a quarter of the 220 players. Liverpool, Sunderland and Wolverhampton picked no English starters. Brighton, Fulham and Leeds each had one. Newcastle, Crystal Palace and Everton had the most with six.
Multinationalism lies at the heart of the Premier League’s mass appeal. It is the biggest, most popular league in world football because there is genuine interest from around the globe.
This helps generate the billions it does for its clubs and enables them to pay the wages which mean thousands of players, wherever they might be in the world, want to come and play here.
Sunderland’s Reinildo Mandava is the first Mozambican footballer to play in the Premier League, the 127th different nation represented since its launch in 1992. Mandava is 31 and came to Wearside via clubs in Portugal, France and Spain.
Few markets are too remote for any modern scouting system. Data analysis software means clubs can recruit from obscure talent pools for better value, signing players at younger ages for lower fees and developing them, selling on for a profit and reinvesting.
Brentford and Brighton, among the pioneers of this trend, are by no means alone any more but any club established in the Premier League ranks among the world’s richest so can outbid the bulk of all overseas rivals for the players they identify.
Sunderland’s Reinildo Mandava is the first Mozambican footballer to star in the Premier League
Just 77 of those who made an appearance last weekend were eligible for England – pictured: Arsenal’s centre-back duo Gabriel Magalhaes (left) of Brazil and William Saliba of France
Post-Brexit changes to work permit regulations limited the free movement of European footballers but has not quelled the influx of imports which nourish the Premier League’s global reach and power.
Instead, players arrive from an ever more diverse range countries via different bureaucratic procedures, all of which is muddied by the increase of multi-club ownership systems.
At the same time, the expansion of the World Cup finals to 48 teams next year is providing another reason for homegrown players without England caps to change international allegiances. Aaron Wan Bissaka of West Ham has declared for DR Congo.
The world’s top talent floods in and still only 220 players can start each week. The gap in quality to be bridged by the academy graduates is bigger than ever.
‘It’s about opportunity,’ says Tony Carr, legendary former West Ham academy boss, who spent 43 years at the club developing talent which included Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard. ‘I’m not saying it was easier because it was never easy but there was more opportunity.
‘I can’t see it changing back again any time soon. I sat down with my grandson and listed the English forwards in the Premier League and could only find half a dozen who’ve got a chance to be in the first team on a regular basis.’
Young players and their advisers have reached the same conclusion. One key consequence of lost opportunities has been for more ambitious young English players to move abroad, encouraged by Jude Bellingham and Jadon Sancho who found success in search of new pathways.
More game time, vital technical and tactical experience, learning to compete for win bonuses, major trophies and contract renewals, playing in front of large crowds, sometimes with a taste of European football.
Manchester City’s English defender Rico Lewis was among those to register assists last week
Eddie Howe (left) and Graham Potter (right) are the only English head coaches in the top flight
This drift is enhanced by some clubs actively seeking to sell academy graduates for a quick PSR boost. Chelsea pushing Connor Gallagher towards a £34m move to Atletico Madrid last year is a classic example.
These factors are often magnified for those playing up front. All Premier League clubs invest heavily to stack international experience down the spine of the team.
Yet goals remain the most highly prized commodity in football.
This summer’s £2billion spending spree has been dominated by staggering fees spent on attacking players. Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike and Benjamin Sesko have all come into English football for the first time.
It is fierce competition for any young forward trying to break through.
‘Everyone is impatient,’ Carr tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘One West Ham manager told me there was no point looking at the youth team because he wouldn’t be in the job long enough.
‘There are shorter tenures. Managers won’t see at a 12-year-old with potential they like and expect to see him progress all the way through to the first team in the way John Lyall or Sir Alex Ferguson did.
‘They’ll take a shorter route and buy a player they think will be an instant hit. The money has made that possible. Managers are under pressure. If they blood youth and it doesn’t go well, it’s their neck on the line. There’s a bit of all these things in play.’
Ex-West Ham academy boss Tony Carr, who spent 43 years at the club developing the likes of Frank Lampard and Joe Cole, says he ‘can’t see’ opportunities for English players improving
The expansion of the World Cup finals to 48 teams next year is providing another reason for homegrown players without England caps to change international allegiances
Of the 54 English starters in the Premier League last weekend, four were goalkeepers and 24 were defenders. Only 15 were forwards or attacking midfielders.
There might be fleeting opportunities from the bench, but clubs often decide young players need to go out and play more regularly so look to place them on loan, which is another game of chance.
Of the 54, only four were under 21. Rico Lewis of Manchester City was 20, Archie Gray of Spurs and Josh Acheampong of Chelsea were 19, and Josh King of Fulham, the only forward in the quartet, was 18.
English academies are producing exceptional technical players at the age of 18. Those ranked as Category One academies under the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) cream off the best young players from anywhere in the country.
It is a plan designed to put the best players together with the best coaches and best facilities and while it can be criticised for enabling further exploitation of EFL clubs by their Premier League counterparts the performances of England’s youth teams have improved since its inception in 2012.
‘There are good players out there, I don’t doubt it,’ insists Carr, with a mention of 15-year-old Max Dowman who appeared for Arsenal in preseason. ‘I don’t see as many academy games as I used to, but I do see some games and I talk to and I listen to people.’
England’s Under-21s are current European champions, and six of the 17 who appeared for Lee Carsley’s team in the final against Germany in June will play this season overseas.
Jarrell Quansah is in Germany. Brooke Norton-Cuffy is in Italy. Charlie Cresswell, CJ Egan-Riley, Tyler Morton and Jonny Rowe, scorer of the winning goal against the Germans, are in France.
Rowe’s future at Marseille is uncertain after a dressing room bust-up with teammate Adrien Rabiot that culminated in both players being put up for transfer. But these are the precisely the sort of experiences players need to work their way through if they are to mature as footballers and reach a stage of their development where they might make an impression on the Premier League or an England boss.
