Is English talent too expensive?

Ross McCormack cost Fulham 11million this summer

With all the transfer dealings that are flying about it seems a good time to look at the differences between English player and their foreign counterparts. Alex Johnson investigates.

Yes.

Now we've stated the obvious, let's take a look at exactly why English players seem to have price tags that are well above their real market value.

This is not a recent phenomenon, as it has been this way for the last decade. Back in 2005 Chelsea paid Manchester City a staggering 21 million for Shaun Wright-Phillips. That trend for paying over-priced fees for English players has continued over the years. Key examples include 24 million for Darren Bent, James Milner for 26 million, and Andy Carroll, who cost Liverpool 35 million during the same transfer window they paid 22.7 million for Luis Suarez.

With Suarez Liverpool got a glut of goals and made a big profit as he was sold to Barcelona for 75 million, while Carroll never got going at Anfield and left for West Ham at a 20 million loss. Liverpool were guilty of making the same mistake on over-spending on English talent when they signed Stewart Downing for 20 million before selling him to West Ham for 5 million. During this period under Kenny Dalglish they wanted to sign young English players to take them forward, but were forced to over-spend on faces who ultimately never lived up to those transfer fees.

Manuel Pelligrini, Gus Poyet and Alan Pardew are among a host of Premier League managers that have bemoaned publicly in recent years that English players are too expensive. It is a sad reality about football in England that top flight managers actively want more home-grown players in their squad but are being priced out of the market.

The problem is that even English players who have not yet achieved anything in football are warranting sky-high price tags. And the pool is ever-diminishing as academies across England are not producing a steady stream of world-class young footballers. Therefore less and less English players are flourishing in a Premier League flooded with foreign talent. So that means the price for even the slightly-better-than-average English footballer has escalated.

The inflated transfer fees for English players means that only the richest clubs can really afford them. That is why it is no surprise to see Manchester United spending around 30 million on Luke Shaw. He is one of a rare breed of English players that look pure class from the moment they break into the first-team as a teenager.

It is a hell of a lot of money to spend on a 19-year-old but if he continues to develop he will be a fantastic player for United, capable of either spending the next decade in their first team or making United a big profit. Eyebrows were raised a decade ago when United spent 27 million on an 18-year-old Wayne Rooney, but with five Premier League titles, two League Cups and a Champions League to his name, there is no doubt he was one of a small number of English players who justified that hefty price tag.

And when those lower down the Premier League pluck up the courage to splash the cash on domestic talent, it can be a calculated gamble. Sunderland took the plunge on Jack Rodwell this summer, feeling that, despite only 16 appearances in two years after swapping Everton for Man City, he was worthy of a hefty 10 million outlay.

Rodwell is among a long line of young English players who got attracted to the bright lights of a top team at a young age and ended up as no more than an expensive bench-warmer. The big clubs want to find the next big thing so splash the cash on young English stars that have shown promise, or had a good season. That leaves the likes of Rodwell and Scott Sinclair effectively taking a break in their career as they fail to get a regular game ahead of proven big-name international footballers from around the globe.

A good comparison to really show how English players are too expensive is the fact that this summer Adam Lallana cost Liverpool more than Real Madrid paid for Toni Kroos. Lallana may have been the stand-out player at Southampton but, in reality, he is not proven at the top level and yet to really perform for England.

Kroos is two years younger than Lallana and has won three Bundesliga titles, the Champions League and the World Cup. He has played more than 50 times for Germany by the age of 24 and has established himself as one of the best attacking midfielders in the world. Lallana has a bare trophy cabinet by comparison, his one triumph coming when he got a goal as Southampton beat Carlisle to win the Johnstone's Paint trophy in 2010.

Arsenal fans will be confident that the 16 million spent on Calum Chambers proves a good long-term investment but, even despite his good start, that is a huge sum to spend on a 19-year-old who made only 22 appearances for Southampton. But that is also the same price that Liverpool got Mario Balotelli - a Premier League winner and three-time Serie A winner - for.

Looking at deals done by Premier League clubs this summer there has been big money spent on English players, but it remains to be seen if such fees are justified. Fraser Forster, Steven Caulker and Jake Livermore are good players, but are they really worth 10 million, 8.5 million and 8 million respectively.

Big fees for English players is not just restricted to the Premier League as, in the Championship, Nottingham Forest paid 5 million for Britt Assombalonga - which is a huge amount for a second-tier side. It isn't just limited to English players but anyone home-grown, made evident by the astonishing 11 million Fulham spent on signing Ross McCormack from fellow Championship outfit Leeds.

The argument over the number of foreign players in the Premier League continues to rumble on, but the truth is that while the price of English players are so inflated, managers will look further afield where they can get better value for money. It is a vicious circle, as the prices of home-grown players will go up the fewer there are flourishing in the Premier League, while managers without the luxury of a bottomless pit of money will be forced scour the globe for value rather than break the bank to get in English stars.