Inferiority complex over space invaders

It's Bad enough for an English sportsman to have to meet superior foreigners on the international field occasionally but when they're in his face every day at his own club, cornering the adoration, hogging the headlines, dominating the transfer market and walleting a thicker wedge of wages it can become close to intolerable.

Cricketers have had to put up with it for longer than most. Rugby union players are swiftly having to familiarise themselves with the fact that professionalism comes complete with rucks that ring with alien oaths in a game that is increasingly enlarging its import trade.

Football, however, is the game finding the invasion more than a touch overwhelming and you can imagine the outcry if a similar scenario took place in other walks of life. What damage could be done to the morale of stalwart tradesmen if, for instance, a plague of French plumbers suddenly appeared in Yellow Pages and then proceeded to turn up on time, remember to bring their tools and wield their monkey wrenches with the sinewy subtlety so typical of continental forearms?

Italian brickies, Spanish carpet- fitters, Belgian bureaucrats ... if all areas of our traditional skills were to be exposed to the challenge of those who did it with a little more flourish and finesse there would be much gnashing of teeth. And, there would be men such as Robert Lee who could stay silent no more. Lee, proud Londoner of East End origin, last week offered the voice of defiance from the belittled ranks of English footballers; speaking up with affronted eloquence on behalf of the game's home-grown yeomanry whose stock has suffered grieviously in comparison with foreign players.

At 31, Lee is old enough to be able to compare the present with the days when our domestic competitions were fought out largely by teams comprising Anglo-Saxons with a healthy lacing of Celts. He is also good enough to be listened to. A member of the Premiership runners-up, Newcastle United, he is also a current England international having fought his way back into the team after being omitted from the Euro 96 squad by Terry Venables.

There are rumours that he might be transferred back to London where West Ham, ironically edging away from their reliance on foreign players, are interested but Lee remains the archetypal English footballer: honest, brave, willing and accomplished. A blue-collar player, as he was cruelly dismissed by some. True, he's no Juninho but, as the FA Cup final proved, Juninho himself sometimes has trouble being Juninho.

This was one of the points Lee made to the press during England's training for last night's friendly international against South Africa at Old Trafford. Claiming that English players are underestimated, he said that whereas Gianfranco Zola was outstanding in some games "in others he just goes missing". He felt that players such as Paul Gascoigne and David Beckham were just as good.

That his is not a lone voice in the ranks was proved by the end-of- season awards. The Football Writers' Association voted Zola their Footballer of the Year. The previous year, Eric Cantona got their vote and the year before that it was Jurgen Klinsmann. The Professional Footballers' Association, however, are not so easily fooled. This year they elected Alan Shearer their top player, Lee's vote was among them, and in their Team of the Season not one foreign player was selected. This may be taking patriotism too far. Although one can sympathise with Lee's resistance to him and his fellows being dismissed as inferior, there is no question that even when we compare our players with those of countries much lower in the ratings the difference in technique is often embarrassing.

The mistake is to regard this as a failing of the present generation. The way we play the game was earning us unfavourable comparisons with our foreign counterparts back in the 1930s. Thanks to the Hungarians, we were provided with a comprehensive demonstration of our inadequacies in the 1950s. Sir Alf Ramsey made the most of the English virtues in 1966 but in latter decades the most effective use of the English footballer's strength was made by Jack Charlton's Irish.

There will be those unkind enough to point out that the influx of foreign players has coincided with a large increase in the cash pouring into the Premiership, by turnstyle and television, and a surge in the earning power of English players so great that their best policy would be to shut up and take the money.

After all, it is not the fault of the players if the system which produced them failed to equip them adequately for service on the world stage. This was the theme taken up by Howard Wilkinson, the Football Association's technical director, last week when he announced his "Charter for Quality", the main thrust of which was to improve the quality of English-born footballers.

It was hardly in Robert Lee's favour that the moment he should choose to promote the cause of the home-grown, Wilkinson was acknowledging that it is going to take a revolution to improve their quality to an acceptable level. The charter embraces changes, not least the placing of talented young players from the age of eight under the jurisdiction of the clubs - a move the schools have long resisted. Since the clubs cannot avoid a significant part of the blame for the present quality, it is to be hoped that some improved priorities are to be imposed when they get their hands on the green shoots of future England teams.

Meanwhile, in the 10 or so years we will have to wait for that harvest to peep through, Lee and his colleagues must soldier on. A glance at the transfer news last week revealed that most of the players being sought by the better Premiership clubs are from other countries. This is good news for the fans but not for the dwindling number of English-born able to hold down a first-team place.

The English team was once the ultimate reward for sterling service at club level. It is fast becoming their only outlet for self-expression. Will that be enough incentive for them to improve England's world ranking? It had better be.

The promised reinforcements are still in primary school.

The booklet issued last week to England cricketers to help improve their public profile has already provided great mirth. Unfortunately, the England and Wales Cricket Board had hoped for a more profound reaction to their 28-page attempt at inspired authorship. The instruction that all players must wear official blue headgear brought a shower of protest that Jack Russell's famous floppy hat was being banished from sight.

That was nothing, however, to echoes of their exhortation regarding relations with the media. The booklet was no sooner being devoured by the players when Radio Five telephoned requesting a member of the squad to appear on the panel of Any Sporting Questions. The request was declined so Alan Crompton, the Australians' manager, went on instead.

Sadly, the ECB's corporate affairs manager, Richard Little, has been stamped with the indelible media nickname of "Precious Little" and I fear there'll be worse to come. Their only hope is that the team keep winning. It's the only PR that really works.