This week, it was clear to see the broad smile on Jack Rodwell’s face as he stood proudly in his Sunderland shirt having completed a £10million move to the Stadium of Light. The transfer ends a difficult two year spell with champions Man City. However, the smile is quite at odds with the stunned look on the faces of most football fans as Rodwell’s transfer served as a reminder that he ever existed in the first place.

 

 

 

Jack Rodwell looked an extremely promising prospect while plying his trade with Everton. He was developing quickly and looked to be a future England regular in the making. A number of big clubs were circling the midfielder but by the time City picked him up the interest in him had waned a little due to a few injury problems.

 

Had he stayed at Everton he would have been looked after well and steadily reintroduced to the first team and his progress probably wouldn’t have stalled in the way that it has. But he chose to move to Man City and thus fell foul of a problem that is plaguing young English players.

 

You see, as we all know, clubs like Manchester City have the funds to scour the world for the very best players and then bring them to the club. That’s why they have a team of international stars like Sergio Agüero, Yaya Touré and David Silva. And if they could get away with only recruiting the world’s best then they probably would.

 

But the rules are such that they have a quota to fill and their squad must include so many ‘home grown’ players. I use inverted commas as home grown simply means that a player has to have trained in England for 3 years before the age of 21. So for example, Chelsea have just signed a new home grown player in the form of Cesc Fàbregas who trained at Arsenal from the age of 16.

 

Then again not everyone can recruit talented teenagers from far and wide like Arséne Wenger can, and sometimes these home grown players have to be (god forbid) English. When Man City implement their transfer policy with these rules in mind they are faced with a problem. Because we are not exactly flush with players who are both English AND world class.

 

You can re-watch us crashing out of any international tournament over the last few decades if you need evidence of that. So Man City can get around this but only by purchasing the usual wealth of foreign talent that they always do, and making sure they have a few English players in the squad to make up the numbers.

 

This is how a player like Jack Rodwell can get lost in the mix. How can a player really excel when he is just at a club to make up the numbers? It’s no coincidence that Rodwell has left and ageing Frank Lampard has been brought in to tide them over until the January transfer window. Oh, by the way, do any of you remember Scott Sinclair?

 

I feel like generally I’m pretty tuned in to all the latest football news but I have to confess I did have to Google Scott Sinclair to find out exactly where he is now. Apparently he is still on the books of Manchester City after a loan spell at West Brom last season where he featured more for their reserves than he did their first team. This is the same Scott Sinclair who starred for Swansea City during their promotion and debut season in the Premier League, and is now probably on the lookout for a willing Championship club who can help him rejuvenate his career.

 

From the outside, it never looked like Sinclair would make the grade at City. Same goes for Rodwell, same goes for Adam Johnson when he was there. It was the same for Steve Sidwell and Scott Parker when José Mourinho brought them to Chelsea. It’s the same for players like Tom Cleverley, Danny Welbeck and Ryan Bertrand who are on the fringes of a big club when it is so important at this stage of their development to be playing week in week out.

 

I don’t blame these players for making moves that from the outside had at least a hint of career suicide. They are Premier League footballers. They didn’t get where they are without a great deal of self-confidence and I’m sure that none of them saw these moves as anything other than an opportunity to shine at a higher level.

 

None of them had ever been told before that they were just there to make up the numbers. And in truth they probably hadn’t been told that this time. Scott Sinclair was probably told on countless occasions by City how desperate they were to have him and how Manchester City was the perfect fit for him.

 

It’s ironic that a rule that was set up and to aid the development of home grown players has hindered them by leaving so many of them sitting on the fringes of big clubs.