Little England,

At a time when even the Irish Labour Party are wondering aloud about how and when foreign labour is best used, it was en...tertaining to see the bristling over-reaction of two Premiership managers as they locked horns on the issue of what exactly constitutes an English team. With Steve Staunton currently hunting the big-game of Kevin Nolan, the national question is one of the issues de jour.
When Arsenal deservedly became the only English club in the last eight of the Champions League Alan Pardew, the manager of West Ham, opened his mouth the next day. “I saw a headline saying Arsenal are flying the flag for Britain,” he said. “I kind of wondered where that British involvement actually was when I looked at their team. It's important that top clubs don't lose sight of the fact that it's the English Premier League and English players should be involved.”
Pardew likes the spiritual side of football apparently: “We have a young team at West Ham and we are proud we have so many Englishmen. The soul of this team will remain with at least three or four English players as long as I am at West Ham. I think that's important, I really do.” The uncreated conscience of English football would indeed be a noble life's work for any manager of a Premiership team. But it's not his true calling. Pardew, because it's his job, needs West Ham to win. As a result he's created a polyglot group of players capable of competing brilliantly, who have adapted to the rigours of the Premiership. He's a steely, honest enough character who has conducted himself well up to this point and has defended himself against Wenger's retort by almost contradicting himself.
He issued a statement to the West Ham website: “A manager who is married to a Swede and has signed players from Ireland, Wales, Argentina, Israel and France, while giving trials to players from Japan and Poland, cannot be called racist.” The Wenger retort. It should actually be a full session at the coaching seminars around the world, borrowing liberally from The Art of War and adopting a French accent to bamboozle the paying students with some faux-credibility. This time he muttered darkly of racism and xenophobia. As the victim in the past of a whispering campaign he'd do well to remember that big charges stink and need to be carefully made.
The perception of Wenger as the professor of English football is a cartoon representation which he's happy to indulge and develop, but recently his petulance has just become funny. His notorious inability to see things didn't prevent him from catching Pardew's comments and raging against them. While he should have ignored them, at least he's consistent on the theme.
“I feel guilty when people pay £50, go to watch a game and I feel after the game: ‘For fuck's sake, these people have come for nothing because the game produced was rubbish.” Wenger cursed in public for one of the only times in living memory when he was first questioned about fielding an all foreign eleven for a game, but these quotes are from February 2005. “But when people pay £50, see a good game, see real football, then why would I feel guilty? Because the players are not from the right country? The guy who comes to the game should love football. Is it because you are scared the national team doesn't do well or is it because people are scared and you don't want foreign people in the team?” Is it because the soul of the game might be corrupted in England? The last laboured question is mine.
The England job is up for grabs and Pardew is just as good as any of the English candidates so perhaps it was a play for the big gig. There are many ways to help the soul of the game. The brilliant passing displays of his team this season, his belief in Yossi Benayoun, Nigel Reo-Coker and Anton Ferdinand alongside the patience he's shown with Bobby Zamora have all invigorated the mid-table this season. With his team safely over the Real Madrid hurdle Wenger may have erred slightly by revisiting the issue at this precise moment but then “this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England” has always provoked unreasoned responses. While his team are still struggling to finish fourth he has more important fights than educating the locals about immigration policies, though perhaps in the summer he might come and lecture us.