Roy Hodgson Not Happy With Slim UCL Pickings

England manager Roy Hodgson has bemoaned the lack of English players at the country’s leading clubs after a bleak fortnight for Premier League teams in the Champions League.
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With Arsenal and Manchester City having followed Liverpool and Chelsea in crashing out of the Champions League this week, England has no teams in the quarterfinals for the second time in three years.
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It has prompted fears of a lasting decline in England’s continental standing, but for Hodgson, the diminishing number of English players playing for the country’s top sides is a source of equal concern.
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“When we talk about England and English teams in the Champions League, we’re not talking about very many English players, if we’re being perfectly honest,” he said.
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“We’re talking (Manchester City’s James) Milner, we’re talking (Chelsea’s Gary) Cahill, we might be talking (Arsenal’s Danny) Welbeck, although he didn’t play in the first game against Monaco.
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“Sometimes people ask me the question as if eight, nine, 10 English players (are playing for each English team). They’re not. We’re talking three, four or five English players involved at most and what’s more, they’re all shoe-ins for us anyway.”
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The declining number of England-eligible players in the Premier League was one of the issues that prompted Football Association chairman Greg Dyke to launch his England Commission last year, tasked with assessing the future of the sport.
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Hodgson added: “At Champions League level, much as I enjoy watching the games, I’m not really watching that many players.
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“When I watch Chelsea play or Man City play against Barcelona, I’m only watching two or three players from my selfish point of view. ‘How’s James (Milner) doing?’ ‘Is Joe (Hart) in good form?’
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“Well he’d better be, because we haven’t got many goalkeepers. Of 20 teams in the Premier League, there’s only five Englishmen. Fifteen of the goalkeepers in the Premier League are foreigners, I think.”