Since Manchester City were purchased by Sheikh Mansour in mid-2008, there has been an influx of talent at the Etihad Stadium, with very few additions coming from City’s country of origin, England. Gone are the days when top English teams could be built entirely from home-grown foundations, but now it is at the stage where any top team in England – City, Chelsea, or Manchester United among them – struggles to have many English players in the team, something which causes anger from some corners. However, are The Citizens more than justified in not bringing in much British talent, and instead choosing to lay out large amounts of money on players from across Europe and South America?

Football is very slowly becoming a business above all else, with the players as the employees of the business. Simple business logic states that a company wants the best employees, in order to attain the largest chance of success. The same applies in football; it is plain as day for all to see. The best players play for the best teams, hence why they have the success and smaller clubs in their respective leagues do not.

However, the best ‘employees’, or in this case, the best players, are not always English. Imagine this scenario – you run a shipping company, which has enjoyed a decent amount of success in recent years. You have a job opening, and two applicants – an Englishman and an Argentinian. The Argentinian candidate is better qualified for the role, and has more potential to grow and improve to; it seems obvious who you’re going to pick for the role.

That same concept applies in football too. You have the choice of Adam Johnson or Ángel di María, two of the best wingers for their respective countries. That IS an obvious decision. If Manchester City want to be the best in the world, they have to sign players like di María, not Adam Johnson who, whilst good in his spell with the club, could have been far better. If signing the best players means not signing English players, then so be it.

There is also a cost element to the debate. Often English players – especially the younger prospects – have a high market value, due to their nationality and (in the case of younger players) their potential. Young winger Wilfried Zaha joined Manchester United in January 2013 from Crystal Palace for around £15 million, and has been largely ineffective since, going on loan to Cardiff City last month. Compare that to Manchester City, who purchased Jesús Navas from Sevilla last summer for slightly less money (£14.9 million), and the Spaniard has done a lot more for his team than the United winger. It’s obvious why some clubs may be reluctant to buy native talent, with situations like that occurring.

Going back to the argument specific to Manchester City, there are very few English players right now who would get into the star-studded City side. Phil Jagielka or Gary Cahill alongside Vincent Kompany perhaps, maybe Leighton Baines at left-back, but that’s it. Manchester City want to be one of the very best in the world, which is why players like the ones who get into the current English national team won’t cut it.

In mid-2010, when City were still on their way to becoming a challenging club – they weren’t even in the Champions League by this point – there were still several English players in and around the side. Against Hungary at Wembley in August 2010, there was four City players on the pitch at one point. Shaun Wright-Philips and Micah Richards are both full England internationals too, but they didn’t make the squad. The following season wasn’t one of City’s most impressive, it has to be said. They were inconsistent at times, but since that summer there has been little English talent coming into the Etihad Stadium, and now look where The Blues are.

Clubs like Barcelona show us it is very much possible to have a team full of academy graduates. Pep Guardiola’s superb Barça team of the late 2000s and early 2010s were built on a foundation of players who came through the famed La Masia academy, such as Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta, Carles Puyol, Xavi, Piqué and many more. In fact, in Barcelona’s recent Champions League victory at Manchester City, there were nearly 10 La Masia graduates involved, with 6 starting. That not only shows how good the Catalan club’s youth system is, but also the incompetencies of most English youth systems. There’s nothing to say top English sides couldn’t be built on English foundations. However, due to the influx of foreign young talent and also a lack of coaching or involvement at grassroots level across England, there is a complete lack of a inline of talent, and as such big clubs can’t sustain foundations of English talent. Fix these problems, and there’s no reason why City or United can’t do similar to what Barcelona did and are still doing; however, it is impossible to replicate exactly what the Catalans did.

Whenever Manchester City or Arsenal, who are the main culprits, field a team with very few English players in it, there is a great hubbub regarding it and whether it is right. Most reasoning however, seems to suggest the clubs and their managers are right to do as they do. If they want to achieve the success the fans have always dreamed about, they have to make sacrifices. However, it’s a crying shame that clubs aren’t able to play a homegrown team most games and retain their quality. Maybe that’s something The FA need to place a lot of focus on, especially if the English national side want to get back to previous lofty heights.