Graham Arnold ... 'We're not helping our national teams.'
Source: News Limited
The injection of foreign talent into the A-League has created plenty of buzz but Central Coast Mariners coach Graham Arnold says Australia's national teams are suffering because of it.
While the arrivals of stars like Alessandro Del Piero, Emile Heskey and Shinji Ono have generated unprecedented levels of hype for the league, they will be just three of almost 50 foreigners involved in season eight of the competition.
ADELAIDE UNITED
Jeronimo Neumann (Argentina)
Marcelo Carrusca (Argentina)
Sergio van Dijk (Netherlands)
Fabio Ferreira (Portugal)
BRISBANE ROAR
Besart Berisha (Albania)
Henrique (Brazil)
Thomas Broich (Germany)
Yuji Takahashi (Japan)
Do Dong-Hyun (South Korea)
CENTRAL COAST
Patrick Zwaanswijk (Netherlands)
Michael McGlinchey (New Zealand)
Nick Montgomery (Scotland)
MELBOURNE HEART
Jonatan Germano (Argentina)
Fred (Brazil)
Josip Tadic (Croatia)
Steven Gray (Ireland)
Patrick Gerhardt (Liberia)
MELBOURNE VICTORY
Marcos Flores (Argentina)
Guilherme Finkler (Brazil)
Adama Traore (Ivory Coast)
Jonathan Bru (Mauritius)
Marco Rojas (New Zealand)
NEWCASTLE JETS
Bernardo Ribeiro (Brazil)
Tiago (Brazil)
Emile Heskey (England)
Michael Bridges (England)
Dominik Ritter (Switzerland)
PERTH GLORY
Billy Mehmet (Ireland)
Liam Miller (Ireland)
Ryo Nagai (Japan)
Bas van den Brink (Netherlands)
Steven McGarry (Scotland)
SYDNEY FC
Fabio (Brazil)
Kruno Lovrek (Croatia)
Alessandro Del Piero (Italy)
Pascal Bosschaart (Netherlands)
Yairo Yau (Panama)
WELLINGTON
Paul Ifill (Barbados)
Stein Huysegems (Belgium)
Benjamin Totori (Soloman Islands)
Dani Sanchez (Spain)
Alex Smith (USA)
WESTERN SYDNEY
Dino Kresinger (Croatia)
Mateo Poljak (Croatia)
Jerome Polenz (Germany)
Iacopo La Rocca (Italy)
Youssouf Hersi (Netherlands)
Shinji Ono (Japan)
Former Socceroos coach Arnold admits the signing of quality imports is good for the A-League but believes an unnecessary reliance on too much overseas talent could stunt the growth of local talent and potential Socceroos and Olyroos.
Since arriving as a coach in the A-League three seasons ago, Arnold has maintained a philosophy that imports should only be used if they add more to a team than young domestic players.
And the coach, who has blooded talent including Mat Ryan, Mustafa Amini and Bernie Ibini in his time with the Mariners, is concerned about the ratio of foreign players to locals in the A-League's opening round this weekend.
"You look at (this weekend) and if you take the Wellington team out of it, you're talking probably 90 field players on the field and probably 50-odd are foreigners,'' said Arnold.
"That is probably detrimental to our national team set-ups and that is probably what's hurt our national teams, but for the A-League it's good.''
Asked if he wanted to see a shift back towards relying more on local talent Arnold said: "100 per cent. We're not helping our national teams.''
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Arnold's theory earned support from Socceroos coach Holger Osieck on Wednesday, with the German coach saying only "top class" foreigners should be keeping Australians out of spots, though he welcomed the arrival of quality imports like Del Piero.
"They have to help the development of domestic football and they have to be role models for the younger players,'' said Osieck, whose squad for this month's match against Iraq featured two A-League players in Melbourne Victory's Archie Thompson and Mark Milligan.
''... If the number of average (foreign) players is growing and they take away positions for the young Australians - and I have so many names here on my internal list from the A-League - if they are kept away from playing because some average foreign player plays in his position, that is definitely the wrong approach.
"But with the top guns, you never make a mistake, unless they don't deliver of course.''
The Mariners have the least amount of foreign players in the competition, using only three visa spots for Dutchman Patrick Zwaanswijk, New Zealand international Michael McGlinchey and Scot Nick Montgomery.
Only Adelaide United (four) have not filled the maximum five visa players spots while Western Sydney are allowed six as an expansion club.
Arnold said the Mariners prided themselves on being a successful club that gave first-team opportunities to young players.
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