Sir Bobby Robson has insisted it is time to give young English players a chance in the Barclays Premiership. Robson, who was talking at the Soccerex conference in Dubai, claimed that there was room for top class foreign players in the English game, but that too many 'ordinary' foreign players had restricted our own pool of talent from developing.
"There is no doubt that foreign players like Zola, van Nistelrooy and Henry have enhanced a fantastic league," he said. "Where we have gone wrong in England is that we have brought in too many ordinary foreigners and what we have to do now is to work far better in terms of our academies in order to develop our own. That includes coaches. You can only produce a good player with a good coach."
Also speaking at the Soccerex Conference in Dubai was Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon and he warned about the over-exposure of Premiership games on television. However, he tempered that statement by claiming the current status quo was 'just about right'. "We should all be looking after how to make the Premiership product better," he said.
"We have got to keep the balance between the number of games on television and ensuring our stadiums are full. But don't under-estimate the importance of television revenue which funded stadia development and, more importantly, funded our ability to attract worldwide players into the game.
"We never want to reach the doomsday scenario whereby stadiums are empty and we are getting all our revenue from television but we have a great tendency to talk things down. The Premier League is a tremendous product."
Chairman David Murray has handed Rangers manager Alex McLeish a stay of execution. The former Scotland international appeared to be on his way out of Ibrox as they trail Bank of Scotland Premier League leaders Celtic and Hearts by 12 points after just two wins from their last 11 games.
But, in the Champions League, McLeish has guided the team to second place in Group H where the team has a great chance of becoming the first Scottish club to reach the second phase of the competition. The Rangers boss will now remain in charge for the SPL trip to Celtic Park on Saturday and the subsequent games at Porto and Hibernian before the end of the month.
"After a return from a short break, Alex McLeish, Martin Bain and myself met today in Edinburgh to discuss the club's current situation," Murray told the official club website. "Due to speculation, it was important to clarify the outcome of the meeting.
"Although we fully recognise we are going through a difficult period, we collectively felt that the manager should be given the opportunity to improve our overall current performance, given the success of his career thus far. We will review progress at the beginning of December and assess the club's current situation at that time."
Nottingham Forest overcame a potential banana skin to move into the second round of the FA Cup against Conference South side Weymouth. The two sides had drawn 1-1 at the City Ground nine days previously and Gary Megson's men had a scare in the first half when Paul Gerrard was forced to tip Chukki Eribenne's 39th-minute shot onto the post.
However, the Coca Cola League One side took charge after the break and Gareth Taylor broke the deadlock after 66 minutes following good work from Nicky Southall. Taylor sealed the victory seven minutes later with a close range effort at the back post from a James Perch cross.
Relieved Forest boss Gary Megson said: "The idea first and foremost was to make sure we came through. The players had to match Weymouth's enthusiasm, attitude and work-rate, and they had to overcome a hostile crowd. Everybody likes an underdog, and we were aware that the consequences of losing would have had a far-reaching effect on our league efforts."
Forest will travel to Chester City in the next round while Worcester's reward for beating Chippenham Town is a plum home tie with Huddersfield. Adam Webster's 76th minute goal was enough to send the Conference North side through to the second round in the replay at St George's Lane.
