Home-grown hoax

Our man in Israel, Jon Holmes, looks at the inefficiencies of the Premier League's youth quota rule.

"The Premier League welcomes overseas players but remains aware of the need to sustain the development of home-grown talent." That's the official line taken by 'the greatest league in the world' (TM) on the home-grown player rule, implemented at the start of the 2010-11 season and designed to curb the influence of Carlos Kickaballs on our beloved national game. 'We're not xenophobic - far from it!" say the men from Gloucester Place. 'Thierry Henry, Gianfranco Zola, Cristiano Ronaldo, Winston Bogarde - we've always loved having talented foreign footballers (and the odd rubbish one) plying their trade here, but we recognise the fact that English players aren't getting a look in. Fear not! We've done something about it.' And so it was decreed that each Premier League club would have to submit a squad of 25 players maximum, with only 17 of those allowed to be foreign imports. Under-21s don't count towards the figure; you can supplement as many of those as you want (and you might not want to at all). As for the other eight players, these are your home-grown hoard - the special saplings upon which you will nurture love and attention, sprinkling them merrily into the Premier League fray when the occasion calls for it and eventually seeing them become mighty sunflowers, standing tall and winning prizes at the World Cup fete. Yet the problem remains - 'home-grown' doesn't necessarily help the Home Nations, never mind just England. With the rule stipulating that players in question have to be trained by an English or Welsh FA club for three years before they hit 21, it simply means the clubs are working harder to recruit talented youngsters from overseas before their 18th birthday. Then, they play the waiting game - will it be a bumper harvest, or will the crop wither on the vine? It's hard enough for any up-and-coming footballer to make it in this environment, let alone an English one. Danny Hoesen was leading the line for Holland Under-21s against Spain in the European U21 Championship on Wednesday. At the age of 17, he joined Fulham from Fortuna Sittard and almost three years later, he made the first-team bench for a Premier League match, at the end of the first season of home-grown rule implementation. Hoesen didn't get on, and in the following campaign, desperate for first-team football, he was back at Fortuna on a season-long loan. Hitting 13 goals earned him a transfer to Ajax last summer, even though Fulham still admired him enough to retain a 30% interest. Hoesen is now getting Champions League experience; in November, he made a scoring substitute appearance against Borussia Dortmund. The player he replaced? Eyong Enoh, who three months later was taking a squad spot on loan at... Fulham. I spoke to Hoesen after the Jong Oranje had learned that a semi-final against Italy awaits them at the U21 Euro, and asked him whether the slim opportunities for youngsters under these rules is the greatest factor in England U21s' humiliating failure in the finals, the torture finally ending in a turgid 1-0 defeat to hosts Israel on Tuesday. "I think so," said Hoesen. "In other countries, youth players get more of a chance to play in the first team. In England, you have to be really good, or have a lot of experience out on loan in order to play. In Holland, Germany and Spain, they just let young players play. "You have to have hope. As a young player, if you can come on in the first team and keep playing, and thereby earn the confidence of the